The current contract of the country's national skipper will expire on January 31, 2023, and whether or not the two sides renew their contracts will depend on a number of factors. Park Hang-soo also spoke about his future destination in an interview.
The previous three contract renewal negotiations were in 2017, 2019 and 2021, during which Park Hang-su never contacted the Vietnam Football Federation directly and the renewal was handled by his agent Lee Dong-jun. Speaking about why he chose to coach the Vietnam national team, Park Hang-su said, "I was the head coach of Gwangju Sangmu for four years before, and after I left I contacted some clubs in China, but things didn't go well and it didn't work out in the end. At that time in Korea, a lot of agents knew very little about Southeast Asia, and in 2016, my wife said he had a brother named Lee Dong-joon who knew a lot about Southeast Asian soccer, so let's give it a try. My wife gave me his phone number and I had no choice but to call one, but it didn't connect at the time and he didn't get back to me later."
"After 1 year, Mr. Lee finally called me back and asked me if I wanted to coach the Vietnam national team and asked me to write a letter to authorize him to start negotiations with the Vietnam Football Federation, and thus a brand new page in my career was opened."
At the moment, Park Hang-su is still having his agent communicate with the Vietnam Football Association to deal with the renewal of his contract, and the two sides are set to meet in October this year to discuss the renewal. There is a clause in the contract between the two sides that requires them to sit down and talk three months before the expiration of the current contract
Park Hang-su will return to the Vietnam national team with around the end of this month to continue his coaching work, watching the Vietnam League, observing the performance of the players, determining the team's roster and looking for new faces.
Commenting on Park Hang-su's tenure with the Vietnam national team, Vietnam soccer critic Vu Tien Thanh said, "Vietnam soccer has found a manager like Park Hang-su who has an outstanding record, and the two sides are a good match. From the current situation, it is difficult to find a suitable candidate to take over Park's coaching duties.
