Vietnam’s goalie Dang Van Lam joins former club of Liverpool winger: source
Thursday, January 07, 2021, 19:10 GMT+7
The Vietnamese national football team’s goalkeeper Dang Van Lam will play for J1 League side Cerezo Osaka, former club of Liverpool winger Takumi Minamino, in the 2021 season following a contract finalized on Thursday.
Japanese media reported on Thursday morning that Lam, 28, would join Cerezo Osaka this season.
The Vietnamese goalie finalized a contract with the Japanese side later the same day, according to a Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper source.
Details of the deal have yet to be disclosed.
In June 2019, Lam signed a three-year contract with Thai League 1 club Muangthong United after leaving Vietnam’s top-tier Hai Phong FC.
This season, Muangthong United said that they would let him go if any club offered a fair price and clear development road map, given one year left in his contract with the Thai team.
In the 2020 season, Saigon FC and Ho Chi Minh City FC showed an interest in Lam amid rumor that he would move back to Vietnam.
Lam is in Thailand now, having been left on the bench in the last two matches of Muangthong United as he had been in negotiation with Cerezo Osaka.
He is the fourth Vietnamese footballer to have played in Japan so far, following Le Cong Vinh, Nguyen Tuan Anh, and Nguyen Cong Phuong, who onced wore the jerseys of Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo, Yokohama FC, and Mito HollyHock in the J2 League.
Lam started playing for Vietnam's national squad in 2015 and is now the team's No. 1 goalkeeper.
Established in 1957, Cerezo Osaka have won four Japanese league titles as yet.
They won the J.League YBC Levain Cup in 2017 as well as the Emperor's Cup and Xerox Super Cup in 2018.
The club ranked fourth in the 2020 season of the J1 League and also secured a spot in the qualifying rounds of the 2021 AFC Champions League.
Liverpool winger Takumi Minamino played for Cerezo Osaka from 2012 to 2014.
Minamino moved to Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg in 2015 before signing a four-year contract with the Merseyside club last year.
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