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Viktor Le promises to be a key player for U22 Vietnam at SEA Games 33. Photo: CFA . |
Viktor Le was born in 2003 in Russia, has a Vietnamese father and a Russian mother, and has received Vietnamese citizenship since December 2024. He grew up at the Torpedo Moscow training center, accumulated playing skills at CSKA Moscow II, and then returned to Vietnam to play since January 2023 for Binh Dinh Club.
Experience and explode
After nearly two years of obscurity at Binh Dinh and then Hong Linh Ha Tinh (from February 2024), the 1.78 meter tall attacking midfielder gradually got used to the environment and playing style of Vietnamese football, and quickly became an important core at the Hong mountain team from the 2024/25 season.
Viktor Le's performances were noticed by coach Kim Sang-sik and assistant Dinh Hong Vinh. He was called up to try out for the Vietnam U22 team in March 2025.
In the national team environment, Viktor Le encountered a language barrier. His teammate, goalkeeper Nguyen Tung Han, shared at that time: "Viktor can listen and speak a little Vietnamese and really wants to integrate and be close to everyone. But the problem is that the national team gathers players from many regions. In communication, many dialects are used, so he does not understand every word."
With the help of his teammates and having 2 years of experience in Vietnamese football, Viktor Le overcame the "basic" barrier of almost all overseas Vietnamese players who had tried their hand at the Vietnamese youth team levels before.
This is what created the momentum for Viktor Le in the CFA Team China 2025 international U22 tournament. He and goalkeeper Cao Van Binh were the two starting positions for all 270 minutes in the 3 matches of U22 Vietnam in the tournament.
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After 2 months since the first training session, when it was difficult to communicate because he did not understand Vietnamese dialects, Viktor Le is now comfortable communicating and laughing with his teammates at U22 Vietnam. Photo: Tam Minh. |
In the role of attacking midfielder with the task of bringing the ball up the line, Viktor Le made outstanding contributions to the main transition play and directly contributed to 2 goals of U22 Vietnam against U22 Korea and U22 China.
The success from this tournament seems to have “unlocked” Viktor Le’s confidence in playing football. As of round 23 of V.League 2024/25, he has had 3 goals and 3 assists at club level.
Moreover, when U22 Vietnam gathered again in early June, Viktor Le showed a completely different version from the original. He kept a confident expression, often laughed and joked with his teammates on the field.
This is also a positive point for U22 Vietnam when there are more quality factors in the process of aiming for the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 tournament (July in Indonesia), the 2025 Asian U23 qualifiers (September in Phu Tho ), and focusing on the 33rd SEA Games (December in Thailand).
Lessons for overseas Vietnamese players joining the national team
In the current June training session, Vietnamese football has three teams: men's, women's and U23. The teams have 5 overseas Vietnamese players, including: Nguyen Hoang Nam Mi (women), Nguyen Filip, Cao Pendant Quang Vinh (men) and Bui Alex, Viktor Le (U22).
Previously, the Vietnamese youth teams also had Andrej Nguyen An Khanh (U22), Thomas Mai Veeren, Maxwell James Peereboom (U17).
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With nearly 150 matches of experience in the French Third Division, Cao Pendant Quang Vinh has no difficulty in catching up with the football language with his teammates in the Vietnam national team. Photo: Tam Minh. |
Among the Vietnamese-American players mentioned above, temporarily excluding Nguyen Filip because he has been "on the national team" since 2023, only Cao Pendant Quang Vinh and Viktor Le have shown the best positive traits in integrating with the team, from communication to training methods.
The common point of these two players is not only the advantage of having time to experience the V.League environment. Most importantly, Vinh and Viktor have accumulated enough skills to play at a higher level than Vietnamese football before returning home.
This helps both of them gain the necessary confidence, express their best football language with the team, thereby overcoming the initial barriers of different languages in communication.
When he was still leading the U23 Vietnam team, coach Philippe Troussier wanted to call back many overseas Vietnamese players to try their hand. But after a few initial cases that could not adapt quickly, he stopped the plan and shared his hope that those young talents would continue to persevere in developing themselves in a better environment than Vietnamese football, and then return to contribute.
Source: https://znews.vn/viktor-le-va-bai-hoc-cho-viet-kieu-len-tuyen-post1557823.html
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