Residents in Hà Nội enjoy a game of rondo.VNA/VNS Photo

Anh Đức

In his speech celebrating the 80th anniversary of the sports sector, General Secretary Tô Lâm of the Communist Party of Việt Nam called for the people to "take up a sport for regular training", so that the Vietnamese people can have better health and improved living standards.

Choosing which sport to play is not an easy task, but as a proponent of Vietnamese football, and as someone whose life has changed after immersing myself in the beautiful game, I want to present some reasons to encourage you to take up the world's most popular sport.

Football is a very affordable sport. At the very least, you only need a ball – any round (or even nearly round) object to kick about. In the Vietnamese countryside, you can even see kids using pomelos as a ball. 

In my childhood, we used very cheap plastic balls to play in our schoolyards, and sometimes we would even put one ball inside another to increase durability and weight. Regular footballs, on the other hand, cost from VNĐ250,000 (US$10) for a ball used in amateur games, to VNĐ1.1 million ($40) for a FIFA-quality ball.

One would argue that you need football boots to play the game, but if you're just a casual player, any canvas shoes would work fine. You could even play barefoot – the great Zinedine Zidane once played with no boots!

The playing field is a more difficult problem for Vietnamese football. In the past, schoolyards, public parks and other areas had spaces large enough for people to play football for free. But with urbanisation, space has become increasingly scarce in cities, where there is little to no free space anymore.

In the countryside, free football pitches are reduced to bare dirt fields – inadequate for proper play. Yes, artificial turf pitches have popped up rapidly, but the cost to maintain and service them means they are not free anymore. 

Rent prices for pitches in the capital city of Hà Nội are around VNĐ400,000 ($16) for a 90-minute session on a seven-a-side pitch, with prices varying depending on time, place and pitch quality.

Football is a sport that builds skills and character. As a goalkeeper, I learned communication and leadership, as I try to manage the defenders before me and tell them the threats that only I can see. 

Midfielders can learn to observe and be creative, strikers learn to be decisive and defenders learn to keep their cool. But in all positions, the game requires you to never give up, even if you are chasing the ball or racing on a counterattack.

Which brings me to my next point: football is a continuous, high-intensity sport. Because of this, it builds stamina, burns calories quickly and, if played regularly, can greatly improve your health.

But above all else, football is a social sport. It brings people together. You cannot play a proper match alone — you need teammates and opponents, and before long, those people become your friends. 

Some of my closest friendships were forged not in classrooms or offices, but on dusty pitches under floodlights after work. In a country where community ties are deeply valued, few activities bond people as quickly as chasing a ball together for 90 minutes.

Football also connects Việt Nam to the wider world. When you play, you share a language with billions — children in Brazil’s favelas to Sunday league players in England. It is a universal language of joy, frustration and passion that transcends borders and cultures.

If Vietnamese football wants to improve and go further, more people should choose to play the game. The national team's success on the continental stage begins not with tactics or transfers, but with more children picking up a ball in the schoolyard, more adults lacing up their boots after work, and more communities building spaces where the game can thrive. 

I hope that this article, in some way, can help someone new take up in the world's most beautiful game. VNS