Japanese media reported on Thursday that Lam, 28, would join Cerezo Osaka this season.
Details of the contract have yet to be announced, but according to Sports Hochi, a Japanese daily sports newspaper, Cerezo Osaka FC had to spend a large sum to purchase Lam’s contract from his managing Thai League 1 club Muangthong United (Thai League).
In June 2019, Muangthong United completed the signing of Van Lam from Hai Phong FC for a fee of US$500,000.
Lam is the fourth Vietnamese footballer to have played in Japan so far, following Le Cong Vinh, Nguyen Tuan Anh, and Nguyen Cong Phuong, who onced wore the jerseys of Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo, Yokohama FC, and Mito HollyHock in the J2 League.
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| Dang Van Lam |
Dang Van Lam, whose father is Vietnamese and mother is Russian, was born in Moscow. Lam spent his youth at Spartak Moscow and Dynamo Moscow. In 2011, he returned to Vietnam to play for Hoang Anh Gia Lai. After unsuccessful spells in Laos and Russia, his career finally took off when he joined Hai Phong FC in 2015. In the next four years, he retained his excellent form, got called up to the national team and became its number one choice.
Lam joined Muangthong United in 2019 and had 42 appearances for the club over two seasons.
Cerezo Osaka is a Japanese professional football club started in 1957 in Osaka. The club have won four Japanese league titles as yet.
They won the J.League YBC Levain Cup in 2017 as well as the Emperor’s Cup and Xerox Super Cup in 2018.
The club ranked fourth in the 2020 season of the J1 League and also secured a spot in the qualifying rounds of the 2021 AFC Champions League.
Liverpool winger Takumi Minamino played for Cerezo Osaka from 2012 to 2014.
Minamino moved to Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg in 2015 before signing a four-year contract with the Merseyside club last year.
