The “Phoenix” has returned

Cong Phuong was born in Nghe An and studied in the first group of HAGL Arsenal JMG Academy. Together with Nguyen Van Toan, Nguyen Tuan Anh, Luong Xuan Truong, etc, they became the Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) team that attended the V-League 2015. Mr. Doan Nguyen Duc once expected this group to bring the V-League championship, but they failed. The best achievement they achieved was the bronze medal of the 2022 National Cup. In his career, Cong Phuong played for the U19, U22, U23 and the Vietnam national team. Under the guidance of coach Hang Seo Park, he won the silver medal at the 2018 AFC U23 Championship and the 2018 AFF Cup. When playing domestically, Cong Phuong is always considered the most worth-watching player, no matter which team he plays for, but when playing abroad, his time can only be described as "disappointing".

Before joining Yokohama FC, Cong Phuong had been abroad 3 times, 2 of which were under the HAGL loan deal. The first foreign club was Mito Hollyhock in J.League 2 under a one-year loan contract, with a transfer value of 100,000 USD. On May 7, 2016, Nguyen Cong Phuong made his first appearance for Hollyhock when he came on as a substitute for Hosokawa Junya in the 87th minute. However, when the 2016 J.League 2 season ended, Cong Phuong returned to play for Hoang Anh Gia Lai.

In February 2019, Nguyen Cong Phuong signed a one-year loan contract with the Korean team Incheon United. However, after only nearly 4 months of playing in the K-League, Incheon United agreed to terminate the contract early with Phuong according to his wish. The third club was Sint-Truiden STVV. Here, Cong Phuong started in Sint Truidense's last friendly match before the new season when Sint Truidense hosted Lommel at home. He played in the official match of Sint-Truidense when they lost 0-6 to Brugge on August 2, 2019. He played one more match for the youth team when STVV played against Anderlecht, however, it did not last long.

On December 25, 2022, Japanese club Yokohama announced the successful recruitment of striker Nguyen Cong Phuong; up to this time, this is his last foreign club. In April 2023, after many unsuccessful registration matches, Cong Phuong had his first match, however, he was on the field for only 6 seconds. After that, there were almost no updates about Cong Phuong's football activities since he had not been registered for any match for more than a year. In September 2024, Yokohama announced that Cong Phuong would leave the club and playfor a team outside of Japan. And he returned to his homeland, Vietnam.

After two years of association without any progress, Cong Phuong has officially said goodbye to Yokohama FC and returned to Vietnam and joined one of the best teams Truong Tuoi Binh Phuoc. With his return, Vietnamese football has another player who is "unlucky" on the "going abroad" path. However, Vietnamese football fans are always looking forward to the return of the striker from Nghe An in the new season. He has always been one of the most beloved players in Vietnamese football, after all.