Vietnam are looking for a new foreign coach with an impressive résumé to succeed beloved South Korean head coach Park Hang Seo, whose departure from the Vietnamese men’s national football team has been confirmed.

The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) officially announced on Monday that it will end the contract with Park on January 31, 2023, closing his fruitful five-year journey with Vietnamese football that had started in late 2017.

The decision means that the 2022 AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup, set to take place between December and January, will be Park’s last tournament as the head coach of the men’s national football team.

The VFF affirmed that the farewell to the South Korean coach, who brought significant success to Vietnamese football during his tenure, came from a mutual understanding and the desire for a prosperous future for both parties.

Following the announcement, a VFF member told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the federation’s standing committee is in talks with potential candidates to find a replacement.

“The new coach will be foreign, with good qualifications and a monumental résumé like our current head coach of the men’s national futsal team,” the VFF member said, referring to Giustozzi Diego Raul, who has been contracted to lead the Vietnamese national futsal team from August 1 to September 30, 2024.

Raul, of Argentine nationality and born in 1978, led his native country to win the 2016 Futsal World Cup in Colombia.

The new football coach selection will be announced after the VFF Annual Congress on November 6, according to the VFF member.

The VFF hired Park, 65, in October 2017 before extending the contract with him until January 31, 2023 in late 2019.

The federation and Park’s agent worked together again in September and October this year as the expiration of the contract draws near.

The two sides then decided that it is appropriate to announce the termination of the contract at this time.

Thanks to Park’s strategies, the U23 Vietnamese team became the runners-up at the 2018 AFC U23 Championship, finished fourth at the 2018 Asian Games, and claimed the men’s football gold medal at the biennial Southeast Asian Games two consecutive times in 2019 and 2021.

During his stint, the Vietnamese national men’s football team won the 2018 AFF Suzuki Cup, advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2019 Asian Cup, and made their first-ever appearance in the final Asian qualification round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

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