Illustration by Trịnh Lập

Nguyễn Mỹ Hà

So the Việt Nam team may not be playing in the World Cup in the foreseeable future, but with the nation's fascination with football and a sports strategy geared towards raising the standard of the domestic game, perhaps it is only a matter of time. Will we still be around to see it?

When I asked many football aficionados – and let's be honest, in Việt Nam they are everywhere: at home, in the office, even among vendors selling fruit and vegetables – there was usually a pause for a moment or two. The question seemed so overwhelming that they were perplexed, as though they had never really thought about it.

"I just don't know," said an old friend, who played as a striker at college and still plays once a week despite being in his early 60s.

The domestic game is getting better and better, with local players receiving higher-quality training, helped hugely by the number of international players plying their trade in Việt Nam.

This has led to some becoming naturalised citizens like Brazilians Nguyễn Xuân Son and Đỗ Hoàng Hên who both now wear the national jersey with pride.

Only recently, Patrik Lê Giang (born in Slovakia) and Ngô Đăng Khoa (born in Australia with Vietnamese parents) became eligible to represent the national team.

Khoa was the first footballer of Vietnamese origin to score in Australia's A-League.

And then there's Nguyễn Tài Lộc, another Brazilian to join the national team under the direction of South Korean coach Kim Sang-sik.

Let's be honest, and not talk about technical or strategic matters.

Let's talk about love and luck.

The national team's new adopted Vietnamese names could well be a good omen. Hên means "luck" in the southern dialect, Lộc means "gift from God", and Son means "red" or, figuratively, "great luck".

The Việt Nam national team is currently preparing for the ASEAN Cup 2026 and coach Kim has selected a squad that blends youth and experience with rookies Đinh Quang Kiệt, Nguyễn Ngọc Mỹ, Lê Ngọc Bảo and Nguyễn Nhật Minh being given a chance to shine.

After training camps in Hà Nội and then South Korea, plus a warm-up match against Myanmar scheduled to take place in Thái Nguyên on July 18, the ASEAN Cup will run from July 24 until August 8.

Now I know the upcoming ASEAN tournament for teams from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is a far cry from what's currently taking place in the United States, Canada and Mexico where the likes of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé continue to capture the spotlight, but we can only dream that one day we will hear our own national anthem, Tiến Quân Ca (Marching Song), being belted out with pride on the world stage.

This time around, there are more teams competing in the World Cup, and if the tournament continues to expand, then perhaps one day the Cup will embrace our team.

Too soon perhaps, the sceptics ask. But mind you, we're talking about love and luck.

Maybe 2034 in Saudi Arabia might be a slightly more realistic goal, or possibly 2038, or even further down the road.

They say anything can happen in football, and there are no guarantees in life, but one thing is definitely for sure:

If Việt Nam can make the impossible possible, and the men's team manages to qualify in the future, then the spirit, passion and pride we witness every time our boys in red represent the nation will be bigger, better and louder than anything we have ever seen.

This year we have seen Cape Verde and Curaçao – small nations not traditionally known for their football prowess, yet now sharing the pitch with the best players on the planet.

If we keep our faith in the Việt Nam team, they will return our trust. Maybe it's a bit early to say, but Việt Nam has already turned many miracles into reality. The next one could well come in football.

There's an old saying that when the Mother Goddess favours you, it's hard to lead a normal life again, because she showers you with luck and success.

By then, nothing can stand in her way as she continues to support and protect her people.

Now we all know the national women's team already achieved that remarkable feat, featuring in the 2023 World Cup jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

We surely believe that the men's team can follow in their sisters' footsteps. They may need a little more time, effort and luck, but they already have something just as important – all the love and support we can give them.

For now, as we tune in to the matches being played on the other side of the world at all hours of the night before heading off to work, we keep dreaming that one day – hopefully while we are all still around to witness it – Việt Nam will be playing in the biggest and best football tournament on the planet. — VNS