Nguyễn Công Phượng and his teammates, after a hard-working season, have earned their right to return to Việt Nam's top flight. — VNA/VNS Photo Tuấn Phạm

Anh Đức

Trường Tươi Đồng Nai, formerly known as Trường Tươi Bình Phước, have been promoted to the V.League 1 after winning the 2025-26 V.League 2, losing only one game all season.

That process, however, could have been come a season earlier had they taken VPF's offer for direct promotion following the disbandment of Quảng Nam FC.

Back in August last year, when Quảng Nam withdrew from the top flight, the VPF offered Trường Tươi the vacant V.League 1 slot. The club, then still in the league's runners-up position from the previous V.League 2 season, was the natural candidate. Most clubs would have accepted without hesitation. Promotion is the goal, after all, and getting it without playing for it is the kind of opportunity football rarely hands out twice.

But Trường Tươi turned it down. The slot eventually went to PVF-CAND, while Trường Tươi recommitted themselves to winning the second tier on merit. At the time, the decision drew mixed responses. Some fans were baffled, even mocking the club for 'putting on airs'. Others, including this columnist, saw it for what it was: a club refusing to take a shortcut to a destination it had not yet earned.

That decision now looks wise on every level. Promoted teams who arrive at the top flight unprepared often spend the season fighting relegation rather than building anything lasting. By taking the long route, Trường Tươi have given themselves a full year to develop chemistry, refine their style and prove their identity under coach Nguyễn Việt Thắng, the same man who took Phù Đổng Ninh Bình up the season before.

There is a beautiful subplot to this story.

For the trio of Công Phượng, Xuân Trường and Trần Minh Vương – the famous HAGL academy graduates who have spent their entire careers in the national spotlight without ever lifting a club trophy – this V.League 2 title is the first championship medal of their professional lives. Eleven years they have waited. They lifted the cup in the rain at Bình Phước with the look of men who had finally grown up.

But the deeper achievement belongs to the club. Trường Tươi Đồng Nai has shown, in a Vietnamese football landscape often defined by takeovers, withdrawals and last-minute promotions, that the old way still works. You assemble a squad. You play the games. You earn your place. When the easy door opened a year ago, they walked past it and chose the longer corridor.

That choice has built something valuable beyond the trophy. It has built trust. Fans who watched their club refuse a free ticket and then go out and win the league on the pitch will follow that club anywhere. Sponsors who see the same will know they are investing in a project, not a punt. And the players who arrive in V.League 1 next season will arrive as champions, not as charity cases.

Vietnamese football has its share of cautionary tales about short cuts and unstable foundations. Trường Tươi Đồng Nai's promotion is, refreshingly, the opposite kind of story. They went the long way round, and they got there carrying something the easy route could never have given them. VNS