Hanoi FC coach: 'V-League is still weaker than Thai League'

In 2018, coach Bozidar Bandovic won Thai League 1 with Buriram United, thereby winning the best coach award in the tournament. Five years later, he and Hanoi FC finished second in V-League 2023 and continued to be voted the best coach. The 55-year-old coach became the first coach to achieve this achievement in the two leading football countries in Southeast Asia.

After receiving the individual title on the evening of August 31, Coach Bandovic said: "The Vietnam National League has some advantages over Thailand, but in general the V-League is still weaker than the Thai League. I believe the V-League will become stronger." improved in terms of quality, infrastructure, ...".

Thai League 1 currently has 16 teams, two more than V-League. The tournament is also ahead in terms of the number of foreign players when it currently allows teams to register five foreign players in the world, one foreign player from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and three foreign players in Southeast Asia. Teams participate in three domestic tournaments instead of two like Vietnam, with infrastructure that stands out as better stadiums.

Coach Bandovic said he agrees with the awards in the V-League 2023, although there are arguments about who is more deserving in each category. The Montenegrin coach also stated that awards are not all in football. "The one-year award does not say anything when the life of a player and coach is a process of trying for many years," said coach Hanoi FC. "I also tell other players and coaches that if you go through a year without receiving the award, don't be sad, the important thing is that they develop more year by year."

Coach Bandovic affirmed that Hanoi FC deserved to win the championship with what they had shown, but Hanoi Police were no worse and made a difference by scoring many goals. This failure is motivation to move on and do better next season.

This season, Nguyen Van Quyet scored nine goals and nine assists, making an important contribution to helping the Hanoi Club finish second, but was not nominated due to an eight-match disciplinary action after a scuffle with the assistant referee in the loss to Binh. Set for round 7 of phase I. Coach Bandovic believes that the 32-year-old striker still deserves to be recognized even if he is not honored. He affirmed: "It's not important how many matches you play, what's important is what you can show when you're on the field."