North Vietnam national football team

Democratic Republic of Vietnam
1956–1976
Shirt badge/Association crest
AssociationVietnam Football Association
Top scorerNguyễn Thế Anh
Phan Văn Mỵ
Nguyễn Viết Cầu (1)
Home stadiumVarious
FIFA codeVNO
First colours
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Second colours
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Goalkeeper colours
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First international
 China 5–3 North Vietnam 
(Beijing, China, 4 October 1956)
Last international
 North Vietnam 3–2 Cuba 
(Hanoi, North Vietnam, 20 September 1970)
Biggest win
 North Yemen 0–9 North Vietnam 
(Phnom Penh, Cambodia; 15 November 1966)
Biggest defeat
 North Korea 5–0 North Vietnam 
(Pyongyang, North Korea, 22 October 1959)
 North Vietnam 0–5 Algeria
(Hanoi, North Vietnam, 22 November 1959)

The Democratic Republic of Vietnam national football team (Vietnamese: Đội tuyển bóng đá quốc gia Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa) was the national team of the Communist-controlled Democratic Republic of Vietnam (commonly known as North Vietnam) from 1956 to 1976. It existed side by side with a separate South Vietnam team, which represented the capitalist-oriented southern portion of Vietnam. Unlike South Vietnam (which was a member of both FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation), North Vietnam's lack of diplomatic recognition on the part of many other states prevented it from ever joining either FIFA or the AFC. Due to its lack of membership in major football bodies, North Vietnam never participated in qualification for the FIFA World Cup or the AFC Asian Cup (unlike its southern counterpart, which participated in both). Because of North Vietnam's international isolation, its national team mostly played against other Communist and Communist-sympathizing countries during its relatively short-lived existence.[1]

The North Vietnam football team played its last game in 1970 and ceased to exist with the unification of North and South Vietnam into the newly created Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976, after the end of the Vietnam War. Even though the North emerged victorious in the war, the current Vietnam national football team is considered a successor to the South Vietnam team (not the North Vietnam team), since unified Vietnam inherited South Vietnam's membership of FIFA and the AFC.[2]

  1. ^ S. W. Pope; John Nauright (17 December 2009). Routledge Companion to Sports History. Routledge. pp. 595–. ISBN 978-1-135-97813-6.
  2. ^ "Vietnam matches, ratings and points exchanged". World Football Elo Ratings: Vietnam. Retrieved 24 November 2016.