Việt Nam’s head coach Park Hang-seo and his language assistant Vũ Anh Thắng. — Photo from Facebook of Vũ Anh Thắng

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s head coach Park Hang-seo has started a course to learn Vietnamese as the COVID-19 pandemic disturbs football tournaments around the world as well as in Việt Nam.

The South Korean coach watched two games of V.League 1 2020. But because the League was postponed due to the novel coronavirus, from now until the end of March, Park will not be overseeing or watching any games.

However, coach Park didn’t allow himself to rest, instead he has started learning Vietnamese.

Language assistant Vũ Anh Thắng confirmed that he has been helping Park learn more Vietnamese since March 17.

“Park wants to learn more Vietnamese to enhance his understanding of Việt Nam. This is good for communication and living with Vietnamese people and the players. Along with Park, there are other members of the training board learning the language,” said Thắng.

The Vietnamese team will only convene in late May or early June and then again at the end of September for the World Cup qualifiers and the AFF Suzuki Cup from October to December.

This will make the last three months of 2020 with Park extremely busy when the AFF Cup takes place only five days after the match with the UAE (November 17) at the World Cup qualifiers. The Vietnamese team aim to defend their title in this year’s AFF Cup. — VNS