His contributions to Vietnamese women's football can be considered "unprecedented", helping Vietnamese sports realize their World Cup dream and become more widely known in the international arena.
The quiet but effective leader 
Head coach of the Vietnam women's team Mai Duc Chung. Photo: Minh Quyet/VNA
With a calm, humane, and courageous coaching style, Coach Mai Duc Chung is called by experts as a “believer”, a quiet but effective leader. Not only is he a talented strategist, a writer of golden pages for women’s football, he also strongly inspires determination, humility, and pure patriotism. In addition to his role as a coach, he is also a spiritual father to many generations of female players, helping them confidently overcome challenges in physical condition, training conditions, and gender gap to persistently create success.
Since moving to coaching, Mr. Mai Duc Chung and the Vietnamese women's team have won 8 SEA Games Gold medals (1997, 2003, 2005, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023), 1 Southeast Asian championship (in 2019) and created a historical milestone when they qualified for the 2023 World Cup.
Coach Mai Duc Chung is also a rare person to lead both the men's and women's national teams. He was the interim head coach of the Vietnam team in 2017, after his colleague Nguyen Huu Thang resigned. Coach Mai Duc Chung was assigned by the Vietnam Football Federation to take charge of two matches, before leaving the leadership position to his successor, Korean coach Park Hang Seo.
Motivation to continue contributing to Vietnamese football
Becoming one of six individuals voted for the title of Vietnam Glory in 2025, Coach Mai Duc Chung shared: “This is an honor not only for me personally, but also for the whole team, crystallized from the efforts of many people. I would like to thank the Party, the State, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism , the Vietnam Sports Administration, the entire Vietnam women's team, the Vietnam Football Federation and the teams...
Without them, I would not have the honor today. Thank you to the fans who have always loved, cheered, encouraged the women's team and voted for me. This title will be the motivation for me to continue to strive and contribute to Vietnamese football. Although my health is not as good as before, I always remind myself to do my best to achieve more achievements with the team members."
In February 2025, with his silent and persistent contributions, Coach Mai Duc Chung was honored to be awarded the title of Hero of Labor, with his outstanding achievements in creative labor, contributing to the cause of building socialism and defending the Fatherland. This is a worthy reward for someone who has devoted almost his entire life and career to serving the country's sports.
In 2025, Coach Mai Duc Chung will continue to join the Vietnamese women's team to compete in the 2026 Asian Cup qualifiers (June), the AFF Women's Cup (August) and the 33rd SEA Games (December).
He shared: "I don't know how much longer I can play football, but this is a very important stage for the women's team to transition and we need to create conditions for young players to compete in major tournaments to inherit and learn from their seniors."
Throughout his career, Coach Mai Duc Chung has done his best with all his efforts and hard work. When he accepted the assignment, he did not promise anything, only said "I will try my best, take full responsibility, please believe me".
Sharing his greatest wish, Coach Mai Duc Chung confided: “I just hope that in the future, women’s football can become a profession, where female athletes can live in peace with a good income. From there, the achievements of the women’s football team will continue to grow, and they can enter the World Cup with even better results.”
Source: https://baotintuc.vn/chuyen-the-thao/huan-luyen-vien-mai-duc-chungnguoi-gop-phan-viet-nen-trang-su-vang-cho-bong-da-nu-viet-nam-20250621114032020.htm
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