Lee Nguyen and Tran Cong Minh are the motivation for Vietnamese student players

It is not rare for players to step into the professional playing field from the student football movement, two of the most famous are former defender Tran Cong Minh and former midfielder Lee Nguyen.

Coach Tran Cong Minh, former captain of the Vietnam national team, once shared: "If back then the guys at Dong Thap team (a very strong team in Vietnamese football in the late 1980s and early 1990s) had not called me up to the Dong Thap first team several times, perhaps now I would be a village teacher, teaching physical education."

Coach Tran Cong Minh (left cover) comes from student football.

Mr. Tran Cong Minh was then a second-year student at Dong Thap Pedagogical College, Department of Physical Education. Then Mr. Tran Cong Minh turned to a career as a professional football player.

According to Mr. Tran Cong Minh, he has never gone through any formal football training classes, from when he was a teenager, until he became a professional player. However, the player who started out as a student, Tran Cong Minh, later became the number one right-back in Vietnamese football, from 1995 to 2000.

During the above period, Mr. Tran Cong Minh was the captain of the national team many times, during the "golden generation" of former famous players Le Huynh Duc, Nguyen Hong Son, Truong Viet Hoang, Nguyen Huu Dang, Nguyen Huu Thang...

Another player of Vietnamese origin, also from the student soccer movement, is Lee Nguyen. In 2005, at the age of 19, Lee Nguyen played soccer for Indiana University, becoming the best student player in the United States that year.

Later, Lee Nguyen was called up to the US national team and played for the team in the 2007 Copa America. At this tournament, Lee Nguyen appeared twice from the bench in matches against Paraguay and Colombia. To date, Lee Nguyen is considered one of the best players of Vietnamese origin.

Lee Nguyen (left) is considered the best player of Vietnamese origin.

In addition to Lee Nguyen and Tran Cong Minh, former Vietnam national team striker Nguyen Ngoc Thanh (who played for Hai Phong Club and Dong A Bank) and former central defender Luu Ngoc Hung (former player for Saigon Port, Binh Duong, and Ninh Binh) are also from the student football movement. Ngoc Thanh and Ngoc Hung both studied at Hutech University in Ho Chi Minh City.

On the world stage, there are also many famous players who were university students. Notable among them is the superstar Socrates (Brazil), a former medical student, who played for the Brazilian team in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups. After retiring, Socrates returned to his career as a doctor and pursued this profession until his death in 2011 at the age of 57.

EURO 1996 champion, former top striker of the German national team Oliver Bierhoff studied Economics at the University of Hagen (Germany). Bierhoff graduated in 2002.

There are many other examples, showing that student players can absolutely become professional players when given the chance. At the same time, student players can still fulfill both paths at the same time, both the football path, and the pursuit of the major trained in the university.

The Vietnam Youth Student Football Tournament is therefore a place to nurture dreams of success, a bridge for student players to step onto the professional playing field. This is a place that can help student players follow in the footsteps of their seniors, achieving complete success in both their academic path and their sports career.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/lee-nguyen-va-tran-cong-minh-la-dong-luc-cho-cac-cau-thu-sinh-vien-viet-nam-185231220091908075.htm