Unknown stories about national female referee Nguyen Thi Thi
Many people are lucky to find their passion early, but not everyone is determined to pursue this choice, especially when the journey to it is full of disadvantages. The journey of female football referees in general, and national female referee Nguyen Thi Thi in particular, is like that.
Passion leads the way
Born in the mountainous district of Anh Son, the childhood of national referee Nguyen Thi Thi (born in 2000) was closely associated with fields and hills. Her house was near the village football field, and when she was young, little Thi often played in the empty field nearby, next to the dusty football matches of her brothers in the neighborhood.
Until one day, not wanting to stand outside the yard anymore, I asked my brothers to let me play football with them. The first few times I played, although I was not good, my ability was enough to convince everyone to keep me. From then on, I realized that my passion and talent was football. During my 3 years in high school, I actively participated in all the football tournaments launched by the school and had small achievements when participating in the Phu Dong Sports Festival.
National female referee Nguyen Thi Thi
When he decided that sports would be his career, after graduating from high school, Thi went to Da Nang alone to take the entrance exam to Da Nang University of Physical Education and Sports.
After 1 month of working and studying, the little girl from Nghe An mountain region finally became an official student of Da Nang University of Physical Education and Sports - also the smallest student in this school.
With her passion and determination, this student not only graduated with honors and won scholarships every semester, but also qualified to study and become a national referee.
The profession of courage
Besides health requirements, to become a referee, you need to be brave and mentally strong.
When I was qualified to officiate a match, I often encountered people's skeptical and apprehensive looks. Many people even ignored me or asked me directly if my physique was enough to officiate a match.
National female referee Nguyen Thi Thi
Faced with such negative attitudes, Thi just quietly proved her ability, seriousness and responsibility in her work. She recalled: “When I first started officiating, I participated in officiating a match of the Nghe An association in Da Nang. With the typical passionate sportsmanship of the Nghe people, the situations on the field were always very tense. Once when I blew a penalty, the players and fans protested with an extremely indignant attitude, using insulting words. Even the other referee thought I blew the wrong whistle. In this situation, I chose to stay calm and asked everyone to review the video. After extracting the camera, everyone admitted that my decision was correct and apologized.”
“I understand that in sports there are always winners and losers, there are always tense situations, winning and losing, unsportsmanlike situations. As a referee, my duty is to be fair and fair in the spirit of healthy sportsmanship. If the spirit is not stable, easily influenced by external factors, the referee will not be calm and clear-headed enough to manage the match,” Thi added.
In addition, Thi always maintains a careful and thoughtful attitude in every match. She is often the first person to arrive in the referee team to survey the field situation and prepare for the job in the most professional way.
“A good referee is one who is brave and confident enough to defend his own point of view and the fairness of the match. Before each match, in addition to physical exercises, I also do mental exercises. I often remind myself that I can do it and I will be a good referee.” Thi also shared that to deter excessive behavior from players, she once had to use consecutive penalty cards during a match.
From proving herself, Thi gradually gained prestige and recognition from everyone. The encouragement and compliments from colleagues and players were small joys on the journey of the little girl's career.
Before each match, to have enough strength to run after the players and the ball, referees must have appropriate physical exercises. In fact, with the high frequency of matches, referees must prepare their physical strength a month in advance.
For women's or children's football matches, it is not too difficult. But for professional men's football tournaments, if you are not well prepared mentally and physically, it is easy to fall into a situation of collapse. There was once, because I was not well prepared, I fell into a state of muscle tension and exhaustion after the match.
Referee Nguyen Thi Thi
Although the job is attractive and in line with her passion, the income from tournaments is not enough to cover living expenses, so female referees like Thi often have to work many other jobs at the same time, such as physical education teacher, coach of grassroots classes...
After 4 years of working, Thi shared more about the hardships and difficulties of being a female referee: “As a female referee, we have to minimize collisions on the field and pay more attention to taking care of ourselves. When I first started working, because I was subjective, I was much darker and uglier. It was only later that I realized and changed. When officiating matches in hot weather conditions, we often use sunscreen. However, pursuing this job, having a little dark skin is also normal.”./.
