Hoang Anh Gia Lai FC


Hoang Anh Gia Lai Football Club, commonly known as Hoang Anh Gia Lai and simply known as HAGL, is a Vietnamese professional football club based in Pleiku, Gia Lai. Owned by, a prominent Vietnamese businessman and founder of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, HAGL play in the top division of Vietnamese football, V.League 1. Their home stadium is Pleiku Stadium.
WWW haglfc.vn

History

Early years

The forerunner of the club is Gia Lai - Kon Tum football team, founded in November 1975 and first compete in regional championship in the early of 1976. Despite being an amateur team, the team also once won the A2 championship including South Central and Central Highlands. In 1991, the province Gia Lai - Kon Tum was separated into Gia Lai and Kon Tum. As the result, the team was split into the Gia Lai football team and Kon Tum football team. Some players of the former Gia Lai - Kon Tum team returned to be the core of the new Gia Lai team.

Hoang Anh Gia Lai era

For 10 years, the team was organized with the model of a career unit with an average performance in the First Division and not very well known on the football map of Vietnam. In 2001, the team was transformed into a semi-professional model under the sponsorship of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group. Before the football season V.League 2 2001–2002, the club's chairman Đoàn Nguyên Đức signed a contract with the captain of Thailand national football team at that time, Kiatisuk Senamuang. In the Thai press ran big "headline" "Who is Hoang Anh? Where is Gia Lai" full of ridicule, and the media in Vietnam also have many doubts about the ability to attract a high-class player like Kiatisuk to Gia Lai. However, all rumors ended on February 17, 2002, when Kiatisuk and teammate defender Chukiat Noosarung came to Vietnam to prepare to play for the team. This is considered one of the most successful contracts of Vietnamese football. Kiatisuk helped Hoang Anh Gia Lai's team to be promoted right in that season. At the end of the season, the team was officially transferred to Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group for management, changed its name to Hoang Anh Gia Lai Football Club, becoming one of the first professional football club in Vietnam. The club made a record of winning the 2003 V-League championship after having just been promoted and successfully defended its title the following season. At the same time, the team also won two Vietnamese Super Cup in those years.
In the years that followed, the club built a team that was nicknamed "Dream Team" by Vietnamese fans, after Thai players like Dusit Chalermsan arrived to the team.
But the most successful period of this period of the club was 2007, when Hoang Anh Gia Lai succeeded in signing an agreement with the English football club Arsenal to open a football academy in Pleiku. Hoang Anh Gia Lai is also Arsenal's main partner in business in Southeast Asia. After two years, the development of the academy's first generation of players is considered very promising.
In the 2010 season, Hoang Anh Gia Lai club had a change in its team development plan when using many young players trained by themselves, instead of massively shopping like in previous seasons. At the same time, the club's legend, the former Thai striker,Kiatisuk Senamuang was invited by the club's president Doan Nguyen Duc to lead the team. The club has had a good momentum ahead of the new season when winning the Ho Chi Minh City football championship. Ho Chi Minh Open - Navibank Cup 2010. However, the performance at the national championship has not improved much when at the end of the season 2010 V-League, Hoang Anh Gia Lai only ranked 7th and runner up in the Vietnamese National Cup.
The 2011 season was a season where the performance of the whole team was very erratic. Although coach Dusit left the coaching chair after the first leg and was replaced by coach Huynh Van Anh, the team's performance not only did not improve but also showed signs of going down. At the end of 2011 V-League, Hoang Anh Gia Lai ranked 9th, this is the worst performance since the club came to play in V-League.
In the 2012 season, Hoang Anh Gia Lai made a revolution in the coaching chair, when the club's board decided to invite Korean coach Choi Yoon Gyum to lead the team. The Korean coach has improved the player's fitness and professionalism. 5th place at the end of the season is still considered a good achievement for Mr. Choi Yoon-Gyum and the players.
From June 30, 2017, the entire cooperation between Arsenal and Hoang Anh Gia Lai ends. HAGL Academy – Arsenal JMG also changed its name to HAGL-JMG Academy.
In the 2021 V.League 1, Kiatisuk Senamuang were invited back to lead by the team's leadership. The club started V.League 1 not very well when they lost 1–0 to Saigon with a score of 1–0. This loss opened the team's 11-match unbeaten streak and helped the team reach the top 6 teams, before the 2021 season had to be stopped and then canceled because the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam.
The team proactively prepared their squad by adding fitness assistant Witoon Mingkwan. Foreign players Washington Brandão and Kim Dong-su had their contracts extended. Brazilian midfielder Mauricio Barbosa was signed to replace Damir Memović. The team also added striker Jefferson Baiano to bolster their attacking power.
After a 17-year absence, Hoang Anh Gia Lai returned to the AFC Champions League - the highest club tournament in Asia. The team finished the group stage with 5 points and third place, failing to advance to the round of 16. On 2 November 2023, due to sponsorship reasons, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Football Club changed its name to LPBank-Hoang Anh Gia Lai Football Club. On 31 July 2024, the club changed their name back to Hoang Anh Gia Lai FC, removing the sponsor name from the team's name.

