Daddy Chung, the most successful coach in Southeast Asia – Sports – Vietnam News | Politics, Business, Economy, Society, Life, Sports

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Coach Mai Đức Chung celebrates after Việt Nam secured a spot on the ladies’s World Cup in 2023. Chung has turn out to be a most profitable coach within the area. Picture courtesy of VFF

HÀ NỘI — After serving to the Vietnamese ladies’s soccer staff qualify for his or her first-ever World Cup, Mai Đức Chung has turn out to be Southeast Asia’s most profitable coach previously decade.

On Sunday, Chung, who’s 71 years outdated, guided Việt Nam to fifth place within the AFC Girls’s Asian Cup, making certain qualification for the FIFA Girls’s World Cup in July 2023, which will likely be held in Australia and New Zealand.

Việt Nam, who beat Chinese language Taipei 2-1 within the playoffs, are the sixth Asian consultant on the competitors.

Việt Nam, underneath Chinese language coach Chen Yun Fa, beforehand got here near qualification to the 2015 match, earlier than dropping 2-1 to Thailand within the playoffs. 

Chung, who has been out and in of the worldwide set-up a couple of instances, led the Vietnamese ladies’s staff to the highest 4 of the Asian Video games in 2014. He additionally received 4 Southeast Asian (SEA) Video games gold medals, in 2003, 2005, 2017 and 2019.  His newest title got here within the AFF Cup in 2019.

Chung was voted ASEAN’s Greatest Girls’s Soccer Crew Coach in 2017.

In his teaching profession, Chung additionally labored with males’s membership and nationwide squads.

He managed completely different golf equipment within the V-League 1 however his spotlight was when he drove the four-time champions Becamex Bình Dương to the semi-finals of the 2009 AFC Cup. It was the most effective outcome for a Vietnamese membership at the moment.

Chung was additionally non permanent coach of the boys’s nationwide squad twice, the final time in October 2017, earlier than South Korean coach Park Dangle-seo took over. In 2008, he pushed the U22 staff to the highest podium of the Merdeka Cup in Malaysia. 

‘Daddy Chung’

Via extra than 20 years of teaching, Chung has spent most of his time with ladies groups.

He has obtained love and respect from athletes throughout generations, who affectionately name him ‘daddy Chung’.

Coach Chung congratulates his skipper Huỳnh Như, after she scored through the AFC Girls’s Asian Cup fifth place playoff in opposition to Thailand, on the DY Patil Stadium on February 2 in Navi Mumbai, India. AFP/VNA Picture

In interviews with reporters, defender Chương Thị Kiều, midfielder Nguyễn Thị Bích Thùy and captain Huỳnh Như all mentioned “thanks” to their “daddy”. It is because Chung has made a giant affect on their careers, and likewise cares about their life exterior soccer.

“We don’t name him uncle Chung or coach Chung. He’s our relative, a father to our massive household,” 2015 Golden Ball winner Nguyễn Minh Nguyệt mentioned.

“He loves us. He’s all the time mild with us and encourages us on a regular basis. He understands our difficulties and ladies’s soccer challenges. He unites us and pushes us to work and play exhausting,” mentioned Nguyệt.

“He’s a part of motive resulting in the success of ladies’s soccer of Việt Nam together with at present’s achievement.”

Chung all the time prepares the tools for gamers earlier than coaching, and he pays particular consideration to the meals and restoration of his ‘daughters’.

Chatting with reporters, Chung confirmed his love for his staff and mentioned: “I’ve no different goals than my gamers happiness, that they’ll get pleasure from lives with their households.”

“Taking part in soccer, they should sacrifice many issues however after retirement, a lot of them couldn’t stay a normal life. I hope that sponsors and enterprises care extra about them, and their lives will likely be higher,” mentioned Chung, who plans to depart the staff by the top of this yr.

Information that Chung is not going to handle the staff on the coming World Cup has made headlines in current two days.

Coach Mai Đức Chung (proper) and his gamers speak earlier than coaching on the Asian Cup final week. Picture courtesy of VFF

The Hanoian coach revealed that he was outdated and desires the Việt Nam Soccer Federation to seek out one other coach for the staff for the Australia/New Zealand occasion.

“I’ll introduce somebody, possibly a foreigner. If VFF nonetheless wants me, I’ll be a part of as an adviser,” Chung was quoted as saying on Vietnamplus.vn.

In response, VFF officers mentioned they haven’t heard something from Chung, and mentioned that his contract runs till the top of 2022.

“When Chung and the staff return house, we should meet and speak with him. Chung has contributed lots to Việt Nam’s World Cup ticket and the event and success of ladies’s soccer. We actually recognize him,” VFF Normal Secretary Lê Hoài Anh mentioned.

VFF Vice President Cao Văn Chóng mentioned: “We are going to hearken to him, respect his opinions and talk about with him about plans and orientation for the staff. His contract continues to be legitimate and we’ve heavy work to do, particularly to arrange for the approaching SEA Video games.”

Chung additionally confirmed his subsequent job is to enhance his staff for coming methods.

In 2022, Việt Nam will defend their titles within the SEA Video games in Might and the AFF Cup with time to be confirmed later; and can compete on the Asian Video games in September in China. — VNS