Volleball

Nguyễn Thị Bích Tuyến has received an offer to compete in the Indonesian volleyball league. VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Opposite spiker Nguyễn Thị Bích Tuyền will be the next Vietnamese volleyball player to head abroad for competitions.

The Volleyball Federation Việt Nam (VFV) confirmed that it has received an email from the Indonesia Proliga about inviting the national captain, Nguyễn Thị Bích Tuyền, to play in their league in 2025.

It is the first official offer for Tuyền, who previously was said to be a focus of several international clubs.

It is not a surprising that the 24 year old Tuyền, has attracted the attention of scouts across the region.

The Vĩnh Long Province-born player showed her amazing skills across all international tournaments that she took part in, including the AVC Challenge Cup, the FIVB Challenger Cup, the VTV Cup and the AVC Club Championship over the last two years. She also secured individual titles in all those events.

Earlier this month, Tuyền was listed as one of the top 10 world best female players by Volleybox, a leading volleyball data website.

With 495.50 points from play, Tuyền is placed at number six, the highest position of a Vietnamese player in one specific competition year.

The Indonesia Proliga is not yet as popular in terms of spectators as volleyball is in Việt Nam, but it is a big league in the region which has welcomed many world elite players.

Indonesian clubs also pay a lot of money to recruit stars to their team. Notably, Bhayangkara, a men's club, signed huge contracts with two-time Olympic champions Earvin N'Gapeth and Jean Patry of France to play for them at the AVC Club Championship 2024.

The league also featured Chinese Chen Peiyan and Uzbekistani Polina Rahimova, who also played in Việt Nam, in the women's competitions.

Other well-known faces include Chinese Liu Yanhan (Jakarta Livin Mandiri) Italian Indre Sorokite (Jakarta Electric PLN) American Karsta Lowe (Jakarta Livin Mandiri) and Russian Irina Voronkova (Jakarta Popsivo Polwan).

If she moves Tuyền will certainly get a good salary - according to reports players at the Proliga earn the highest wages in the ASEAN and are in the top five in terms of earnings, in Asia.

Salary Expert newspaper revealed that players can expect an average salary of 135 million Ruipah (US$8,600) per four-month season, more than five times higher than the average income per capita in Indonesia.

The salary for foreigners is even more attractive. Dominican Gina Mambru, who competed for HCM City Club, made a record of US$60,000 when playing for Pgn Popsivo Polwan in the 2017 season.

VNS