Having played for Quang Nam Club since the 2012 season, Dinh Thanh Trung experienced his happiest years in the Quang Nam team's colors, winning the V-League championship in 2017 and the Vietnamese Golden Ball award in the same year. At the end of the 2021 season, the midfielder, born in 1988, left Quang Nam to play for his hometown team, Ha Tinh .

At 35 years old, Dinh Thanh Trung remains a key player for Hong Linh Ha Tinh football team.

At that time, Dinh Thanh Trung confided to the author: "I have been associated with Quang Nam for almost 10 years, and I have many memories here. Not to mention that the football fans in Quang Nam always treat me like family, so I have a lot of affection for this land. However, I want to dedicate the final years of my career to contributing something to football in my hometown of Ha Tinh."

Another reason why this 1.68m tall midfielder wants to play in Ha Tinh is because he has an elderly mother who needs care. After Dinh Thanh Trung's father passed away, his siblings all got married and moved far away, leaving only his mother in Ha Tinh to take care of the ancestral rites. Therefore, Dinh Thanh Trung wants to return to his hometown to play so he can be close to his mother.

In a conversation with the author, the captain of Hong Linh Ha Tinh shared: “Since I returned to Ha Tinh to play, my mother has been very happy. Before, my mother used to run a small convenience store at home to keep herself busy, but now I've told her to close it because I don't want her to work so hard. Since she's no longer running the store, she focuses more on exercising and participating in activities with the senior citizens' association.”

In the 2022 V-League season, due to injury, Dinh Thanh Trung only played in about 15 matches. Also last season, Hong Linh Ha Tinh struggled in the relegation battle. The team from Hong Mountain ultimately secured their safety in 11th place with 24 points, just 2 points ahead of relegated Saigon FC. However, in the 2023 V-League season, things are completely different. In particular, in the last 5 rounds, Hong Linh Ha Tinh has been undefeated, including 3 wins, rising to fourth place in the standings with 17 points.

Sharing his thoughts on this, captain Dinh Thanh Trung said: “Hong Linh Ha Tinh's achievement didn't surprise me too much, because coach Nguyen Thanh Cong had prepared very thoroughly in terms of professional skills. Besides, the team's strength is much better than last year, especially the foreign players. Therefore, this result is also inevitable for the team. However, to be safe in the top 8 teams, we must work even harder in the remaining two matches of the first half of the season, because the teams are currently very close to each other.”

At the end of the 2023 season, Dinh Thanh Trung's contract with Hong Linh Ha Tinh will expire, but the captain of the team from the mountainous region shared: "I have decided that Hong Linh Ha Tinh will be the last team of my playing career, so I won't go anywhere else. I want to end my career with my hometown team, just like the lyrics of the song 'Song of the Homeland River' say: 'I return to bury my face in the river of my homeland'."

Text and photos: DO TUAN