V.League 2026: Those Who Stay and the Echo from the Pitch

In early August 2026, I stood outside the fence of a football training center in northern Vietnam. On the main pitch, the first team was playing a small-sided game; on the secondary pitch, four players left out of the registered squad were still running ten extra laps. There were no fans and no cameras. One of them told me: “I just need one chance to prove I am not surplus.”

The summer transfer window in V.League has just closed with several eye-catching deals. Well-funded clubs kept spending on foreign players and the best domestic names in the national team squad. But my story does not begin with transfer figures; it begins at training grounds without spectators, where supporting actors still rehearse to become leading actors.

Vietnamese football once enjoyed success when the national team won the AFF Cup 2026 on January 5, 2026. Nguyen Xuan Son scored seven goals in that tournament, becoming a symbol of a new attacking generation before suffering a serious injury. Nguyen Quang Hai went overseas and later returned to V.League. Their journeys show that Vietnam does not lack talent, but the environment to retain and develop talent remains unstable.

In today’s V.League, the big question is not which club has better foreign players. The bigger question is which club dares to give young domestic players opportunities during the decisive run-in. Many teams choose the safe option of rotating a few familiar names, then regret having a thin squad at the end of the season. Training grounds I once observed in Shanghai and Suzhou taught me a lesson: squad depth is not built with contracts, but with patience in every session. Each training session is a promise to the person training.

Following matches for many seasons, I notice a paradox: fans usually look at the standings, but what decides the standings lies in the final minutes, when a team needs a substitute who can change the game. Five substitutes help deep squads, but also turn the last twenty minutes into a war of attrition. If a club has not prepared on the training ground, those twenty minutes will expose every gap.

Many people think the problem of Vietnamese football is money. I disagree. Money buys good foreign players, but not identity. A club with a properly trained youth generation, given the right chance at the right time, is more sustainable than a club that only shops every season. Smaller clubs with limited budgets can still compete if they trust players they develop themselves. In contrast, wealthy clubs that rely only on foreigners will collapse when those foreigners get injured or leave.

I still keep the principle from my days as a ground reporter: the pitch never lies; only the spectators tell the truth. A transfer list can make a story, but the final answer is always on the grass. I often tell my colleagues: a training field is a stage without an audience, where supporting actors learn to become leading actors. The beat keeper is not allowed to fall asleep in the roar.

When the season enters its decisive phase, look at the footsteps of young players, substitutes, and those who stay. They may not appear on the front page, but they are the real pulse of Vietnamese football. V.League 2026 is teaching me that victory belongs not only to the team at the top; it belongs to clubs that listen to the training ground and keep their people amid a noisy transfer market. The final question is not who a club bought, but what remains after the season ends.