"Making people happier" from the love of football

(Baonghean) -Not a football manager, nor a coach or an athlete, like many other fans, he has a great passion and quietly contributes to Vietnamese football thoughts and actions that cannot be ignored...

From the clam-paved yard to... The Theater of Dreams

Once I met him by chance in Hanoi, he gave me the book “We are friends” (A father writes for his son) published by Ho Chi Minh City General Publishing House in 2009. The book is a collection of some passages he wrote on his blog, about all kinds of issues in life, printed for his two beloved sons. I read it in one go and thought a lot about what he confided to his children like an older, trusted friend, full of experience. I was also very surprised and interested when reading the passages he wrote about football, joy, sadness, passion, discovery, work, all very… fierce like the Nghe An nature in him. He wrote: “In my childhood dreams, there was also the image of a passionate football player that I only knew through live radio reports. I still remember the first “top” football match I watched at the district stadium, where the stands were made of earth and the walls were made of shells, and I first saw the Army Club players with admiration…” (Football, Wednesday, August 6, 2008)

From the stadium… clam, he came to My Dinh National Stadium in the second leg of the AFF Cup 2008 final between Vietnam and Thailand, in which the Vietnamese team won the championship in overflowing joy when Cong Vinh scored: “Today, the young men brought joy to not only those present on the field, as you have seen, on the street there were many old people, young men and women, walking and shouting… They were happy, because they had been through many disappointments, in 1988, I was also on the stadium and had been so disappointed. In 2003, I was on My Dinh Stadium, also sad and disappointed… Today is the same, the last 60 minutes of the match made the spectators at My Dinh Stadium silent, worried, restless, miserable… They went, came, and brought home the laurel wreath of glory… Every championship title is soaked in sweat and always requires luck. After the championship, there are many other things to do… (We are the champions – Chung We are the champions, Sunday 18.12.2008)

Olympiacos Club President and Pham Quang Vinh were received and had a friendly talk with President Nguyen Minh Triet (2008).

From My Dinh National Stadium, he was fortunate to visit many famous stadiums around the world: “Dad had many opportunities that only exist in the dreams of many football fans when he not only set foot in famous stadiums, but he also got to watch top matches, from the Euro final between Greece and Portugal, to the World Cup final at the Berlin Olympic Stadium…” and “until yesterday, dad was present at another football sanctuary – the Theater of Dreams… Dad realized another beauty of football, from the meticulousness and dedication of the people working here, in a giant machine to bring joy to not only tens of thousands of people in this stadium.” (Football, Wednesday, August 6, 2008).

He told his sons: “For the first time, I had a luxurious dinner in the stadium (Old Trafford). Perhaps if I hadn't looked out the glass door, where the Reds fans were walking through the Munich tunnel to get inside the stadium, the menu on the table would have reminded me of a luxury restaurant in central London, not the stadium. And there's nothing better than a good football match after a delicious meal of steamed sea bass and fine New Zealand white wine. 69,825 people attended this match at Old Trafford, and they were the other important part of a football match. I understand why people call this the Theatre of Dreams…” (Football, Wednesday, August 6, 2008). The match that he considered a reunion between the two top football clubs in the world: Manchester United and Juventus Turin, “was a dream match, because in that match there were two men, two special players, Ryan Giggs and Del Piero. They had a strange football career when their football career only went through one club. Joining their respective teams in the early 90s, both were talented young players, they stuck to their passion in the same place where they grew up, they were never named in the transfer news of the sports press…” (Gigg and Del Piero, Friday 8.5.2009)

And this is not written in the book above: He has been to the main stadium of the number 1 football club in Greece, Ollympiacos, at least 3 times, that is Karaiskakis Stadium, Athens. Here, the most recent time was in April 2010, he attended an Olympiacos match and next to him was the famous goalkeeper of the Greek national team that won the European Championship in 2004 and the Olympiacos Club that has participated in the European Cup 1 for many years and now the Champions League, Antonis Nikopolidis.

Pham Quang Vinh and coach Calisto.


Pham Quang Vinh and the famous goalkeeper of the Greek national team won the championship
Europe 2004 and Olympiacos Club participated in the C1 Cup for many years
Europe and now Champions League, Antonis Nikopolidis.


Pham Quang Vinh and Olympiakos Club President - billionaire Kokkalis Socrates led the team to visit Uncle Ho's Mausoleum.

Bringing top football to My Dinh

On April 18, 2009, TT&VH Online Newspaper, the leading sports and culture newspaper in Vietnam, reported: "On the afternoon of April 17, VFF officially announced the match between the Vietnam team and Olympiacos Club (reigning champions of Greece) on May 14 at My Dinh Stadium. If the other team commits to sending its strongest force to Hanoi, this will be a worthy test for Mr. Calisto and his team after the Vietnam team won the 2008 AFF Cup."

According to Mr. Pham Quang Vinh, Director of Pham & Associates Company - VFF's partner in organizing the match against Olympiacos (who just returned from Athens on the morning of April 17), Olympiacos members said they are eagerly waiting for the trip to Vietnam and know the admiration of Vietnamese audiences for their team. Mr. Vinh also added that Olympiacos will come to Vietnam on May 12, after attending the National Cup final (taking place on May 5). Olympiakos Club will come to Vietnam this time with 18 players. At 8:45 a.m. on May 13, Olympiakos players will visit President Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and have a training session at 6 p.m. on the same day. On the morning of May 15, Olympiakos Club will visit the Temple of Literature and the Museum of Ethnology.

On this occasion, he was honored to join the president of Olympiakos Club - billionaire Kokkalis Socrates to lead the team to visit Uncle Ho's Mausoleum (photo 2) and then was received and talked intimately by President Nguyen Minh Triet (photo 3). He proudly showed that in the Vietnamese national team's lineup at that time, there were many bright faces with "roots" from SLNA and QK4: Minh Duc, Ngoc Anh, Trong Hoang, Cong Vinh and Dinh Luat.

This match attracted a lot of fans, the Vietnam national football team won with a score of 1-0, the goal was scored by Quang Hai. It must also be said that, up to now, big football clubs have not come to Vietnam for many reasons, including the role of brokers. Mr. Pham Quang Vinh, with his burning love for football, through his close relationship with his Greek friends, has done something that is not easy, bringing not only joy and happiness to the country's football fans but also the opportunity to compete for the Vietnam national football team and bring the image of Vietnamese football to the world.

At this point, everyone must have realized that the author of the book “We are friends”, Pham Quang Vinh, is the Director of Pham & Associates Company, the person who brought Olympiacos Club to Vietnam for meaningful sports and cultural exchanges. Not only that, he is also the representative of the famous European and world football club Manchester United in Vietnam. He wrote in “We are friends”: “And my father’s love for football… returned to the day he became a part of MU”, “making people happier by bringing passion to others” (Football, Wednesday, August 6, 2008)

So, Pham Quang Vinh loves football, travels all over the world to study and learn about football and brings that joy and passion not only to his two sons but to everyone.

Nghe people, when talking about a person with strange thoughts and actions, different from others, can be summed up in one word: strange!

Certainly, Pham Quang Vinh, from Dien Kim commune, Dien Chau district, currently Director of Pham & Associates Company - Hanoi, is a very funny Nghe person!

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