The U.20 World Cup hero 'finds his match' with TNSV.

Minh Hieu was once one of the 23 best Vietnamese players named in the official U.20 Vietnam squad for the 2017 U.20 World Cup, witnessing the first time Vietnamese football competed in an 11-a-side World Cup. At the age of 29, he will temporarily step away from playing and become a member of the coaching staff for the newly formed team participating in the TNSV Finals for the first time:FPT Polytechnic College. This also comes from a special coincidence, as he shared: "When I heard that my contract with Hanoi FC had ended and I hadn't found a new team yet, Mr. Nguyen Manh Tu, a member of the FPT Polytechnic coaching staff, called and invited me to join this ambitious team. Before that, through conversations with Mr. Tu, I knew about the TNSV campaign of Thanh Nien Newspaper, as well as..." I learned about it from social media and other sources. But once I got there, I was still very surprised by the scale and professionalism of the tournament. I've participated in the V-League and played in the U.20 World Cup, but what the organizers and Thanh Nien Newspaper have prepared for us from the qualifying rounds to the finals, which are about to open, is truly impressive."

Người hùng U.20 World Cup ‘bén duyên’ với TNSV- Ảnh 1. — Minh Hieu (third from the left) is part of the coaching staff of the FPT Polytechnic College team.

These days, Minh Hieu and the FPT Polytechnic College football team are busily completing the final preparations before entering the THACO Cup 2026 Finals, which will open on March 7th at the Nha Trang University football field (Khanh Hoa). The young man born in 1997 is enthusiastically sharing his playing experience with his younger teammates. He shared: "The playing field may change, but the desire and spirit to win, focus and composure in goal are always equally important requirements. My nature is that if I don't do something, I won't do it at all; once I start, I have to do it to the best of my ability. At 29, I'm still waiting to find a suitable team in the national professional leagues for the 2026-2027 season before thinking about the next step in my career, which is coaching. However, I'm very excited about my role as goalkeeping coach for the FPT Polytechnic College team. It feels very new to me, because this is my first time on the field in a new role, not as a player, but as a coach, guiding younger players who have also been wearing gloves for many years. I and all the team members are very determined to achieve good results in our first participation in the Student Football Championship Finals, leaving a beautiful mark for FPT Polytechnic in this large-scale, professional student competition."

Nguyen Ba Minh Hieu rose through the ranks of Hanoi FC's youth academy, alongside many prominent players who have represented the Vietnamese national teams such as Quang Hai, Thanh Chung, Dinh Trong, Duy Khanh, Thanh Tin, and Nam Anh. He won the national U.19 championship (2016) and the national U.21 championship (2015, 2018) before participating in the 2017 U.20 World Cup in South Korea with the Vietnamese U.20 team.