The deserted house and poor childhood of U23 player Xuan Manh

The road to Xuan Manh's house passes through a field covered in red dust. When we arrived at the house, Mr. Pham Xuan Linh (born in 1964), Manh's father, had just finished plowing the field.

Not as agile and resourceful as his wife, he only stays at home to take care of the housework and farming. He has to rely on his wife to run around and take care of "foreign affairs" such as picking up and dropping off the children.

It took him three tries to understand our question about Xuan Manh. “My father is hard of hearing, speak louder,” explained his daughter, Pham Thi Mai (born in 1993), sitting next to him.

According to Ms. Mai, many years ago Mr. Linh suffered from migraines. The pain was so bad that he bought medicine to treat the illness at home. After finishing the medicine, his headache improved but he discovered that he could no longer hear clearly in one ear. He had no money to go to the hospital for treatment and had to work in the fields so he had to leave it alone. Over time, he became completely deaf in one ear.

According to Mr. Linh, the path to football career of player Xuan Manh was not easy.

Pham Xuan Manh's father: 'Going to a football competition in the province, Manh only had 10 thousand dong'

(Baonghean.vn) - Born and raised in the poor countryside of Minh Thanh mountainous commune (Yen Thanh), Pham Xuan Manh had to follow his father to the fields to work for hire. During those hard days, Manh got acquainted with football by playing grapefruit on his father's plowed fields to nurture his passion.

He remembers most the days when his son was invited to Vinh City to take the entrance exam for Song Lam Nghe An Club. That was the first long trip for anyone in Mr. Linh's family.

“We saved up 250,000 VND for my wife to take our son to the city for 3 days, waiting for his turn to take the exam. My wife said that going to the city, the food and accommodation were very expensive, and by the end of the day, all the money was gone. In the luggage of the mother and son, there was only a pack of instant noodles. Manh, although young, knew how to give in to his mother. His mother loved him so much that she said: “Eat so you have the strength to take the exam in the afternoon.”

After the exam, when it was time to pay the rent, the mother and son had to borrow money from the person who was accompanying them to pay. However, the owner of the place said that someone had already paid the rent for Mrs. Ha and her son. Someone who knew about Xuan Manh's difficult situation secretly helped.

“12 years have passed, and my family still doesn’t know who that person is. We still owe them a debt of gratitude,” Mr. Linh said emotionally.

In his eyes, Xuan Manh is a disadvantaged child. He said: "During the time he was trained at Song Lam Nghe An Club, there was one time when he really scared us."

According to Mr. Linh, at that time there were no mobile phones, so he periodically went to the post office to call his son. I called down to the club to meet Van Duc, a player at the same club as Song Lam Nghe An. Duc "told": "Manh just lost money and is crying his eyes out."

“It was 140,000 VND, the support money from the club for the players. For some reason, Manh lost it. He did not dare tell us, he just cried silently. At that time, I felt so sorry for him…”, Mr. Linh recalled.

Ms. Phan Thi Ha, Xuan Manh's mother, also shared: "In the past, at the club, Manh was taken care of for food and accommodation, but he still had to pay tuition for his cultural studies. When we had to pay for our children, if we could sell a chicken or a pig, we would be lucky. But if not, we would have to borrow money from relatives and neighbors."

She also remembers a time when she had to go to a parent-teacher meeting for her child but the family motorbike broke down. Van Duc's mother had to go the other way to pick her up so that the two mothers could go to the city together.

There are three siblings in the family, Manh is the youngest but the only son. So during the harvest season, one sister is assigned to stay home to cook and take care of the pigs and chickens, while Manh goes to the fields with his other sister and parents.

“Manh was small but very good at plowing. The two sisters took turns plowing, after finishing their own fields they went to work for other families,” Ms. Pham Thi Mai recalled the childhood of Xuan Manh and his sister.

Ms. Mai said: “I have been working hard since I was young, working very hard but eating very poorly. Every meal, I only have rice and pickled vegetables cooked with crabs and fish caught in the fields. Only occasionally, my mother buys meat. It is bad meat, fatty but still very delicious.”

According to Xuan Manh's sister, Manh and his three siblings never knew about a box of milk or a glass of sugar water during their childhood.

“On Tet, my mother bought sugar to use as a spice. My sisters and I had to secretly dip our fingertips into the sugar bowl to taste the sweetness.

New clothes for the three sisters to wear during Tet were even more extravagant. Every year, relatives would prepare some of their older siblings’ old clothes and send them to the three sisters. Some of the clothes that the older sister wore were too short, so they would give them to the younger sister.

However, knowing our family's circumstances, my three sisters and I never dared to ask for anything more," Mai said as tears began to roll down her cheeks.

According to Mai, because of the family's difficult circumstances, the children suffered one, and the parents suffered ten: "Whenever there was meat in the meal, my mother refused to take it and left it for the children. She was also always the one who instilled optimism and encouraged the children to try their best.

Now that Manh has been called up to the football team, he gets to eat and live in the team, so his meals no longer lack meat like before."

Mai and her older sister are married but are not well off financially so they cannot help their parents. Manh is the youngest but is becoming the breadwinner of the family.

Xuan Manh once called his mother and told her: “Mom, I can’t take care of a lot, but if I’m short a few million, don’t tell my sister, I’ll take care of it. My sisters are married and have to take care of their children and new families…” Hearing Mrs. Ha recount her brother’s phone call, Mai burst into tears again.

It is known that Xuan Manh is the breadwinner of the family. Every month, Manh sends money home to help his parents pay off debts and cover living expenses.

Players Van Duc and Xuan Manh interact at Nghe An Newspaper

(Baonghean.vn) - Two U23 Vietnam players who grew up from the Youth Football Tournament - Nghe An Newspaper Cup, Van Duc and Xuan Manh, are interacting with readers at Nghe An Newspaper.