Nguyễn Quang Hải (footballer, born 1997)

Nguyễn Quang Hải (footballer, born 1997)
Nguyễn Quang Hải (born 12 April 1997) is a Vietnamese professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for V.League 1 club Cong An Ha Noi and the Vietnam national team. Considered one of the best footballers in Asia, Quang Hải is regarded one of the greatest footballer Vietnam ever have, alongside with Nguyễn Hồng Sơn, Lê Công Vinh, Lê Huỳnh Đức. In 2018 and 2019, he was nominated by a panel of sports journalists and football experts for the Best Footballer in Asia award.
Quang Hải, who was born in Đông Anh, joined Hanoi T&T's youth academy at the age of 9. By 2013, he played in the under-19 league at the age of 16. From 2014 to 2022, Quang Hải played for Hanoi. He joined Ligue 2 club Pau in France in June 2022.
After playing for Vietnam at various youth levels, Quang Hải made his debut for the Vietnam national team in 2017. His first goal came against Cambodia in September 2017.
Club career
Hanoi
2014 season
After the 2013 National U21 Championship, the 16-year-old Nguyễn Quang Hải was immediately filled by coach Phan Thanh Hùng with the list of the capital team to attend the 2014 V.League 1. Because he was too young and didn't have much experience, so Quang Hải had to sit on the bench for the whole season.
2015 season: Loan at Saigon
In 2015, he moved to Saigon Club on loan. Quang Hải has 4 goals here and helped the team get promoted to 2016 V.League after winning the 2015 V.League 2 with Saigon club.
2016 season
Quang Hải returned to his old team Hanoi in the 2016 season. Quang Hải scored 3 goals in 2016 V.League and 2 goals in the National Cup. However, Hanoi FC only won the V.League and lost in the final match of the National Cup against Than Quang Ninh.
2017 season
After the 2017 V.League championship, Hanoi was soon eliminated in the AFC Champions League preliminary round and had to play in the AFC Cup.
At 2017 V.League, Quang Hải has 5 goals for the club and finished 3rd in the tournament. Quang Hải won the 2017 V.League Best Young Player award. The same year he won the Vietnamese Bronze Ball award in 2017.
2018 season
Quang Hải scored 9 goals after 24 appearances in 2018 V.League to help the team win the championship. He also won the 2018 Vietnamese Golden Ball title and the 2018 V.League Best Young Player award.
2019 season
At the 2019 AFC Cup Quang Hải and his teammates reached the final of Southeast Asia for the first time. At 2019 V.League, Quang Hải won the tournament's Best Player award after contributing 8 goals to the championship of Hanoi. Quang Hải also won the Best Male Player award in Southeast Asia in the same season.
2020 season
Quang Hải and Hanoi won the 2020 National Cup after defeating Viettel in the final. He personally also has 4 goals in 4 matches at the tournament. At V.League 2020, Hanoi took second place after Viettel. Quang Hải won the award for the Best goal in the V.League.
2021 season
At 2021 V.League, Quang Hải had 1 goal before the tournament was canceled because of COVID-19.
2022 season
On March 22, 2022, Hanoi announced that Quang Hải would leave the team on April 12 to find a new challenge for his career, more specifically, to go abroad. Quang Hải has the last match to play in the 1/8 round of the 2022 National Cup against SHB Da Nang.
On April 12, Quang Hai officially left Hanoi FC and will leave on a free basis.
Pau FC
On 29 June 2022, following rumors about his future, Quang Hải joined Ligue 2 club Pau on a two-season contract, making him the first Vietnamese player to join a French football club.
2022-23 season
On 30 July 2022, he made his first league appearance for Pau, subbed on for Eddy Sylvestre in the 59th minute in the 4–0 away loss against En Avant Guingamp. On 8 October 2022, he scored his first goal for Pau in the 86th minute in a home match against Rodez in Ligue 2. He scored Pau's second goal of the match, after a brief 8-minute period of playing time, to tie the match 2–2. This scoreline remained to full-time. But during the end of the 2022/23 season, Quang Hải often sat on the bench, even he had to go down to Pau's B team.
Cong An Ha Noi
In the summer of 2023, Quang Hải returned to Vietnam to play for Cong An Ha Noi.
2023 season
He got his first match in the match against SHB Da Nang but lost 0-1. Quang Hải played in the last 30 minutes of the match and left a little impression in the match against his old team Hanoi, Cong An Ha Noi won 2-1 and rose to the top. Quang Hải scored the first goal for the club in the match against Viettel from a penalty to help Cong An Ha Noi win 3-0. Quang Hải had the first assist in the match against Thanh Hoa in the final round of the V.League season 2023 for Gustavo to open the scoring, with a draw result, Cong An Ha Noi was the champion of the tournament when Hanoi only 2nd.
