Duc Duc: ‘I will buy any good Thai players’

In 2001, at that time, HAGL Club was just an anonymous team playing in the First Division, namaged by Doan Nguyen Duc from the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Gia Lai.

Immediately, Duc turned a small team in the Central Highlands mountains into a true big giant in Vietnam. The first shot was a contract with former player Kiatisak, the leading player in Southeast Asia at the time.

The "living monument" of Thai football moved to play for a club in the Vietnam First Division is probably just a dream, but Mr Duc has done it. Not only because of finance resource, but also the determination, Duc has made Kiatisak agreed.

This is considered one of the most successful contracts of Vietnamese football. Kiatisuk helped HAGL team to rise up in that season. At the end of the season, the team was officially transferred to HAGL Group to manage and changed its name to HAGL football club, becoming one of the first professional football clubs in Vietnam.

The contract with Kiatisak paved the way to HAGL for other Thai players like Dusit, Tawan, Sakda, Thonglao ... They were all the top stars of Thai football at the time.

Bau Duc said: “Thai football can win against Vietnam, but waiting for the generations of HAGL-JMG Academy to come out, everything will be different. In the near future, if Thailand has any stars, I will I buy him, so they do not dare to say this and that. ”

Indeed, the president of HAGL Club can do anything he said. In the following years, the club built a team like the "Dream Team", after Thai players such as Dusit Chalermsan, Chukiat Noosarung arrived to form the backbone of the team.

Bau Duc adds to this framework a lineup of all Vietnamese players with contracts with goalkeeper Vo Van Hanh, defenders Nguyen Manh Dung, Nguyen Phi Hung, Trinh Duy Quang, Luong Trung Tuan, and midfielders Le Quoc Vuong, Nguyen Van Dan, Nguyen Huu Dang, strikers Van Si Hung, Nguyen Viet Thang, Nguyen Minh Hai and Ngo Quang Truong.

With the above squad, the club miraculously won the 2003 V-League championship after just rising up and successfully defending its title next season. The team also won two National Super Cups in those years.