Thai Nguyen

Hanoi Youth FC earned promotion to the First Division and then left the capital. The team, its coaching staff and its support personnel were transferred to Thái Nguyên province, and on 25 August 2026 they were launched there as a new club under Phạm Minh Đức. The move was arranged by Đỗ Quang Hiển of T&T Group, a businessman whose company had been backing sport in the province since 2019.

The club is run on a socialised model, with private and corporate money in place of a state budget. A consortium of 32 organisations and enterprises has pledged more than 115 billion dong. T&T Group put in 26 billion of that at the start. The men's side is in the second tier, V.League 2, and its first season under the new name is 2026–27. It arrives without a local rival or a derby of its own.

The nickname comes from the land. Thái Nguyên is known in Vietnam as the "First Famous Tea" region, so the club is "Trà", or "Chè" in the northern dialect, and English-language pages call it Tea.

The ground is new as well. Thái Nguyên Stadium opened in December 2025 in Đại Phúc ward, about 10 km west of the city centre, and replaced the old central stadium. It holds 22,000 seats.

T&T Group's women's team is the part of the operation with results behind it. Thai Nguyen T&T W.F.C. was founded in 2003 and bought by the company in 2020. It lost the 2024 National Women's Football Cup final to Than Khoáng Sản VN and finished third in the 2026 edition.

The men's club therefore starts from a promotion won under another city's name.