2024 season
International career
Under-16 to under-20
Nguyễn Quang Hải was called up for the 2012 AFC U-16 Championship qualification at the age of only 14.
After an impressive performance in the 2014 under-19 National Championship, Quang Hải was called up to the national U19 side. He went on to represent the U19 team in the 2014 AFF U-19 Youth Championship and the Bruneian Hassanal Bolkiah Championship, where Vietnam finished as runner-up on both occasions.
He made a significant contribution in the 2016 AFC U-19 Championship campaign. In the second game against the United Arab Emirates, he assisted Hồ Minh Dĩ in Vietnam's opening goal. Vietnam went on to beat host Bahrain in the quarterfinal, thus qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup. This was Vietnam's first appearance in a youth FIFA World Cup tournament.
He captained the Vietnam U20 in the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup group stage matches against Honduras and France.
Under-22 to under-23
Fail at 2017 Southeast Asian Games
Quang Hải was first called up to the U23 national team for a friendly against the Malaysia U23 in February 2017. He was then included in the Vietnam squad for the 2017 Southeast Asian Games. In the decisive game against Thailand, he was on the bench for the first half, and immediately made an impact in the second one, being fouled by Ratthanakorn Maikami in the penalty area, however, Nguyễn Công Phượng missed . But because of goalkeeper Phí Minh Long's mistake, Vietnam lost 0-3 to Thailand and were eliminated from the group stage.
AFC U-23 Championship
At the 2018 Asian U-23 Championship, Vietnam U23 entered a very difficult group with fightopponents such as South Korea, Australia and Syria. Many fans think that Vietnam will soon be eliminated from the tournament because this group is too difficult and they still cannot forget the previous SEA Games. In the opening match against South Korea on January 11, Quang Hải unexpectedly opened the score in the 17th minute with a beautiful, but Vietnam did not The team had a long advantage and lost 1-2 to South Korea. In the next match against Australia, it was Quang Hai again with a low shot from outside the penalty area after a chaotic situation in the opponent's penalty area. In the end, Vietnam won a close 1-0 victory and had a chance to advance. The 0-0 draw against Syria was enough for Vietnam to make history by passing the group stage for the first time at U-23 Asia. In the quarterfinals, Vietnam held a dramatic draw against Iraq with a score of 3-3 after 120 minutes of extra time, and history called Vietnam's name again after defeating Iraq on penalties to help Vietnam enter the semi-finals of the tournament. Vietnam met another big man in the semi-finals, Qatar. Although there were many situations where the referee favored the other team, Quang Hải and his teammates showed strong will with 2 goals more precious than gold from Quang Hải in the 69th and 88th minutes helped Vietnam go to the penalty shootout again. Although they failed in the first set of shots, goalkeeper Bùi Tiến Dũng corrected his teammates with 2 blocks of Qatar's shots to help Vietnam win. This is a miracle for the entire country of Vietnam, which has never been to a continental final and this is an opportunity for them to win for the first time. Under the snow at Changzhou Stadium, China, Vietnam still played their best even though it was Uzbekistan and was rewarded with a direct free kick after Công Phượng was fouled. Vietnam U23 showed a spirit of never giving up with the image of the whole team bending down to scrape the layers of snow to have the most favorable free kick position, and Quang Hải's beautiful free kick equalized the score 1- 1 for Vietnam, then in a fan vote, Quang Hải overwhelmed every player to become the Player with the most beautiful goal in the tournament, his goal is remembered as "rainbow in the snow". Although they unfortunately lost with Andrey Sidorov's goal in the 119th minute and only finished second in the tournament, Quang Hai and his teammates were still warmly welcomed after returning home.
Asian Games 2018
Quang Hải was named into Vietnam’s Asian Games 2018 lineup. Quang Hải scored one goal in Vietnam’s 3–0 win over Pakistan. In a match against Japan, he scored the only goal of the match as Vietnam defeated Japan to top the Group. Vietnam later went all the way to the semi-finals for the first time in their history at the Asian games, where they were defeated by South Korea 3–1. Vietnam later lost to the UAE in a penalty shootout in the Bronze Medal Match.
Success at 2019 Southeast Asian Games
Quang Hải captained and scored one goal for Vietnam in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games in a 6–1 win against Laos before he was injured in a match against Singapore and missed the rest of the tournament. However, Vietnam still went on without him to defeat Indonesia in the final to win the gold medal, their first gold in the SEA Games football competition since South Vietnam won in 1959.
Senior national team
On 13 June 2017, Quang Hải made his international debut for the Vietnam senior team, against Jordan, in a match that ended in a 0–0 draw. He scored his first senior goal for Vietnam against Cambodia on 5th September 2017, coming on as a substitute and scored a late winner.
