Will volleyball in Ho Chi Minh City experience a resurgence?

After seven years of searching for a way back to the top domestic league, the Ho Chi Minh City Police volleyball team is now striving to win its first title after seven months since being promoted.

Having won all 5 matches in the first round of the National Championship and opening the Hung Vuong Cup with a resounding 3-0 victory against Da Nang , the Ho Chi Minh City Police volleyball team is confident they can do the same in the final on April 8th, regardless of which of the two military teams, Border Guard MB and The Cong Tan Cang, their opponent will be.

Start over

In October 2024, coach Vu Van Duan and his players overcame all opponents in the national A-league, officially earning their right to return to the top tier of Vietnamese volleyball. Seven years is not a long time, but it's also not too short for a sports team that once played at the highest level but, due to the system and development direction dependent on the policies of the sports sector, had always been relegated to lower-tier competitions.

Ho Chi Minh City Police team thrives with a lineup of top-class domestic players and quality foreign players. Photo: TRONG ANH

With the return of professional football teams to the industry in the early 2020s, the Ho Chi Minh City Police volleyball team was "reborn". Rising almost from scratch, having to rebuild from a young squad, the 2024 season truly marked a turning point for the team.

With significant investment, the Ho Chi Minh City Police Club was also fortunate to recruit a top-class lineup of domestic players such as Giang Van Duc, Pham Thai Hung, Nguyen Van Hanh, Lam Van Sanh, Le Quang Doan, Bui Xuan Tien... This invincible team overcame all opponents, including strong teams like Binh Duong Construction Materials and the Ho Chi Minh City team, to officially become the champion of the 2024 National A-League.

A team full of ambition and dedication.

No specific performance targets have been set for the Ho Chi Minh City Police FC in the 2025 season. However, considering the massive investment, in addition to top-class domestic players like Quan Trong Nghia, Pham Quoc Du, Nguyen Van Quoc Duy, and Dinh Van Tu, there are also foreign players like Michał Kubiak and Julio Cesar Cardenas, it's hard to believe this team will settle for mediocre results.

Up to this point, apart from two defeats in the semi-finals and the third-place match of the Binh Dien - Hoa Lu Friendly Cup, the Ho Chi Minh City Police Club has won all its matches since the beginning of 2025, from 5 group stage matches in the National Championship to the first semi-final of the Hung Vuong Cup!

According to the General Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Volleyball Federation, Ha Vu Son, if they succeed in the Hung Vuong Cup, it will be a great encouragement for the team, which many consider to be "strong because of money and powerful because of resources," but in reality is a team full of ambition, always united and unanimously striving for victory.

With only about a month to assemble a team consisting mostly of newly recruited players, and with foreign players Michal Kubiak and Julio Cesar Cardenas having only a week to get acquainted with their teammates, Ho Chi Minh City Police proved their strength. According to experts, many newcomers have performed very well after promotion, but Ho Chi Minh City Police's achievement of winning all 5 matches to top the first round of the national championship is unprecedented.

The team also has a high chance of winning the Hung Vuong Cup, being the only team to use three foreign players and dominating the match against Da Nang, making both Bien Phong MB and The Cong Tan Cang - one of the two teams that will play in the final - extremely wary.

A long journey ahead

The Ho Chi Minh City men's team is vying for promotion from the National A-League, while the Ho Chi Minh City women's team is the only team to have lost all 5 matches in Round 1 of the 2025 National Championship. This information is not necessarily encouraging when it comes to the return of volleyball in Ho Chi Minh City, once the cradle of volleyball in the country.

Lacking proper operating mechanisms and failing to attract large investors for long-term plans, Ho Chi Minh City volleyball has stagnated after a brief "revival" in 2018 and 2019. The story of key players from the Ho Chi Minh City men's team demanding payment of outstanding salaries and leaving near the end of 2023 is not a new lesson, as even the Ho Chi Minh City women's team views promotion and relegation as "a daily occurrence" due to similarly meager support conditions that have persisted for many years.

The phenomenon of the Ho Chi Minh City Police volleyball team being welcomed by fans is attributed to the fact that the team is based in the city! Even the Ho Chi Minh City Volleyball Federation only plays a role in advising on professional matters, consulting on recruitment of foreign players, and assisting with procedures when competing in the national league system. The majority of the Ho Chi Minh City Police team's athletes come from outside the province, with few members trained in the city, and their association with the team is mainly through short-term contracts...

There is still a long way to go before Ho Chi Minh City volleyball can reclaim its golden age. Changing the outdated mindset about volleyball, from relying on state budget funding to recruiting a team of truly dedicated professionals, remains a difficult challenge for the city's volleyball scene.

"The opportunity to win their first major title after 7 months of promotion, or more accurately, after more than 7 years of waiting, is wide open for the Ho Chi Minh City Police team."

Source: https://nld.com.vn/bong-chuyen-tp-hcm-se-khoi-sac-196250405212137443.htm