HCM CITY — Education giant Nguyễn Hoàng Group has signed an agreement with CV9 Academy, a community football academy founded by Lê Công Vinh, former captain of the national team, to provide professional football training to its students.

More than 40,000 students aged five to 23 at its 40 educational establishments in 15 provinces and cities will get football lessons during their physical education classes with the training programmes designed by experts from the academy.

At the signing ceremony on Wednesday Vinh also became the president of Nguyễn Hoàng’s football department.

He is also the brand ambassador of a Nguyễn Hoàng programme on "bringing professional football to schools" to spread the love of sports, dreams and creativity among the younger generation.

The experts from CV9 will include foreign coaches who played for famous clubs, international coaches and players from the Việt Nam national football team with professional coaching certificates.

The academy has signed up Marshall Soper, a former Australian national player, as a technical advisor.

Dr Đỗ Mạnh Cường, permanent member of Nguyễn Hoàng Group’s education council, said in addition to classroom knowledge today’s young people also need to be physically fit and well equipped in social skills.

The football ground is a practical and useful environment for training people to be resilient, have team spirit and fighting spirit and think intelligently and tactically, he said. — VNS