'The older the ginger, the spicier it is'

(Baonghean) - With 2 goals against the Hong Kong team at the recent Malaysia Cup, Cong Vinh increased the total number of goals he contributed to the team to 46, a record that no player in Vietnam has achieved. In the V.League, Cong Vinh also has 115 goals, the domestic player who has scored the most goals in the history of the V.League. He is also the Vietnamese player with the most transfers with records set; the first Vietnamese player to play for a professional club in Japan...

At SLNA, Cong Vinh is also the "prototype" of many Nghe An players who grew up from this famous training "furnace": From a poor boy, passionate about football, participating in the Youth-National Cup of Nghe An Newspaper, being selected to join SLNA "furnace", going through the U-teams, reaching SLNA's first team, then becoming a national player, transferring to play for clubs with high salaries.

But unlike many other players, it seems that Cong Vinh has never been complacent with his achievements and reputation. Both in life and on the field, Vinh is always a "diligent bee". On the training ground, when his juniors are resting, Vinh tries to run a few more laps, on the field when no one provides the ball, he retreats deep into the home field to look for the ball and dribble up...

Cong Vinh is showing good form in the national team.

Perhaps because of that virtue, Vinh has maintained his peak performance for quite a long time and has won the hearts of coaches, especially Huu Thang. It was Huu Thang who helped Cong Vinh shine at the JVC Cup 2003 - a friendly tournament, from which Vinh became a Vietnamese football star. In the 2013 season, when the Hanoi ACB team was disbanded, Cong Vinh was "imprisoned" by a huge contract with his old team, and no one had enough money to rescue this striker. At that time, Huu Thang and SLNA, through their relationship, "saved" Cong Vinh. Returning to SLNA on loan, Vinh shone again and was invited to play by a Japanese club.

When he moved to B.Binh Duong, where the team had a lot of money, many stars, and the personality coach Le Thuy Hai was the "biggest star", Vinh was not appreciated, many people thought of the scenario of Vinh retiring from his playing career in sadness. But CV9 was not discouraged because of that. To assert himself, Vinh threw himself into training and played with all his might every time he was on the field. Gradually, Vinh's patience was rewarded with important goals at B.Binh Duong. Then Huu Thang took over the team, Vinh was called in again, many people criticized the brotherly relationship between Huu Thang and Cong Vinh, but Vinh responded with consecutive goals for the team. After the recent match with Hong Kong, everyone was "convinced": Vinh is still the number 1 striker of Vietnam today!

With what he has shown, many Nghe An fans hope that CV9 will have a happy ending with the national team at the upcoming AFF Cup 2016. The road to that victory will certainly face many difficulties and challenges from opponents on the field and the media, if Vinh makes a mistake, but believe that Vinh will overcome it to make a contribution to the young players of Nghe An - who are about to enter the 20th season of the Nghe An Newspaper Cup. There, Vinh slept in a hotel for the first time, ate ice cream and was called to the SLNA training center!

Duc Dung