Stadium

Pleiku Stadium is a stadium located in Pleiku City, Gia Lai Province. It is the home of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Football Club and is also one of the few stadiums in Vietnam owned by a club.
In 2008, Pleiku Stadium was started and built new according to the model of Emirates Stadium of Arsenal, with a total construction cost of 60 billion VND invested entirely by HAGL Group. The newly built Pleiku Stadium was put into operation since October 2010, has a capacity of 12,000 seats and is fully equipped with seats.

Youth academy

In the HAGL Academy, young players were trained from an early age to develop their ball controlling skills and to adopt a modern playing style. The academy placed the technical criteria as the priority while selecting players during youth trials. The Academy had produced several Vietnamese internationals such as Nguyễn Công Phượng, Nguyễn Tuấn Anh, Lương Xuân Trường, Nguyễn Văn Toàn and Vũ Văn Thanh, who managed who put up a successful career in Vietnam.

Club rivalries

Hanoi Football Club">Hanoi FC">Hanoi Football Club

In the 21st century, Hoang Anh Gia Lai and Hanoi are widely the most supported clubs in Vietnam, so the confrontation between the two clubs is dubbed the "Vietnamese Super Derby". From 2009 to the end of 2023, They met 34 times in all the matches, Hanoi overwhelmed with 17 wins, 7 draws, 10 losses. But the great battle between the two teams only started to get attention from 2018, when U23 Vietnam won runner-up in 2018 AFC U-23 Championship with almost players who are playing for both of these teams. Since then, the matches with Hoang Anh Gia Lai have always been the focus of the media when the competition between the two teams.

Players

Notable players

Domestic players

Foreign players

Records

League record

SeasonPldWonDrawLostGFGAGDPTSFinal positionNotes
2000-2001 V.League 2229492620+6315th-
2001-2002 V.League 22213273832+6413rdPromoted to the 2003 V-League
2003 V-League2212734126+1543ChampionsQualified for 2004 AFC Champions League
2004 V-League2214444213+2946ChampionsQualified for 2005 AFC Champions League
2005 V-League229583024+6324th
2006 V-League2410682421+3364th
2007 V-League2612594033+7413rd
2008 V-League2611693333+2397th
2009 V-League26114114445−1376th
2010 V-League2611693427+7397th
2011 V-League2688104946+3329th
2012 V-League26116933330395th
2013 V.League 12010552416+8353rd
2014 V.League 1225894148−7239th
2015 V.League 12666143350−172413th
2016 V.League 12693143950−113012th
2017 V.League 12693143443−93010th
2018 V.League 12687114153−123110th
2019 V.League 126105114546−1358th
2020 V.League 1206592736−9237th
2021 V.League 112921239+14291stQualified for 2022 AFC Champions League
2022 V.League 12471162624+2326th-
2023 V.League 1185851919±02310th-
2023–24 V.League 12688102235−133211th-
2024–25 V.League 12678113441–7299th-

Managerial history

Head coaches by years
NameNatPeriodHonours
Arjhan Srong-ngamsub

Honours

National competitions

;League
;Cup

Other competitions