"Cristiano Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, and Jurgen Klopp all play padel. Arjen Robben is apparently a very good player"
So Mano Polking is in good company when it comes to former (mostly) football players taking up a sport that is sweeping the world. The Brazilian currently manages Cong AnHanoi in Vietnam, and it was in Southeast Asia that his passion for padel was awakened.
Discovering the Sport in Southeast Asia
Polking first moved to Thailand as assistant coach of the national side in 2012 and soon became consumed by a sport that is enjoying a boom in the region.
“I started playing when I was in Bangkok. Gio, a Spanish guy, opened the first padel court in the city, and there was just one court at the beginning.
“There are now nine clubs in Bangkok if I’m not mistaken, with a total of 30 courts. And another three are scheduled to be opening soon. There are more around Thailand, and it's also booming in Bali and the Philippines and we’re starting to see some tournaments, which brings more people.”
From Tennis Dreams to Football Reality
Polking had childhood dreams of becoming a professional tennis player before committing to football and building a career that took him to Germany, where he played for Arminia Bielefeld and SV Darmstadt 98 in Bundesliga 2 and the German third tier.
“I played tennis regularly when I was young. I was even thinking about becoming a professional tennis player. Because the tennis tournaments were always in cities that I loved, I wanted that job - competing in tennis competitions in all these nice cities. But I wasn’t good enough, and I chose football.”
Polking believes the skills honed from his early days in tennis and then as a professional athlete helped him quickly become one of the top players in Thailand.
“Many football players can also do well at other sports because it has a lot to do with developing coordination skills from a young age. You are learning to be a professional footballer and you work a lot at the same skills.
“It helps physically because you can run a lot and have coordinated movements. It’s more difficult to work on that when you start a sport at a later age.”
Competitive Spirit On and Off the Court
Polking’s career as a football player and coach has instilled in him a competitive spirit that he finds difficult to shake, even when playing a sport in which the stakes are much lower than he is used to.
“I am competitive against my daughter when we play cards. I don’t let her win. I’m teaching her real life. I’m crazy competitive. When I play with friends, the loser pays for the barbecue. And, when there’s a competition, of course you want to win. For me, it’s always competitive.”
However, Polking insists he gets more of a kick out of the social aspect of padel rather than winning games.
“I think the most appealing thing about padel is the social side. The way that the sport is growing and attracting kids and both genders, old and young. That has been amazing for me. Tennis is still my preferred sport, but if you don’t find a good partner of a similar level to play against, there is no game.
“With padel, because it’s doubles, you need four people to play and it’s much more about socialising. My wife can play, my kids can play. Everyone can join in because there are longer rallies and there is more fun. In tennis, if someone hits one good shot, the point is over.”
Rising Through Thailand’s Padel Ranks
Polking may enjoy the social side of the padel court but he reached as high as No.6 in Thailand’s admittedly imprecise ranking system from the early days. The 49-year-old did not follow these rankings too carefully at the time, but he acknowledges that practice was making him a formidable player.
“At certain times, I played Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If I was No.6 (in Thailand), it was a long time ago. Now, I would not even be Top 60 because there are a lot of young boys and Spanish coaches coming in. But, when we were the first ones playing, I was reaching finals of tournaments. I probably wouldn’t be able to do that anymore.
“Now, they have a senior category, and I would probably be good in that. It’s impossible to compete with the best players in their 20s. The level now is too good.”
Coaching Pressure and Life Beyond Football
Polking combines his love for padel with a love for football, but as he approaches 20 years in coaching, he is beginning to look beyond what is a stressful career. In addition to his current job, Polking has been head coach for the Thai national side and Ho Chi Minh City as well as three top tier sides in Thailand, most notably Bangkok United.
Jurgen Klopp recently spoke about the pleasures of enjoying life outside the pressure cooker of football management and Polking knows where he is coming from.
“I’ve been talking a lot about my next steps with my family. Other people around me tell me I need the competition and the adrenaline. But for 10 years, I have been thinking that I don’t want to go too much beyond 50. I really want to enjoy my life.
“I know I am just in a small part of the football world, so you can imagine the pressure of a Premier League manager or a manager in Serie A of Brazil, where the fans are crazy, and invade your training centre, and you can’t go out anymore. This is probably much higher pressure than what I experience in Southeast Asia.
“Now, there is online pressure from social media, but these people are not real. They are not on the street and at your training sessions. Okay, they will scold you a lot on social media and it’s not nice, but you can learn to ignore it.
“Now that I’m at one of the biggest clubs in Vietnam, I have the pressure to win. When I was head coach of the Thai national team, I was under pressure to win the winnable games. You have pressure when people talk about the dream of reaching the World Cup. That’s a lot of pressure when the whole country is counting on you.
“I had a fantastic time at Bangkok United, where expectations were modest at the beginning but there was a lot of pressure at the end. When I joined them, they were fighting relegation, but now it’s a really solid club. When investment is higher, you need to win.
“That pressure and that kind of life is not healthy. In the next few years, I don’t want to retire as I’m too young, but I want to do something else. I want to go back to Brazil where I have my investments. I couldn’t live so long with that pressure.”
Success and Rivalries in Southeast Asia
In his time as head coach of the Thailand national side, Polking won the ASEAN Championship twice, beating Vietnam in the semifinal of the 2020 tournament and in the final in 2022. This made life difficult when he returned to work in Vietnam in 2024 as he had had some flareups with the Vietnamese players..
“There was a famous love and hate relationship. But after doing some good work here and with the support of a good chairman, I think we are over the haters and they start to appreciate the job I do.
“They made a big deal of an incident when I went face-to-face with the Vietnam captain. I probably have around 2,000 people blocked on Facebook from that time. Now, everything is good. There are now more people focused on the job I’m doing than on my past with Thailand.”
Managing in Vietnam: Challenges and Growth
Polking is in a good position to identify the key differences between the players he works with in Vietnam, and those he worked with during a decade in Thailand. The two countries have won the past six editions of the ASEAN Championship between them (Thailand 4, Vietnam 2), so there is a rivalry built on the goal of supremacy in Southeast Asia. According to Polking, hierarchy affects the team dynamic much more in the Thai context.
“The senior players in Thailand will never be attacked by the younger players. In a training session, they will not dare to tackle Theerathon (Bunmathan) or Teerasil (Dangda). In Vietnam, seniority doesn’t matter so much. Everyone is hungry. It is easier to work in this kind of environment as a coach because the players have a lot of discipline and fighting spirit.
“In Vietnam, the players rarely question the game plan and tactics. They trust the coach and follow their guidelines with passion. In Thailand, they question you more regarding the approach to games and maybe express reservations.”
Polking’s approach has brought him international success with Thailand and now domestic silverware in Vietnam, winning the Vietnamese Cup and Super Cup in 2025. Cong An Hanoi also came agonisingly close to victory in the ASEAN Club Championship this year.
New Rivals
For the upcoming season, he has a new rival across town in the shape of former Leeds United, Liverpool and Australia star, Harry Kewell. Kewell was recently appointed as head coach of Hanoi FC and Polking is relishing the prospect of facing him.
“I believe that he (Kewell) was an amazing player and he may be on the way to being an amazing coach. The power of the name attracts the media and sponsors. Everyone is talking about him. He seems to be a nice guy. Vietnam is investing more in football and showing their financial power. It’s a good place to be.”
Perhaps Polking can introduce Kewell to the padel courts of Hanoi…
