The Fujieda MYFC of J3 League announced the contract with Chan Vathanaka on a loan deal in January 13. Vathanaka signed the contract of 1 year with the Fujieda MYFC and became the first Cambodian player to play in the J-League. His saraly is unknown and uniform number is 11. He had joined the Fujieda’s practice in November 2016. At that time the manager Atsuto Oishi admired his speed and technique so the Fujieda MYFC wanted a contract with Vathanaka.
Chan Vathanaka was born at Kampot of Cambodia in 1994 (Age 23). In 2011, he joined in the Preah Khan Reach F.C (Now Svay Rieng FC) of Cambodian League. He scored 10 goals in 17 matches until 2012. After that, he transferred to the Boeung Ket Angkor and has been active as the forward. His stats was 90 goals in 116 matches in the Boeung Ket Angkor until 5 years, and he got a top scorer of Cambodian League in 2015. He also got the Cambodian League Most Valuable Player for three consecutive years since 2014.
Then Vathanaka was convened to the Cambodia national football team from 2013, and scored 10 goals in 28 matches. He also played in the match with Japan national team that was the second round of Asian qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup at the Phnom Penh Olympic Stadium on November 2015. In this match, Japan won 2 to 0 but Cambodia was a great fight in this match. Now Vathanaka is called “Cambodia’s Messi” or “The treasure of Cambodia”.
Recently, there are some transfers of Southeast Asian players to J-League. On the previous day, the Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo of J1 League made a briefing with Chanathip Songkrasin of Thailand. “Thailand’s Messi” Songkrasin came to Japan with his girlfriend “May” Pitchanart Sakhakorn of actress. The team of J-League can contract with one player of Asian Football Federation member country separately from the regular foreigner player, so Songkrasin and Vathanaka are one of them.
Then in Cambodia, Keisuke Honda of the AC Milan is also active. In 2016, Honda opened the football school in two places at Cambodia and became the owner of Siem Reap Angkor FC. The team will change the name to Soltilo Angkor FC and aim for promotion to Cambodian League, the top division of Cambodian football. Cambodia achieve spectacular economic growth, so J-League and the Football Federation of Cambodia have partnership agreement from 2013.
Let’s introduce the Fujieda MYFC. Fujieda MYFC belongs to the division 3 of J-League and is located in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan. Home stadium is the Fujieda Sports Complex Park, it was the campsite of the Senegal national football team in the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The team was 7th in 2016 season, all except Vathanaka are composed of Japanese players.
This youtube’s video is is the movie for skill and goal of Chan Vathanaka in the practice at Japan. Some Southeast Asian players have contracted with sponsors’ intentions of Japanese team, but Vathanaka took the contract with his ability. Until July 2017, he has not played in the league yet.
