Hanoi, 10 Nov 2026 – About 100 coaches and technical staff gathered at the Vietnam Football Federation’s headquarters on November 10 to learn how to feed, hydrate and rest players so they can last a full match. The instructors came from Herbalife.
On November 10 in Hanoi, a training session at the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) headquarters skipped tactics and dealt with what players eat, drink and how they sleep. Herbalife Vietnam organized it with the VFF, as part of a cooperation that started in 2021.
The program, “Applying Sports Nutrition and Recovery to Improve Football Performance,” drew about 100 coaches, assistant coaches, technical staff and football managers. Nguyen Van Phu, the VFF’s Secretary General, opened it, and two Herbalife specialists took the floor: Dr. Luigi Gratton, Vice President of the company’s Health and Fitness Office and chair of its Nutrition Advisory Board, and Dr. Krissy Ladner, its director for sports performance and nutrition education, a certified sports dietitian with nearly 20 years of experience.
Dr. Gratton began with Herbalife’s own approach: athlete health comes first, and nutrition means the right nutrients at the right time. He also explained how the company handles product safety, quality and certification. The two speakers then covered what football demands of the body, from the energy systems behind repeated sprints to why adaptation happens during recovery.
The practical session followed. Dr. Ladner showed how to track each player through body composition, blood markers, sweat and urine tests, and sleep, with the numbers meant to support decisions, not to judge. Participants also worked on menus built around a “performance plate,” hydration, travel eating, young and female players, relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs), cramps, injury and illness.
The final exercise was a match-day plan for a starting midfielder on the men’s national team: 7 p.m. kickoff, 32°C, high humidity.
Mr. Phu said the content can go straight into daily coaching, and thanked Herbalife for support that goes beyond nutrition products for the national teams to programs like this one. Vu Van Thang, General Director of Herbalife Vietnam and Cambodia, said the company’s help to Vietnamese sports includes nutrition products for top athletes, training in nutrition and fitness for athletes and coaches, rewards for medal winners and funding for community sports initiatives. He hopes the international experience shared at the session helps players stay fit and keep their endurance in training and matches.
Over five years, Herbalife has supplied the national football teams and run courses such as one for 58 clubs in 2024. In March 2026 it joined the men’s national team and the U23 side at their joint camp before the new season. The company has also been a partner of the Vietnam Olympic Committee and the Vietnam Paralympic Committee since 2012, and held a nutrition and recovery session with the Olympic Committee on November 9.
VSN/RPT
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