Excellent midfielder Nguyen Hoang Duc (from Hai Duong) leaves The Cong

Hoang Duc's old contract with The Cong will expire tomorrow, July 11. This contract was supposed to expire in January 2025, but had to be changed to suit the reality of the 2023-2024 season ending in the middle of the year.

Previously, on April 20, The Cong said that the two sides had reached a number of agreements, which did not include important details such as signing-on fees or salaries. Hoang Duc also prioritized renewing with the army team, but after three months of negotiations, things did not progress.

The midfielder born in 1998 will not go abroad after leaving The Cong. He will join a club in the North, with a three-year contract, and a signing bonus of no less than 5 billion VND per season.

In the 2023-2024 V-League, Hoang Duc played 2,104 minutes in 24 matches, equivalent to 87.7 minutes per match. He had an unimpressive performance, scoring two goals and assisting two goals, helping The Cong finish fifth overall - the lowest position since the 2020 championship season. However, the 26-year-old midfielder was still named in the V-League's typical squad this season.

Since joining the V-League in 2019, Hoang Duc has played a total of 119 matches, scoring 17 and assisting 28 goals. The 26-year-old is considered the best midfielder in Vietnam at the moment. He is the winner of the Vietnamese Golden Ball in 2021, 2023 and the Bronze Ball in 2022.

The player from Hai Duong grew up from Viettel's youth training center. In 2017, he was promoted to Viettel's first team (now The Cong Viettel) and contributed to winning the 2018 First Division Championship to be promoted to V-League. In the 2020 season, Hoang Duc and The Cong won the V-League and finished second in the National Cup. Up to now, Hoang Duc has played for the club at many levels from AFC Champions League, AFC Cup, V-League, National Cup.

In 2017, Hoang Duc was also in the Vietnamese squad for the 2017 FIFA U20 World Cup in Korea. He then won two gold medals at the 30th and 31st SEA Games. At the national team level, Hoang Duc first entered the field in Vietnam's 4-0 win over Indonesia in the second qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup in June 2021. Since then, he has quickly become a mainstay and a regular starter in tournaments, with 36 matches and two goals.

The 1998 generation of The Cong currently has Nguyen Duc Chien and Nguyen Duc Hoang Minh in the first team. However, both will likely continue to work together.

Hoang Duc is one of the three most notable contracts in Vietnamese football recently, with a lot of information about going abroad. The other two names, Pham Tuan Hai and Nguyen Quang Hai, have decided their futures at Hanoi FC and Hanoi Police, respectively. In particular, Tuan Hai has an additional clause to be supported to play abroad, with the target destination being Japan.