Henrique Calisto becomes national football coach

Portuguese coach Henrique Calisto officially signed a contract with the Viet Nam Football Federation (VFF) to coach the national team. 

He officially starts work as coach on April 15, after the conclusion of the V-League’s first leg

Calisto, 53, fulfils the vacant post left by Austrian Alfred Riedl, who resigned last December after his team’s humiliating failure at the 24th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Thailand.

However, Calisto comes to the job with plenty of experience, as he already had one stint as the national team’s coach in 2003.

He officially starts work as coach on April 15, after the conclusion of the V-League’s first leg. 

VFF vice chairman Le Hung Dung said the choice for coach came after several rounds of a careful selection process.

“On behalf of the VFF, I congratulate him and hope that he together with the VFF will build up a strong Viet Nam that can achieve the best results in the future,” said Dung.

Calisto said he was proud to be Viet Nam’s coach again.

“I also know that I will have to shoulder a big responsibility in this position,” said Calisto.

“During my eight years working in the country I see many people with a great love of football.

“I will be working under their scrutiny.”

Calisto appealed to all football fans in the country to get behind the team.

“The duty [to win competitions], in theory, is possible but it is not easy,” he said.

“As you know, one person can do nothing so I appeal to all people, coaches, officials, fans and journalists to work with us,” he said.

As the coach of the national team, Calisto mission is to bring the team to the final match of the Southeast Asian Federation Football Championship (AFF), co-hosted by Thailand andIndonesia later this year. The team has to get high results at the 25th SEA Games in Laos and the Asian Cup’s qualifying round in 2009.

Viet Nam, under Riedl’s reign, entered the final round of the 2007 Asian Cup and ended up finishing fifth overall.

However, Calisto said he has set a target for himself.

“About the goal of entering the finals of the AFF Cup, I’m not sure about it,” he said.

Mission possible

“I understand the V-League and Vietnamese footballers but I don’t have information about major rivals like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

“I have my own target: to win every game, one by one. I only pay attention to the coming competition and I have to win. To do that I have to work hard and study every rival.”

The Portuguese coach is expected to design a developmental road map for the team to boost its playing style and tactics. These strategies will be evaluated by the National Coaching Council before they are applied.

Calisto has rights to select his assistants but they must be approved by the VFF.

“Under my coaching, the national team will be clear and open,” said Calisto.

“I will choose players based on their quality and performance.

“Vietnamese players are intelligent, agile and dedicated. They also have good technique. I believe that at least five of them can play overseas.

“Physical strength is not a problem now. You can see that many goals in the V-League were scored in the last minutes of the games.

However, Calisto said the team had several weaknesses.

“Their weaknesses are a short body form, nerves and capacity to read the game,” he said.

“However, my predecessors worked very well. They left me a team with skilled members. Now I just have to convert them to train in my way.

“I will ask them to follow the Latin model in which we use short passes and a creative playing style, which are suitable for us.”

Calisto will be at the helm for several minor competitions before the AFF. The first matches are at the VFF Open from May 31 to June 4 in Ha Noi. Next is the HCM City Cup from October 1-10, followed by the annual Agribank Cup ten days later.

Calisto came to Viet Nam team in 2002. Later, he guided V-League’s Dong Tam Long An to two straight V-League titles in 2005 and 2006.

Calisto first took the reins of the national squad in 2003 and led the team to a bronze at the Southeast Asian Championship, or Tiger Cup, held in Indonesia.

Since 1996, Viet Nam has parted company with five other foreign coaches: Briton Colin Murphy, German Karl Heinz Weigang, Brazilian Edson Tavares, Brazilian-born Dutchman Edson Silva Dido and France’s Letard.