V.League 1: The Battle to Keep Star Players Amid the Overseas Exodus

On an afternoon in late August, at the training centre of a V.League 1 club, the pitch was emptier than usual. Their captain had just got into a car bound for the airport, carrying a two-year contract with a J.League 2 club. On the tactics board, his name still sat at the centre of the attack — but beside it was a red question mark the coaching staff had not yet erased. It was not the first time. And it may not be the last. Every transfer window that passes, Vietnamese clubs face the same question: how do you keep a player when the regional market is ready to pay more? Vietnamese football is in a phase where the flow of young talent has never been more active. V.League 1 has 14 teams, V.League 2 has 12, alongside a national youth system organised more professionally than before. Academies such as HAGL, Viettel, Hanoi, Nam Dinh and Song Lam Nghe An have produced a generation of players with better technical foundations, earlier training, and a clearer ambition to play abroad. But that very success raises a thorny question. Over years of tracking Vietnamese football's transfer windows, I have noticed an almost pre-programmed cycle. First come rumours from domestic clubs. Then scouts from Thailand, Japan and Korea appear. Finally comes an offer in hard currency, accompanied by promises of a more professional playing environment. The league's traditional power axis — Hanoi, HAGL, Viettel, Nam Dinh — remains the biggest producer of national-team players. Yet even those clubs are not immune to the exodus. Once a young player reaches a certain threshold, keeping him becomes harder than developing him in the first place. The financial structure of V.League 1 clubs is the root of the problem. Most teams still depend on funding from a parent company or a wealthy individual rather than sustainable revenue from broadcasting rights, commercial deals and ticket sales. When that money fluctuates, so does the wage bill — and players feel it first. By contrast, regional leagues such as the Thai League, J.League and K.League have more diversified revenue structures, allowing them to pay higher and more stable wages. A Vietnamese player moving to Thai League 1 can earn two or three times what he would at home, not to mention better medical care, nutrition and training facilities. On the surface, this is a story about money. Look closer, and it is a story about league structure. V.League 1 has only 14 teams, meaning far fewer matches per season than the region's major leagues. Fewer matches means less revenue, fewer chances to perform, and less time for young players to accumulate elite experience. Data I have gathered from recent transfer windows points to a clear trend: the average age of Vietnamese players going abroad is falling. Where once most were established players aged 25 to 27, more and more 20- to 22-year-olds now attract foreign clubs. That means V.League 1 is losing its stars earlier — just as they begin to generate a return for the academy that produced them. In a recent season, I recorded at least five cases of players under 23 leaving V.League 1 for regional leagues, most on free transfers or short-term deals. The number may be small in absolute terms, but it reflects a trend: foreign clubs are targeting Vietnamese players earlier, when their transfer value is still low and their growth potential still high. This is the paradox of the academy first, commerce later model. A club invests ten years nurturing a player, but by the time he is ripe enough to contribute, the outside market is ready to buy him. If the transfer fee does not match his true value, the club loses both the player and the reinvestment it needed. Match congestion is another underrated factor. V.League 1 sides routinely stretch themselves across multiple competitions: the domestic league, the National Cup, and sometimes Asian tournaments. With a thin squad, a couple of injuries can collapse the midfield or defence. When a key player leaves mid-season, there is no replacement of sufficient quality. Clubs like Hanoi, Viettel and Nam Dinh have built squad depth thanks to stronger finances. The rest of the league has not been so fortunate. The gap between the leading group and the mid-table is widening, and every time a star departs, that gap grows a little more. Another often-overlooked factor is the role of agents. In Vietnam, the player-representation system is still young. Many young players sign contracts through relatives or unprofessional brokers, leading to terms that hurt them in the long run. When an overseas opportunity arrives, they lack the information and negotiating skill to protect their own interests — and those of their parent club. The romantic story the media likes to tell — of a small town raising a star and sending him out into the world — hides a harsher reality. Not every academy benefits from selling players. In fact, most Vietnamese clubs have no professional transfer-negotiation department, no data-driven player-valuation system, and are often caught off guard when a foreign partner comes knocking. The result is that many deals are struck below potential value, sometimes with sell-on clauses Vietnamese clubs lack the legal capacity to enforce. When the player succeeds abroad, the huge profit flows to intermediary clubs rather than back to the academy that produced him. Another blind spot is psychology. In V.League 1, young players are often encouraged to go abroad as a symbol of success. But not everyone suits a new environment. There have been cases of players moving to the Thai League or J.League, losing their starting place, losing form, and returning home worse off than before. Leaving does not automatically mean improving. Even refereeing — a topic rarely mentioned in transfer stories — has an indirect effect. When officiating standards in the domestic league are inconsistent, young players struggle to develop their reading of the game and their decision-making under pressure. When they move to a stricter foreign environment, that gap is exposed immediately. V.League 1 cannot stop players from leaving, and perhaps it should not try. What must change is how clubs prepare for those departures. A data-driven player-valuation system, a capable negotiating department, and a clear reinvestment strategy would turn loss into opportunity. The bigger question sits at league level: can V.League 1 expand, add matches, and build revenue independent of its owners' pockets? If the answer remains no, every transfer window will keep being a parting — and the names on the tactics board will forever carry a red question mark.