By Min Yea-Ji and Kim Young Shin

Park Hang-seo, the Korean head coach of both the Vietnam national football team and the country’s national under-23 (U-23) squad, has risen to the status of a national hero in Vietnam as he recently led the U-23 team to the final match of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Championship. This is a first for a Southeast Asian country to qualify for the final in that tournament.

Although Team Vietnam lost the final match against Uzbekistan in Changzhou, China, on Jan. 27, with a score of 2-1 after extra-time, it still won a valuable silver medal.

The Vietnamese government presented an official third-class labor medal to Park on Jan. 28 to acknowledge his contributions to setting a new record in the country’s footballing history.

Interest in and affection for the coach has soared across Vietnam.

The video of the U-23 Vietnamese team in its final match was uploaded to YouTube by the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) on Jan. 27. It has since recorded more than 770,000 views in just two days, as its heart-warming scenes drew the attention of both Vietnamese and Korean audiences.

In the video, titled “The coach and his team were at a loss for words after the final round of the AFC U23,” Park consoles his team, saying, “We did our best. Never lower your head in shame. We are the legend of Vietnamese football history.”

Park continued, “You have the right to rejoice. You did a great job. We can win next time, okay?” His team responded with a great, “Okay!”

There has been a lot of media coverage about the coach.

On Jan. 30, the sports section of Tuoi Tre, a major Vietnamese newspaper, was full of news related to Coach Park. It had articles such as “Coach Park Hang-seo, the most memorable moment of my 40 years of football life” and “Coach Park, the core of Vietnamese football is to train youth athletes.”

“After leading his U23 team to the final round, Park became a national oppa,” wrote Soha, a Vietnamese online news website on Jan. 28. "The coach is the oppa of all Vietnamese football fans.”

President Moon Jae-in also wrote, “He and his team members demonstrated real sportsmanship by doing their best, even during the extra-time, held amid heavy snow,” on his Facebook profile on Jan. 27. “People in Korea are so happy to see Park raising Team Vietnam to a top Asian team, three months after starting in his new post.”

He also said, “It's pleasing to see the event bringing Korea and Vietnam closer. I give a big hand of applause to the excellent performance of Team Vietnam and of Coach Park.”



(Video = Vietnam football federation’s official YouTube channel ‘VFF Channel’)

jesimin@korea.kr