Argentina, are the world’s number 1 exporter of footballers. Yes, no other country has more footballers playing outside their own country than the South American giants.
The vast majority will be playing in Europe’s biggest and richest leagues or in the not so glamorous Latin American leagues.
But there are others who just want to play football no matter where, and have gone to more untraditional countries chasing their dreams in far away lands.
This section of our blog, will look to profile those playing in remote places or less heard leagues.
Today, we begin our journey in Vietnam, a country not many know much about, but that is beautiful, with very friendly people, who have worked hard to rebuild their country after the late 60’s war that still hurts.
Football arrived in Vietnam in the late 1800’s introduced by the French civil servants, sailors and merchants, that used to meet up and play. Some locals liked watching and slowly started joining in.
Their firt international match, as such, and still unofficial, occurred in 1905 when a British warship named after King Alfred visited Saigon and its football team played a friendly against a local team composed of Vietnamese and French players.
Then in 1906 Mr E Breton, a member of France's L'Union des Sociétés Français des Sports Athlétiques brought football rules into Vietnam. He became the chairman of Cercle Sportif Saigonnais and reorganised it to French standards in order to maked it into a football club. Before you knew it many other clubs started to appear and by 1916 Cercle Sportif Saigonnais were a 6 times national champions.
The sport kept booming decade after decade, and then its development was holted by the different wars that divided the country between North and South.
By the late 50’s the Southern national team was one of the stron 4 of Asia together with South Korea, China and Israel (playing in the Asian Confederation at those times)
They even won the Merdeka Cup in 1966. But failed to qualify for the 1974 WC in Germany, in what it was their first ever attempt to Qualify for that tournament.
No international matches were played between 1976 and 1990 for political reasons
When they re emerged from darkness they did so as a unified national team in 1991.
On the latest FIFA rankings (Dec 2011) they rank 99 above countries with more football tradition such as Bolivia, Faro Islands, Iceland, Togo and Cyprus.
Their best ever results are a 1-0 win against Estonia and a 3-0 win against Jamaica.
In the local men’s leagues you have 4 levels. The third division, regional competition with unlimited number of entrants which gives promotion to the third level or Second division a league of 18 teams, if you get promoted from there you will be playing first division football in a 14 clubs league before you can get to the Vietnamese Super League of 14 clubs too.
2012 will be a year of change for Vietnamese football. 2011 was full of controversies after allegations of referee corruption and Federation cover ups.
Finally they all got together and resolve the matter, so 2012 will start with foreign referees hired to officiate games, and the newly formed Vietnam Professional Football Company to oversee the running of the Super League.
Teams can have a miximum of 5 foreign players. Statistics show at the moment that more than half of foreigners playing in the league are from Brazil, with the rest coming from Nigeria, Ghana, Czech Republic, Thailand, and Argentina.
From the latter we have 4 players playing for 2 clubs in the Super League.
Gaston Merlo:
Born in the Province of Cordoba in Argentina, this soon to be 27 years old striker is by far the most successful story of his countrymen.
In order to play football, he moved from his place of birth to some 325 miles south to the Province of La Pampa to play for little known Ferro de Alvear
He joined SHB Đà Nẵng in Vietnam in 2009, and has played there for the past 3 seasons.
He is skilful on the ball, clever off it, with a very accurate right foot, that can placed or strike the ball very sweetly from any distance.
He makes great runs finding space for himself or taking markers away for your team mates to find space.
His finishing is very clinical too. So much so that he has been the Super league’s top scorer in all the 3 seasons he has played in it.
On his first year there, he won the best foreigner on the league prize and helped his team win the double of Super League and Vietnamese Cup.
His goal per game record stands at 0.78, scoring 39 times in 50 games.
Nicolas Hernandez:
Nico, as he is better known, is a 32 years old striker who has had a very colourful globetrotter career.
