Playing badminton, Tien Minh earns over 1 billion VND each year

At the age of 33, only ranked 42nd in the world, Vietnam's number one tennis player Nguyen Tien Minh has just received the biggest sponsorship contract in Vietnamese sports this year from a Japanese brand, with a total value of up to one billion VND.

Despite his significant decline in form and achievements, he is still considered a top star, with great appeal and influence to fans and the badminton movement that is exploding everywhere. Currently, Tien Minh has passed the second round of the German Open, a Grand Prix Gold tournament of the Badminton World Federation, with a total prize money of 120,000 USD. He has just defeated the world's 19th ranked player Marc Zwiebler.

Tien Minh strives to compete and prepare carefully for the 2016 Olympics. Photo: An Nhon.

Thanks to the sponsorship, Tien Minh will have a guaranteed source of funding to compete in 16 international tournaments, be provided with international standard equipment, and have an additional savings of several hundred million VND.

With the new sponsorship, Tien Minh also set a record as the only Vietnamese player to have earned billions for 8 consecutive years, from two parallel sources like international professional tennis players: performance bonuses and sponsorship. Although he has to spend a significant amount to reinvest in his career, especially during the frequent tours, the amount of money he has accumulated up to now must be around several billion VND, ensuring that he can be completely assured after leaving the competition mat.

Tien Minh is still the only Vietnamese player to have two personal sponsorship contracts, both starting in 2009 and lasting for 5 years. Thanks to these two sponsors, he always has a stable income of 60-90 million VND per month. 2013 was the year that Tien Minh had the highest income associated with a "super fast" money-making journey with a trip to play for hire in the Indian professional league. After only two weeks playing for Pune Vijetas Club, regardless of results, he received 44,000 USD. The reason for this is because this is the fee that Indian clubs "compete" with each other based on the rankings of the world's top tennis players invited. At that time, the Vietnamese player was ranked 9th in the world.

Tien Minh turned to coaching and business after ending his peak playing career. Photo: An Nhon.

Although the list will not be announced until early May, Tien Minh is certain to qualify for the 2016 Olympics, becoming the first Vietnamese player to participate in the highest international competition three times in a row. His goal is to reach the quarterfinals. In addition to training and competing, Tien Minh will gradually move into coaching and business. He will open a supermarket to exclusively distribute a Japanese sports product brand in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to ngoisao.net