HAGL and Nearly 20 Years of Persistence: When the 'Mountain City' Stands at the Edge

The dressing room of Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) after the home defeat last season had no shouting. Only sighs. The young players, faces still unfamiliar with the windy Pleiku stands, sat with their heads down. I stood in the hallway, recalling a scene from nearly a decade ago, when Cong Phuong and his teammates made all of Vietnam turn their heads. The empty stadium still echoes with the sounds of those glorious years, but now, this team faces a much bigger question than a single loss: does nearly 20 years of persistence still mean anything? Bau Duc, who laid the foundation for HAGL's youth development philosophy in 2026, remains steadfast in his stance. He once declared he would not spend money on famous players but focus on the academy. And indeed, HAGL of the 2026/27 LPBank V-League season boasts the youngest squad in the league with an average age of just 22.8. Among them, many are under 20, such as Gia Bao, Chi Dung, Chi Huong. But youth does not automatically bring victory. HAGL is being ranked among the relegation candidates, even considered weaker than both newly promoted teams, Dong Nai and Bac Ninh. Looking at the bigger picture, the contrast is stark. On one side is the pride of 'Pho Nui' with a generation of players who made a name: Cong Phuong, Tuan Anh, Xuan Truong, Van Toan, Van Thanh. They not only changed the V-League's perception of young players but were also mainstays of the national team for years. On the other side is the grim reality: contributions to the current national team are almost zero. HAGL had no representatives in the squad for the recent ASEAN Cup, and the Vietnam U17 team had no players from this academy at the U17 World Cup finals. This decline is not just a dry statistic; it reflects a reality that the talent flow from HAGL to the national team has been blocked. My story begins with my early days in the dressing room. In 2026, I followed Incheon United in the K League. In the match against FC Seoul, I sat in the corner of the pitch recording the names of booked players. Number 17, Kim Do-hyuk, 21 years old, came on in the 75th minute and scored the winning goal in the 89th to make it 2-1. He celebrated by taking off his shirt, received a yellow card, and was reprimanded by the coaching staff. Instead of writing a news report, I followed him to the dormitory, interviewed his mother and youth coach. The article 'The Boy Who Dared to Take Off His Shirt' was published and shared by fans. From then on, I learned that behind every young player is a whole story, a whole sacrifice. And when I look at HAGL, I see similar stories being written, but with a different outcome. The truth that few dare to say is that Bau Duc's investment model is being eroded. Maintaining an academy with enormous operating costs, while the first team's results do not meet expectations, is creating an invisible pressure. Experts and fans are beginning to question: is this persistence still a strategy or has it become stubbornness? I remember the silent summer of 2026, when the pandemic left stadiums empty. I sat in the cold stands, only hearing the sound of boots kicking the ball. I noticed veteran midfielder Lee Myung-joo, once the soul of the team, playing disjointedly. After the match, I stayed in the dressing room and saw him sitting with his head down, crying. I offered to help him share his depression story on the club's website. The article 'When the Applause Disappears' got 12,000 reads, and the club arranged a dedicated psychologist for the team. I believe that a sports journalist is a bridge for those involved to speak out, not a judge. But with HAGL, the story is not just about psychology. It is about a broken ecosystem. The decline in contributions to the national team does not only affect HAGL but is also a loss for the entire Vietnamese football. When a key 'node' in the talent supply chain weakens, the whole system suffers. I have witnessed this in Korea, where youth academies are not just places that produce players but also cultural centers of the community. At the 2026 World Cup, I stood in Rostov Arena, called a beer bar in Incheon, and recorded the cheers of 40 fans in the rainy night. They spoke of pride even though the team was eliminated. I wrote the article 'Beat Germany, but the Homeland Still Wants More', focusing on how fans viewed the tactics, not the score. And I realized that football does not only live on the pitch. What will happen if HAGL actually gets relegated? Will Bau Duc abandon his philosophy? Or is this the time for 'Pho Nui' to need a revolution in thinking? I don't have the answers, but I know that the sighs in the dressing room of the young players today will be the motivation for them to write their own stories. And no matter the outcome, I still believe that persistence, even if considered stubborn, is a valuable trait in a football world increasingly chasing immediate results. Far away, every goal is a thread connecting home. And for HAGL, every young player stepping onto the pitch is a thread connecting to the future.