Champion 2018 AFF Championship
In the 2018 AFF Championship, Quang Hải won the championship with Vietnam after 10 years in which he was an important factor of the team. In the first three games of the group stages, he was given a midfield position by head coach Park Hang-seo, which raised the question among the fans. In the last one against Cambodia, he reclaimed a slot in the front 3 and was immediately awarded Man of the match. He played as an advanced playmaker for the rest of the tournament, being awarded Man of the match twice. The first one was in the semi-final second leg against the Philippines, where he broke the deadlock and helped secure the first home win in the knockout phase of the AFF Championship for Vietnam. The last one was clinched as he assisted Nguyễn Anh Đức the winning goal in the final against the Malaysia. At the end of the tournament, he was a part of the team of AFF Cup's Best XI, and was chosen as the Most valuable player. He was honorably given the 3rd class Labor Order by Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc. He won the Vietnamese Golden Ball few days later, thanks largely to his performance in the AFF Championship.
2019 AFC Asian Cup
Quang Hải gained international reputation in 2019 AFC Asian Cup when he played an instrumental part on Vietnam's amazing run in the tournament, including a stunning free kick goal against Yemen as Vietnam won 2–0, and sneaked into the Knockout rounds. Vietnam defeated Jordan in the Round of 16, but fell short 1–0 to the eventual runners up of the tournament, Japan in the quarterfinals. Still, Quang Hải was named Man of the Match on both Vietnam's wins in the tournament, and was inducted into the tournament's official all-star squad by the AFC Technical Committee. On 8 November 2019, he defeated Chanathip Songkrasin of Thailand to win the AFF's Men Player of the year, an award for the best Southeast Asian player in recent 2 years.
2022 FIFA World Cup qualification
Quang Hải scored 3 goals in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification, which helped Vietnam to reach the final round of qualification for the first-time ever. In the first match in the third qualifying round of the World Cup against Saudi Arabia, it was Quang Hải who fired a long shot from the third minute to help Vietnam take a 1-0 lead, but then the team lost 1-3. Despite their best efforts, Vietnam accepted to be eliminated when they were at the bottom of the table with 4 points.
AFF Championships and obsession with Thailand
He scored 2 goals in 2020 AFF Championship. But even so, Vietnam was still eliminated before Thailand in the semi-finals. At the 2022 AFF Championship finals, Quang Hải clearly lost his form after a long time on the bench in Pau, Vietnam also lost with the total score after two 2-3 matches in the final against Thailand.
Career statistics
Club
International
Scores and results list Vietnam's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Quang Hải goal.
International goals
Scores and results list Vietnam's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Quang Hải goal.
Honours
Club
Hanoi T&T Youth
U-21 Vietnamese National Championship: 2013, 2015, 2016
Saigon
V.League 2: 2015
Hanoi
V.League 1: 2016, 2018, 2019
Vietnamese National Cup: 2019, 2020; runner-up: 2016
Vietnamese Super Cup: 2018, 2019, 2020
Cong An Ha Noi
V.League 1: 2023
International
Vietnam U19
AFF U-19 Youth Championship runner-up: 2014, 2015
Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy runner-up: 2014
Vietnam U22
Southeast Asian Games: 2019
Vietnam U23/Olympic
M-150 Cup third-place: 2017
AFC U-23 Asian Cup runners-up: 2018
VFF Cup: 2018
Asian Games fourth place: 2018
Vietnam
AFF Championship: 2018; runners-up: 2022
King's Cup runner-up: 2019
VFF Cup: 2022
Individual
Asian Games Best XI: 2018
AFF Championship Best XI: 2018, 2020
AFF Championship MVP: 2018
Vietnamese Golden Ball: 2018
Vietnamese Silver Ball: 2019, 2021
Vietnamese Bronze Ball: 2017
Labor Order third-place: 2018
V.League 1 Best young player: 2017, 2018
V.League 1 Player of the Season: 2019
ASEAN Football Federation Best XI: 2019
AFF Men’s Player of the Year: 2019
AFC Asian Cup Team of the Tournament: 2019
V.League 1 Goal of the Year: 2020
AFC Cup All-time XI
References
External links
1997 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Hanoi
Vietnamese men's footballers
Men's association football midfielders
Vietnam men's international footballers
V.League 1 players
Ligue 2 players
Hanoi FC players
Pau FC players
2019 AFC Asian Cup players
Competitors at the 2017 SEA Games
Competitors at the 2019 SEA Games
SEA Games medalists in football
SEA Games gold medalists for Vietnam
Vietnamese expatriate men's footballers
Vietnamese expatriate sportspeople in France
Expatriate men's footballers in France