Coach Phan Thanh Hung   Coach Nguyen Huu Thang

HCM CITY — Three top contenders for national football head coach have differing views about whether the coach should be allowed to work for two teams at the same time.

The three men have all been interviewed to fill the vacancy left by coach Falko Goetz of Germany.

After 16 years of using foreign coaches for the national teams, the Viet Nam Football Federation (VFF) has decided to turn its attention to local coaches as some of them have proven capable of doing the job.

Phan Thanh Hung, Le Huynh Duc and Nguyen Huu Thang have all been successful in the role of a player as well as a coach, and are all on the shortlist of prospective candidates.

The VFF has mapped out a contract with more favourable terms to help local coaches do their job as well as possible.

This would include a higher salary (reportedly about US$10,000 per month) and more rights in the dugout.

However, the country's football governing body wants the new coach to work only for the national team with a contract of up to two years.

All three coaches told Viet Nam News that it was a great honour to become the coach of the national team, but had somewhat different views of how it should be done.

Hung, 53, of Da Nang, who won the country's top-flight football championship, V-League, with Ha Noi T&T in 2010, said that he had agreed to take the job if a short contract was offered.

 

Coach Le Huynh Duc

"My view is that I would work only for the national team for a short stint," Hung, who does not want to leave his post as head coach of Ha Noi T&T, said.

However, Thang, 40, of Nghe An Province, who won the V-League title with Song Lam Nghe An in 2011, said the national team's coach should work only for the national team.

"My point of view is that the national team coach must dedicate his time to the team," Thang said.

Duc, 40, who won the V-League title with SHB Da Nang in 2009, refused to elaborate about the issue because no specific decisions have been made.

However, Duc, who was born in HCM City, agreed with Hung and said that he would take the job if the VFF allowed him to work for both the national team and his club. — VNS