Coach Park Hang-seo honored with BrandLaureate award in Malaysia

The BrandLaureate Awards has been held by the World Brand Foundation since 2006. This is an award given to individuals, companies and organizations with highly internationally recognized brand value. Argentina football superstar Lionel Messi, legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson and famous actors such as Tom Cruise and Jackie Chan have received this award.

Park's agent Lee Dong-jun said that the former manager of the Vietnam football national team attended the award ceremony held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday to receive the award, Naver reported.

Park Hang-seo as the manager of Vietnam national football team. Photo by VnExpress/Hieu Luong

In addition to Park, two other South Koreans, actor Ahn Seong-ki and singer Sumi Jo, also received the award this year. The recipients were awarded a 24K gold trophy, a plaque, and other gifts.

Park was an assistant to legendary coach Guus Hiddink when South Korea reached the semifinals of the 2002 World Cup. He rose to fame further thanks to his achievements with Vietnamese football from 2017 to 2023, including second place in the U23 Asian Cup, the 2018 AFF Cup title, reaching the quarterfinals of the 2019 Asian Cup, entering the third qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup for the first time and winning gold medals at two SEA Games.

Vietnam maintained a position in the top 100 of FIFA world ranking and atop Southeast Asia during his tenure.

After his contract with Vietnamese football expired in January 2023, Park still lives alternately between Vietnam and South Korea. He is currently running a football academy named after him in Hanoi and working as a senior advisor to Bac Ninh FC in the second division championship of Vietnam.