Japan’s football club wishes to boost exchanges with Vietnamese peers
Japan’s Cerezo Osaka football club wants to exchange more with Vietnamese football clubs and seeks excellent players, the club's President Hiroaki Morishima said at a recent meeting with Nguyen Hong Ha, Vietnamese Consul General in Osaka.
At the meeting, Motoo Isogai, a representative from Yanmar limited company, the main sponsor of the Japanese club, said the company wants to expand its business in Vietnam and sponsor Cerezo Osaka’s projects on exchanges and football development in ASEAN member states.
For his part, Ha said since Vietnamese goalkeeper Dang Van Lam, who is popular in Vietnam, began playing for Cerezo Osaka earlier this year, the club has been on the radar of the Vietnam Football Federation and Vietnamese fans.
More than 450,000 Vietnamese expats in Japan, including over 80,000 in Kansai, will be a great source of fans for the Japanese club, the diplomat added.
He hoped that in the future there would be more Vietnamese players playing for the club.
He stated the Consulate General is willing to assist the club and Yanmar company in increasing their exchange activities as well as investment and cooperation in Vietnam.
At the meeting, the Cerezo Osaka - Yanmar ASEAN Dream Project was introduced. The project is designed for ASEAN children who want to become professional football players, with the goal of setting up a dream team of ASEAN young players and bringing them to Osaka for friendly matches. In 2018, five young Vietnamese players joined the project.
