Humbled by Myanmar with a humiliating 1-4 defeat, our U23 football team left Jakarta empty-handed. I may sound like an unpatriotic Vietnamese saying this, but honestly, this defeat did not really upset me, at least not as much as those in the many previous SEA Games. I used to cry my eyes out. I used to go into depression for several consecutive days. This time, none of those reactions happened.
It might probably have to do with the fact that I did not have the chance to follow the news closely this SEA Games due to my O’ level exams which just ended last week, hence the lack of emotional attachment. However, the main reason, I think, is that I have gotten tired of it all. How many times have we created such a hype about our chance at the gold medal in football only to be utterly let down later? Every SEA Games, football is the one sport that is paid the most attention to, and the U23 team also shoulder the heaviest burden of bringing glory to the country. The gold medal in men’s football is deemed the most desirable and praiseworthy despite the fact that, to achive the best results in other sports is by no means any less challenging or arduous. Prior to the Games, the U23 team was promised more than one million US dollars of cash reward if they managed to win the gold medal, more than the amount any football team of other countries in the region would receive for the same achievement. Meanwhile, it is estimated that the total cash rewards for athletes of all the other sports – who have achieved 96 gold, 92 silver and 100 bronze medals for the country - will not even amount to half as much as the aforementioned amount of money, which our boys in the U23 team has let slip through their fingers.
It is undeniable that football is the most popular sport on the planet; thus, the overwhelming attention and generous support everyone has for it are perfectly understandable. Nonetheless, it infuriates me to see the glaring injustice of the treatment towards different sports from the media as well as the Vietnam Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. I have heard and read numerous stories about Vietnamese athletes who have to live in poor, unhygienic conditions as they cannot afford a decent house. The skimpy income they receive from their main profession as athletes prompts many of them to have to take up another job in order to make ends meet. The most painful thing is that some of these athletes are, or used to be, SEA Games, Asian or even World champions. They went through years of strenuous training, made tremendous sacrifices to make the name Vietnam known to the world, only to be mercilessly discarded once no longer able to serve the national teams. Most of the time, their names are only mentioned when they achieve remarkable results in large-scale international competitions and will quickly fade into oblivion afterwards. Nobody gets to see the ugly and heart-rending reality behind the radiant smiles on the athletes’ faces and the the shining medals they receive on the awards podium.
The almost ill-treatment towards Vietnamese athletes stands in striking contrast to the luxurious lives led by many of their counterparts in football. Granted, not all footballers in Vietnam get to enjoy that kind of lives, but generally speaking, the income of football players is marginally higher than that of athletes of most other sports. Some of the top football players in the country own one or even several luxury cars. In an old article I read a few days ago, Nguyen Van Hung – taekwondo fighter, five-time SEA Games champions – said that had he chosen to become a football player, perhaps he would have been a billionaire now. Though it was merely a joke, to hear those words coming from a man who had shed blood, sweat and tears, quite literally so, for the national team for more than ten years, evoked a sense of melancholy in me. How many sport talents have we lost because they have chosen to pursue a different career path - one where their contributions are recognised and appreciated not just in spiritual terms? It is not that they are materialistic, it is our fault to not know to value them.
SEA Games 26 has come to an end. The athletes, the heroes and heroines of the nation, will soon return to their normal lives with the daily struggles seldom seen by all but themselves. They have come to accept this as an inherent part of being sportsmen in Vietnam. Yet, it tugs at the heartstrings of anyone who has the chance to witness such a distressing reality. The question is: Should we continue to turn a blind eye to this injustice, or is it about time we shifted our attention as well as resources to other sports that may have more potential than our ever favourite - football?
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