Following the success of the legends tour of Ghana in June, a team of former stars of Borussia Dortmund are going on a three-day tour of Vietnam from 27-29 September as part of a promotional trip organised by the league’s media rights-holder in the country, Next Media.
The centrepiece of the tour will be a match between the BVB Legends and an all-star Vietnam team comprising of former players, musicians and internet celebrities. The game will take place at the 15,000 capacity Thong Nhat Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City on September 28. The proceeds from the match will be donated to charities supporting orphans and children affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Among the BVB Legends from which a team will be selected are: Julio Cesar, Dedé, Marcel Schmelzer, Evanílson, Kevin Großkreutz, Jörg Heinrich, Jan Koller, David Odonkor, Patrick Owomoyela, Karl-Heinz Riedle, Miroslav Stevic, Roman Weidenfeller, Ibrahim Tanko, Mladen Petrić and Mohamed Zidan.
The host side will be managed by current national team coach Lê Huỳnh Đức and includes former national team player Phạm Văn Quyến and Vietnam’s all-time leading scorer and most-capped player Lê Công Vinh. Also included in the team are Vietnam’s golden boot winning striker Lê Quốc Vượng, current national team defender Quế Ngọc Hải, team captain Đỗ Hùng Dũng and midfielder Ngô Hoàng Thịnh.
Benedikt Scholz, director of Internationalisation & Commercial Partnerships of BVB underlined the club’s interest in Vietnam: “Over the past few years, BVB has enjoyed a fruitful and rewarding development in Vietnam, particularly with a vibrant presence in youth development together with our partner Next Media, the tour will support that partnership.”
Nhat Nguyen of the Borussia Dortmund fan club Vietnam welcomed the visit: “BVB have a big supporters base in our country and we really look forward to seeing the legends in person and hopefully getting to meet some of them.”
Nicknamed the ‘Golden Star Warriors,’ Vietnam are currently ranked 97th in the FIFA world ranking and won the AFF championship in 2018. Players from the country feature across mainly second and third tier clubs in Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia and Austria. Among them two talents to watch out for are centre forward Kevin Pham-Ba of Sochaux and midfielder Leo Hamel of SC Caen in France.
Asia has been a high priority for engagement with fans for the German club, the club opened a representative office in Singapore in 2014 and added a further representation in Shanghai in 2017. The club also maintains partnerships with Singapore top tier club Lion City Sailors, Malaysia’s Langkawi City FC, Buriram United of Thailand. The Signal-Iduna Park based club has a youth training centre, the Evonik Football academy, in Nagoya, Japan.
Borussia Dortmund’s first team have played friendly matches in Japan, Malaysia and China in recent years, including the International Champions Cup in 2018 at which the ‘Schwarz-Gelben’ beat both Manchester United and Manchester City.
According to reports in Ruhr Nachrichten, an Asian tour is also being planned by Dortmund between November 20 and December 18 to coincide with the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Video: A Borussia Dortmund legends team including former Manchester City defender Steffen Karl played a UK Fan XI team led by Dortmund Fan Club London, and with the participation of Edinburgh Borussen, Glasgow fan club and Borussia Dortmund Fan Club Yorkshire, in July 2018.
