Historic step forward for Vietnamese youth football

(Dan Tri) - The 2025-26 Northern U14 Tournament is organized as a "mini V-League" with a round-trip format that kicked off on October 11, promising to provide a more sustainable development foundation for future generations of players.

"Real combat" opportunities for young players

Previously, in youth tournaments such as the national U13, each team could only play 3-9 matches/year, but now with the League format of two home and away matches, this number has increased many times. According to calculations, teams that only played 3 matches in the old system will now have 17 matches, an increase of 566%; and teams that used to play 9 matches can now play 23 matches, an increase of 255%.

This is a historic change, because the biggest "disease" of Vietnamese youth football over the years has been the lack of official matches for players to practice, compete and mature.

Former head coach of the Vietnam national team Philippe Troussier has pointed out many times that the difference between young Vietnamese players and European and Japanese players is not in their qualities, but in the number of matches they play each year.

Hanoi Club is considered a leader in youth training (Photo: HNFC).

According to him, a young player needs to play at least 35-40 matches/year to develop properly, while in Vietnam, that number can only be counted on the fingers. In fact, with the previous cup format, only the team that reached the final could play 9 matches, while most teams had to "sit around and do nothing" almost all year.

Lack of competition has caused many talents to "wither": The U16 Vietnam team that made it to the 2016 Asian quarter-finals now only has 4 players remaining in the V-League (Viet Cuong, Huu Thang, Thanh Binh, Dinh Hai).

Associate Professor Dr. Pham Ngoc Vien, who laid the foundation for professional football in Vietnam, once worried: “Young players today have too few opportunities to compete in real life. Tournaments last for a few months, the rest is just practice. They lose the most precious years of their career development.”

U14 League - The first "mini V-League" model

At the recent Professional Football Licensing Conference, the 2025/26 Northern U14 Tournament was introduced as a breakthrough in the Vietnamese youth training system. The tournament is organized by the Hanoi Youth Football Training Center, with the participation and consensus of many leading training centers in the Northern region.

The first season gathered 8 teams: Hanoi, The Cong Viettel, Hanoi Police, PVF, Nam Dinh , Hai Phong, Hoai Duc, Thanh Hoa and Song Lam Nghe An.

The 2025-26 Northern U14 Tournament is organized as a "mini V-League" (Photo: HNFC).

The teams will play a double round-robin tournament, taking place at 2 p.m. every Saturday from October 2025 to January 2026 – simulating the operation model of a professional season. Each team will have 14 official matches, ensuring that 11-13 year old players get regular playing time every week instead of “practicing all year round”.

The operating system, player registration, uniforms, regulations, referees, and match schedule all follow professional standards, only adjusting the match duration to 40 minutes/half to suit the physical strength of each age group.

From the first foundation to the long-term aspiration

As soon as it started, the tournament received high praise from experts. If maintained and expanded to the U17, U19, and U21 groups, this model could create a series of continuous competitions throughout the year, helping young players develop comprehensively in terms of physical strength, thinking, and competitive spirit.

Mr. Adachi, Technical Director of Hanoi Club, shared: “Ever since I was the Technical Director of VFF, I have always wished for tournaments in the League format. After 5 years of waiting, that wish has come true with the Northern U14 tournament. This is just the beginning of a year-round competition system for Vietnamese youth football - the only way if we want to reach the Asian level.”

According to him, the League format not only helps increase the number of matches, but also creates a continuous development cycle: “match - training - match”, which cup competitions cannot bring. From this “first step”, Vietnamese youth football has truly entered a new stage of development - systematic, sustainable and closer to international standards.

If expanded, the U14 League could become a historic turning point, laying the foundation for a generation of Vietnamese players to mature from real seasons.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/buoc-tien-lich-su-cua-bong-da-tre-viet-nam-20251014180732677.htm