The burning passion of the U18 National striker

The passion for playing football of a poor boy

Since childhood, Phan Xuan Dai has been known as a boy with a burning passion for football. At only 5 years old, the boy born in 2003 followed his 4th and 5th grade brothers in the village to play football. There were days when he played until dark and didn't come home, Dai's mother had to bring a whip to look for him, but those beatings did not make him lose his love for the king of sports. The memories of the boy born in 2003 with football in his childhood were many, they were beautiful, innocent, pure memories that not everyone has.

Dai recalled: “My family was a farmer, so every afternoon my parents forced me to go herd and feed the cows. But when we went out, we gathered to play soccer, and when we came back, our cows were nowhere to be found. I was so panicked that I thought I had lost my cow. I thought that this time I would never find my way home again. That night, I went alone in the dark to look for my cow in all the grass fields in the village, and it wasn’t until 9pm that I found it. That is a childhood memory that I still remember forever.”

Since childhood, Phan Xuan Dai has been known as a boy with a burning passion for football. Photo: Duc Anh

Dai has a healthy physique and an innate talent for playing football, so even though he plays with older brothers who are 4 or 5 years older than him, he still plays on par with them, not at all inferior. Information about the boy who is considered a "football prodigy" quickly reached the coaches of the gifted football class in Yen Thanh district. In 2013, Dai was selected to join the district's children's football team to participate in the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth-Children Football Tournament.

That year, the Children's football team of the Lua district was considered one of the strongest teams of the tournament. Phan Xuan Dai was the core, the leader of the team. He played on the right wing, thanks to the excellence of the player born in 2003, the ND football team of Yen Thanh advanced to the semi-finals and only lost to ND Nam Dan after leading with a score of 2-0. That year's tournament, the Children's football team of Yen Thanh was not really lucky, but the individual player Phan Xuan Dai left many clear impressions. With his excellent performance, Dai was recruited directly into the training center.SLNA.

That was a turning point in the life of the young man from the rice fields. Following the path of professional football, Dai was able to live with his passion, and at the same time opened up a brighter future. The day he entered the SLNA youth team to practice, Dai still clearly remembered what coach Ky Phuong said to him: "You have to be really diligent and practice seriously, this is not a game but a job to make a living. If you want to escape poverty and have a bright future, you have to practice hard every day."

Following the path of professional football, Dai is able to live with his passion. Photo: Duc Anh

At first, Dai was trained as a right winger. His strengths were his physical strength and physique. Fast dribbling with great jumping ability was this player's forte. With the will to never lose to anyone, in training sessions, Dai often stayed behind to train himself with more basic techniques. He tried to practice those techniques until he was proficient, so that when needed, he could apply them most effectively. On the training ground, Dai always showed his effort and enthusiasm, because according to him, that would help him improve every day.

“I still remember what coach Ky Phuong said that I have to play football with all my passion; I have to show my soul while playing to find my own unique style” - Dai recalled.

Career milestones

Starting as a winger, but with his qualities, Phan Xuan Dai was asked by the coaches to switch to the striker position. To adapt to this position, the player from the rice fields had to actively learn from his teachers and seniors. According to Dai: “In football, the two positions that require the most qualities and are the most difficult to play are the organizing midfielder and the striker. Switching to the role of a center forward, I had to learn how to finish more, how to maneuver in a narrow space, how to move when I don’t have the ball… and one extremely important thing is that a striker must have the sensitivity to score goals. That makes me have to work hard every day, the more I learn, the more I see that I still have many more points to accumulate.”

The first tournament of the striker born in 2003 was with U13 SLNA participating in the national U13 tournament. In this tournament, Dai was the official striker and helped the Nghe team win the national Silver Medal. But Phan Xuan Dai left the strongest impression when participating in the 2019 national U15 tournament when playing the main role in the attack of the Nghe team. At the end of the tournament, Phan Xuan Dai scored 7 goals, thereby helping U15 SLNA win the championship in a convincing manner.

Now young midfielder Phan Xuan Dai is playing for SLNA's first team. Photo: Duc Anh

While he was in top form and making a strong impression, Phan Xuan Dai suffered a back injury. The pain repeatedly made the striker born in 2003 think he would have to give up football. Once again, Dai had to persevere in treating the injury, practicing recovery, and after about 2 months, he started light training again. Dai shared: “Sometimes the back injury made me think I could no longer play football, but because of my love for this sport, I had to persevere and make an effort to overcome it. Because if I didn't play football, I wouldn't know what job I would do, because my life has long been tied to football.”

After recovering from injury, Dai and SLNA U17 won the 2020 National U17 Gold Medal. In 2021, they won the National U19 Bronze Medal. Phan Xuan Dai's strong return was called up to the national team by the U18 Vietnam coaching staff. Although he joined the team the latest, Dai was the most progressive player, learned the training plan the fastest, and was selected by the head coach to be in group 1 of the team. In the friendly matches before the U18 Asian tournament, Phan Xuan Dai was Vietnam's number 1 striker. He played aggressively, performed well in the role of spearhead in the attack and was highly appreciated by the team's coaching staff. However, due to the pandemic, the U18 Asian tournament was stopped, so Phan Xuan Dai has not had the opportunity to show himself in this arena.

Phan Xuan Dai is now playing for SLNA's first team. In recent days, he has been working hard to practice with his seniors. With what Dai has shown throughout his time playing for the youth team, I hope he will soon be able to prove his qualities and abilities to the coaching staff of the Nghe An team. It is difficult to compete for a position in the SLNA team competing in the V.League in the 2022 season, but Phan Xuan Dai is likely to be an outstanding young player in the B team of the Nghe An team competing in the 3rd division of Vietnam./.