He made his professional debut in 1999 playing for Ferrocarril Oeste in Buenos Aires, from there he moved to Italy to Cremonese but returned to Argentina to play for Colon after having no plaing time in Italy at all. From Colon to San Martin de Mendoza, then back to Buenos Aires with Huracan, Then to Chile with Cobreloa, the MLS in USA playing for Colorado Rapids and the Columbus Crew, before joining Liga Alajuelense in Costa Rica and then in 2010 landing in Vietnam to team up front with Merlo.
He has worked there more as a foil for Merlo than as a scorer himself, but even then finished in the top 5 scoring players in the Super League.
Full of energy and skill, he likes running at defenders and crossing the ball into the danger areas for Merlo to finish the job.
Gonzalo Marronkle:
27 years old striker born in Cordoba, who arrived in T&T Ha noi in 2009.
Despite his hight 6ft 3 ½ inches, he has good ball control as well as being an aerial threat.
He Begun his career in Lanus in Argentina, moving on to Los Andes, the Defensa y Justicia. Porto then saw potential and recruited him to develop his game with their B team. From there he moved to other Portuguese teams like Marco, Chavez and Portimonense, before his arrival in Hanoi, where he helped his team to the double (Super League and Vietnamese Cup) in 2010, and to a second place finish in 2011.
Lucas Cantoro:
Nearly 33 years old, this Argentinean wide striker was born in Buenos Aires from Italian descent.
He did his youth development and first team first appearances with Velez from 1996 till 2001 when he was signed by Racing de Montevideo in Uruguay. He immediately caught the eye of Monza in Italy, and from there he started a club after club change (Isernia, Sansovino, Foggia, Padova, Martina, Paganese, Cosenza, Potenza, Pisa)
Played a total of 229 games in italy scoring 50 goals in the process.
He likes playing wide and creating chances for others, using his speed and on the ball skills to go past defenders.
In 2011 he played the full season for Ha noi ACB, making 19 appearances and scoring 13 times, but unable to avoid relegation.
Next season he will be playing together with Marronkle for T&T Ha Noi.
The vast majority will be playing in Europe’s biggest and richest leagues or in the not so glamorous Latin American leagues.
But there are others who just want to play football no matter where, and have gone to more untraditional countries chasing their dreams in far away lands.
This section of our blog, will look to profile those playing in remote places or less heard leagues.
Today, we begin our journey in Vietnam, a country not many know much about, but that is beautiful, with very friendly people, who have worked hard to rebuild their country after the late 60’s war that still hurts.
Football arrived in Vietnam in the late 1800’s introduced by the French civil servants, sailors and merchants, that used to meet up and play. Some locals liked watching and slowly started joining in.
Their firt international match, as such, and still unofficial, occurred in 1905 when a British warship named after King Alfred visited Saigon and its football team played a friendly against a local team composed of Vietnamese and French players.
Then in 1906 Mr E Breton, a member of France's L'Union des Sociétés Français des Sports Athlétiques brought football rules into Vietnam. He became the chairman of Cercle Sportif Saigonnais and reorganised it to French standards in order to maked it into a football club. Before you knew it many other clubs started to appear and by 1916 Cercle Sportif Saigonnais were a 6 times national champions.
The sport kept booming decade after decade, and then its development was holted by the different wars that divided the country between North and South.
By the late 50’s the Southern national team was one of the stron 4 of Asia together with South Korea, China and Israel (playing in the Asian Confederation at those times)
They even won the Merdeka Cup in 1966. But failed to qualify for the 1974 WC in Germany, in what it was their first ever attempt to Qualify for that tournament.
No international matches were played between 1976 and 1990 for political reasons
When they re emerged from darkness they did so as a unified national team in 1991.
On the latest FIFA rankings (Dec 2011) they rank 99 above countries with more football tradition such as Bolivia, Faro Islands, Iceland, Togo and Cyprus.
Their best ever results are a 1-0 win against Estonia and a 3-0 win against Jamaica.
