Hà Nội Police FC players celebrate their third V.League 1 title, with coach Mano Polking playing a central role in shaping the team’s dominant style of play. — VNA/VNS Photo

Anh Đức

After three years in Việt Nam, Alexandre 'Mano' Polking has finally won the nation's top prize, as his Công An Hà Nội (Hà Nội Police) side became the 2025-26 V.League 1 champions in an unprecedented display of dominance.

A 2-0 home victory over Thanh Hóa at Hàng Đẫy on May 17 sealed the title with three rounds still to play. Alan Grafite converted a late penalty, Rogerio Alves added a second in stoppage time and a stadium drenched in rain and red ended the night as champions. After 23 rounds, Hà Nội Police had 19 wins, three draws and just a single defeat, sitting 11 points clear of second-place Thể Công Viettel.

Yet the deeper story of this title is not in the statistics. It is in what they represent. Before Polking, Hà Nội Police were a club defined by impatience. Coaches came and went on a roughly four-month cycle, each new appointment a reset. Star signings arrived but rarely cohered into a team. The 2023 V.League title, won in the club's first season back in the top flight, was a story of expensive recruitment rather than of identity, and the pattern of churn returned soon after.

Polking changed that.

The Brazilian-German coach, twice an AFF Cup winner with Thailand, arrived with credentials, but also with an idea of what a football club should look like. Over two full seasons, he has done what no previous coach at the club managed: built a settled team with a clear playing philosophy and, just as importantly, a settled dressing room.

Holding together a squad containing Nguyễn Quang Hải, Filip Nguyễn, Nguyễn Đình Bắc, Nguyễn Văn Thanh, Bùi Hoàng Việt Anh and a clutch of Brazilian forwards is not a tactical task. It is a human one, and Polking has handled the egos as expertly as he has handled the formations.

The football has been a pleasure to watch. Leo Artur has been the standout, with eight league goals and a constant menace down the flanks. Đình Bắc has matured into one of the league's most exciting young attackers. The defence, marshalled by Filip Nguyễn, has kept nine clean sheets in 23 matches and is the meanest in the division.

This is not a side built on one strength. It is balanced, deep and ruthless, and it is now chasing the all-time V.League points record of 64, set by Hà Nội FC in 2018.

There is a national dimension to this story too. Polking's success has, perhaps quietly, made life easier for national team coach Kim Sang-sik. The Brazilian's attacking, possession-based philosophy mirrors what Kim is trying to build at the international level, and many of the players starring for the champions are also national team regulars. A club setup that develops players in a compatible system is a gift to any national coach.

But the most exciting chapter has not yet been written.

The V.League title secures Hà Nội Police a place in the AFC Champions League Elite playoff next season, a step up from the second-tier continental competition where they reached the round of 16 this year.

Polking has already declared his ambition publicly: this club wants to compete on Asia's biggest stage. That is not a fantasy any more. With a coach contracted until 2028, a squad that has just proven itself the best in the country and a club hierarchy finally willing to plan in years rather than months, Hà Nội Police look ready for the next step.

Việt Nam, for the first time in a long time, looks ready with them. VNS