Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Coach Park Hang-seo plans to help toopen a youth football training academy in Vietnam after his successfulfive-year stint as coach of the national side.

"I plan to cooperate and open a youth football trainingacademy in Vietnam. I will use my experience as a coach in both Vietnam and theRepublic of Korea to contribute to Vietnamese football in the future,"Park said at the farewell meeting with local fans in Hanoi this week.

The Korean coach officially ended his five-year journey on January31 as the head coach of the national, Olympic, and U23 teams.

"During the past five years in Vietnam, I have no regretsbecause I have lived and worked hard with the support of my dedicatedassistants," Park said.

The fans' love helped him become "the happiest coach in theworld", he said.

Park came to Vietnam by chance, thanks to his wife's suggestionand support. He intended to work in Southeast Asia and contacted the agent LeeDong-jun in 2016, but it was not until a year later, when the Vietnam FootballFederation (VFF) opened a search for the head coach that Lee put forward Park.

Park said that at first, he was a bit reserved because he didn'tknow anything about Southeast Asian football and thought he would start at theclub-level.

Park's ensure started with a 0-0 draw with Afghanistan in the 2019Asian Cup qualifying round at the My Dinh National Stadium on November 14,2017, a month after officially signing the contract with the VFF.

He said in that first match, he was very worried because hecouldn't even remember the players' names.

"If the result was not good, I may have to go home.Fortunately, that match was a draw, so now I'm still sitting here witheveryone," he said.

Since then, Park has coached 98 matches with Vietnamese teams,including 57 wins (55.8 %).

More importantly, Park brought the Vietnamese football position toa new level in regional, continental and international events, setting aSoutheast Asian record of five consecutive years in the world's top 100.

The departure of Park caused regret for many people, although allunderstood that it would open new opportunities for the national teams andVietnamese football.

Park said he would stay in Hanoi until June before returning to theRepublic of Korea and left open the possibility of returning to Vietnam soon tolaunch a new plan./.