Kou Voravong
Kou Voravong grew up in Savannakhet and pursued a primary education there. He obtained the « certificat d'études primaires complémentaire indochinois » - Certificate of Indochinese Additional Primary Studies - (CEPCI) in 1930, went afterward to Vientiane and began his first-secondary-school year at the Collège Auguste Pavie. But because of a conflict which opposed him to French Colonial administration, his adopted father was sentenced to prison that same year. As reaction to this situation, Kou Voravong left school and returned to Savannakhet. As an out-of-school teenager, he practiced sports, especially soccer.
Sisowath Monivong
Born in Phnom Penh in 1875, Sisowath Monivong was the sixth child and the second son of King Sisowath. His mother was Neak Moneang Van, later titled "Samdeach Preah Voreachini", the fifth child-bearing wife of Sisowath. At that time his uncle King Norodom ruled from Odong, the capital of Cambodia. Norodom was a puppet king for the French colonial protectorate. In 1884, after the French conquered Laos and occupied Vietnam, Cambodia became a direct colonial possession. The royal family then moved from Odong to the new capital of Phnom Penh, where Sisowath Monivong resided.