Hoang Anh Gia Lai Football Club (), commonly known as Hoang Anh Gia Lai and simply known as HAGL, is a Vietnamese professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Pleiku Pleiku is a city in central Vietnam, located in the Central Highlands region. It is the capital of the Gia Lai Province. Many years ago, it was inhabited primarily by the Bahnar and Jarai ethnic groups, sometimes known as the Montagnards or De ...

, Gia Lai. Owned by Đoàn Nguyên Đức, a prominent Vietnamese businessman and founder of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, HAGL play in the top division of Vietnamese football,

V.League 1 The V.League 1 (), also called LPBank V.League 1 for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football league in Vietnam, controlled by the Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company (VPF). It is contested by 14 clubs who play each ...

. Their home stadium is Pleiku Stadium.

History

Early years

The forerunner of the club is Gia Lai - Kon Tum football team, founded in 1976. Despite being an amateur team, the team also once won the A2 championship (equivalent to 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 Kon Tum is the capital city of Kon Tum Province in Vietnam. It is located inland in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam, near the borders of Laos and Cambodia. Historically, this area has been inhabited by the indigenous Ba Na people, whic ...

. 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 The Thailand national football team (, , ) represents Thailand in senior international football and is controlled by the Football Association of Thailand. In the regional competition, Thailand is the most successful football team in Southeas ...

at that time,

Kiatisuk Senamuang Kiatisuk Senamuang (; born 11 August 1973) is a Thai football manager and former football player. He is nicknamed "Thai Zico" by fans. During his eighteen-year career Kiatisuk played as a striker and scored 251 goals in 339 appearances. The fo ...

. 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 Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. 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 Vietnamese National Football Super Cup (), also called the Thaco National Football Super Cup due to sponsorship reasons, is Vietnamese football's annual match contested between the champions of the previous V.League 1 season and the holders of th ...

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 Dusit Chalermsan (born 22 April 1970; ) is a Thai association football manager and former player who played as a left-back. He is currently the technical director of Thai League 1 club Kanchanaburi Power. He played as a defender and scored 1 ...

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 An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

to open a

football academy In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team if they show en ...

. 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,

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 The 2010 V-League season was the 27th season of Vietnam's national football league and the 10th as a professional league. The league and cup winners would enter the 2011 AFC Cup. The bottom side at the end of the season get relegated. The side t ...

, Hoang Anh Gia Lai only ranked 7th and runner up in the

Vietnamese National Cup Vietnamese National Football Cup (), commonly recognized and branded as the National Cup (), is a Vietnamese Association football, football competition. It is one of the most important club competitions in Vietnam. The Vietnamese Cup was first he ...

. 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 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

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,

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 Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

with a score of 1–0. This loss opened the team's 11-match unbeaten streak (won 9, drew 2) 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 COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The number of confirmed cases is the highest total in Southeast Asia, and the 13th highest in the world. Hanoi is the most affected locale with 1,649,654 ...

. 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 AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

- the No. 1 club tournament in Asia (as the leading team of V.League 1 - 2021). 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 Gia Lai is a northern mountainous Provinces of Vietnam, province in the Central Highlands (Vietnam), Central Highlands region, the Central Vietnam, Central of Vietnam. It borders Kon Tum province, Kon Tum in the north, Quảng Ngãi province, Qu ...

. 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

, 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 Công Phượng (born 21 January 1995) is a Vietnamese professional association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football)#Centre-forward, forward or an Midfielder (association football)#Attacking midfielder, a ...

, 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

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 The 2018 AFC U-23 Championship (also known as the 2018 AFC U-23 Asian Cup) was the third edition of the AFC U-23 Championship, the biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) f ...

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.

Kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors

Players

Current squad

Other players under contract

Out on loan

Retired numbers

Notable players

Domestic players

* A Hoàng * Châu Ngọc Quang * Đinh Hồng Vinh * Đinh Thanh Bình * Đoàn Việt Cường * Lê Văn Sơn * Lương Xuân Trường *

Nguyễn Phong Hồng Duy Nguyễn Phong Hồng Duy (, born 13 June 1996) is a Vietnamese professional footballer who plays as a left back for V.League 1 club Thép Xanh Nam Định and the Vietnam national team. International career International goals U-19 H ...

* Nguyễn Tuấn Anh * Nguyễn Văn Toàn * Trần Minh Vương *

Triệu Việt Hưng Triệu Việt Hưng (born 19 January 1997) is a Vietnamese professional association football, footballer who plays as a Midfielder (association football)#Wide midfielder, winger or a Midfielder (association football)#False winger, midfielder fo ...

* Vũ Văn Thanh * Nguyễn Hữu Đang * Nguyễn Việt Thắng * Phùng Văn Nhiên * Văn Sỹ Hùng * Võ Văn Hạnh

Foreign players

* Washington Brandão * Osmar Francisco * Evaldo Goncalves * Yaw Preko * Chevaughn Walsh * Rimario Gordon * Allan Wanga * Kim Dong-su * Kim Bong-jin * Wieger Sietsma * Bassey Akpan * Felix Ogbuke * Olumuyiwa Aganun * Paollo Madeira *

Papé Diakité Papé Abdoulaye Diakité (born 22 December 1992) is a Senegalese professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Defender (association football), centre-back. Club career Trenčín Diakité made his debut for AS Trenčín against M ...

* Damir Memović *

* Totchtawan Sripan *

Datsakorn Thonglao Datsakorn Thonglao (, , , born 30 December 1983), simply known as Go (, , ) is a Thai former footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder. He was known for his deadly free kicks and set-pieces. Club career Datsakorn spent his youth career wi ...

* Nirut Surasiang *

Sakda Joemdee Sakda Joemdee (, ; born 7 April 1982) is a Thai retired professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. Sakda has Vietnamese nationality due to his long time careers at Vietnam on 17 January 2009, under the name Đoàn Văn Sakda. ...

* Chukiat Noosarung * Mobi Fehr * Lee Nguyen

Coaching staff

Records

Continental record

League record

Managerial history

''Head coaches by years (2003–present)''

Honours

National competitions

;League *

**Winners:

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

**Third place:

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

;Cup *

: **Winners: 2003, 2004 *

Vietnamese Cup Vietnamese National Football Cup (), commonly recognized and branded as the National Cup (), is a Vietnamese football competition. It is one of the most important club competitions in Vietnam. The Vietnamese Cup was first held in 1992. Cảng S ...

**Runners-up:

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

**Third place:

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Other competitions

ASEAN Club Championship The ASEAN Club Championship or ACC, also known as the Shopee Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an international club football competition organised by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) between domestic champion clubs. The competition is backed by ...

**Third place:

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

* BTV Cup **Winners : 2018 *Quang Trung Emperor's Cup: **Winners: 2022

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoang Anh Gia Lai F.C. Pleiku Football clubs in Vietnam Association football clubs established in 2001 2001 establishments in Vietnam Hoang Anh Gia Lai FC