Huge photo collection of Song Lam Nghe An by 80-year-old man

(Baonghean.vn)- At a rare age, Mr. Phan Bui Tuong (Block 16, Ha Huy Tap Ward) has a strong passion for football. His old age has too many barriers for him to come to football like the younger generation, and he has chosen for himself a very special and simple way of loving.

Born in 1937 in Hung Nguyen, but the memory of the Yellow Shirt Team stationed in the Ben Thuy area (the predecessor of SLNA Club) always lingers in this man's memory. When he was young, Mr. Tuong almost never missed any match of that team until he retired. In 2000, when football became professional, the only way he could get to know football was through television and articles written about SLNA.

Mr. Phan Bui Tuong flipped through the commemorative photos of the SLNA football team.

That is why he collected, preserved and bound all the photos and articles about the Nghe An football team into books. Up to now, he has many thick collections containing memories of SLNA in different periods with about 3,000 photos. Every time he has free time, he takes them out to review, admire and take care of them.

Mr. Tuong said: “I am old and have a lot of time, but because of my health condition, the only thing I like and can do is to preserve memories of SLNA and Nghe An football. At first, everything was very difficult and this job required meticulousness and effort. My wife was not satisfied at all, because many times I was so busy cutting and pasting that I forgot to eat. Later, she had to accept it because it was my only passion.”

No matter where he is or what he does, whenever he sees pictures of SLNA, he immediately asks for them and keeps them very carefully. That is why now in his collection, there are full pictures of players Van Sy Hung - the person he admires the most, to Huu Thang, Huy Hoang, Van Quyen, Cong Vinh, Cong Phuong ...

More than 3,000 photos and articles about SLNA were painstakingly collected by him over the following decades.

Coming to the old man's house, the writer could not help but be surprised by his special affection for Nghe An football. He was eager and proud to talk about old memories of the times he went to the stadium to watch the team play. Now he cannot go to the stadium, does not have access to the internet, cameras and other modern means. So even updating the SLNA Club's match schedule is a difficulty for him.

Reading Nghe An Newspaper every day, Mr. Tuong learned about the “SLNA – Pride of Nghe An” Contest. Mr. Tuong confided: “I have been waiting for a contest like this for a long time, because it is extremely meaningful, it would have been better if it had been organized earlier. Before submitting my entry, I read all the previous articles to see how others wrote, and only hoped that my article would be published, not daring to hope to win a prize. I hope that this contest will spread widely so that the love for SLNA will never run out in the hearts of every Nghe An citizen.”

Most surprisingly, his biggest dream at the moment is to have a lot of pictures of SLNA and a detailed SLNA match schedule. He only needs that to help him live happily with the memories of SLNA's golden age.

Trung Kien