In the local men’s leagues you have 4 levels. The third division, regional competition with unlimited number of entrants which gives promotion to the third level or Second division a league of 18 teams, if you get promoted from there you will be playing first division football in a 14 clubs league before you can get to the Vietnamese Super League of 14 clubs too.
2012 will be a year of change for Vietnamese football. 2011 was full of controversies after allegations of referee corruption and Federation cover ups.
Finally they all got together and resolve the matter, so 2012 will start with foreign referees hired to officiate games, and the newly formed Vietnam Professional Football Company to oversee the running of the Super League.
Teams can have a miximum of 5 foreign players. Statistics show at the moment that more than half of foreigners playing in the league are from Brazil, with the rest coming from Nigeria, Ghana, Czech Republic, Thailand, and Argentina.
From the latter we have 4 players playing for 2 clubs in the Super League.
Gaston Merlo:
Born in the Province of Cordoba in Argentina, this soon to be 27 years old striker is by far the most successful story of his countrymen.
In order to play football, he moved from his place of birth to some 325 miles south to the Province of La Pampa to play for little known Ferro de Alvear
He joined SHB Đà Nẵng in Vietnam in 2009, and has played there for the past 3 seasons.
He is skilful on the ball, clever off it, with a very accurate right foot, that can placed or strike the ball very sweetly from any distance.
He makes great runs finding space for himself or taking markers away for your team mates to find space.
His finishing is very clinical too. So much so that he has been the Super league’s top scorer in all the 3 seasons he has played in it.
On his first year there, he won the best foreigner on the league prize and helped his team win the double of Super League and Vietnamese Cup.
His goal per game record stands at 0.78, scoring 39 times in 50 games.
Nicolas Hernandez:
Nico, as he is better known, is a 32 years old striker who has had a very colourful globetrotter career.
He made his professional debut in 1999 playing for Ferrocarril Oeste in Buenos Aires, from there he moved to Italy to Cremonese but returned to Argentina to play for Colon after having no plaing time in Italy at all. From Colon to San Martin de Mendoza, then back to Buenos Aires with Huracan, Then to Chile with Cobreloa, the MLS in USA playing for Colorado Rapids and the Columbus Crew, before joining Liga Alajuelense in Costa Rica and then in 2010 landing in Vietnam to team up front with Merlo.
He has worked there more as a foil for Merlo than as a scorer himself, but even then finished in the top 5 scoring players in the Super League.
Full of energy and skill, he likes running at defenders and crossing the ball into the danger areas for Merlo to finish the job.
Gonzalo Marronkle:
27 years old striker born in Cordoba, who arrived in T&T Ha noi in 2009.
Despite his hight 6ft 3 ½ inches, he has good ball control as well as being an aerial threat.
He Begun his career in Lanus in Argentina, moving on to Los Andes, the Defensa y Justicia. Porto then saw potential and recruited him to develop his game with their B team. From there he moved to other Portuguese teams like Marco, Chavez and Portimonense, before his arrival in Hanoi, where he helped his team to the double (Super League and Vietnamese Cup) in 2010, and to a second place finish in 2011.
Lucas Cantoro:
Nearly 33 years old, this Argentinean wide striker was born in Buenos Aires from Italian descent.
He did his youth development and first team first appearances with Velez from 1996 till 2001 when he was signed by Racing de Montevideo in Uruguay. He immediately caught the eye of Monza in Italy, and from there he started a club after club change (Isernia, Sansovino, Foggia, Padova, Martina, Paganese, Cosenza, Potenza, Pisa)
Played a total of 229 games in italy scoring 50 goals in the process.
He likes playing wide and creating chances for others, using his speed and on the ball skills to go past defenders.
In 2011 he played the full season for Ha noi ACB, making 19 appearances and scoring 13 times, but unable to avoid relegation.
Next season he will be playing together with Marronkle for T&T Ha Noi.