Tan Ky Children's Team is determined to defend the championship title of the Youth Football Tournament - Children's Cup of Nghe An Newspaper

With the two most recent consecutive championships, up to now, Tan Ky District Children's Football teams have won the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth - Children Football Championship 7 times.

This is an impressive number, affirming that the locality has been focusing on developing the king sport, making an important contribution to discovering and training young talents for provincial football.

From the beginning of May 2024, the Department of Culture - Sports of Tan Ky district unanimously selected the Children's Football Team to participate in the 26th Nghe An Newspaper Cup, at the same time completed the selection of personnel and entered the training phase.

Despite the unfavorable weather, the teachers and students of Tan Ky Children's Football Team still diligently practiced physical exercises, techniques, tactics, etc. Outside the field, many parents, after taking their children to the field, stayed behind to watch the activities of both teachers and students.

Mr. Nguyen Sy Dung in Vinh Thanh hamlet, Dong Van commune, in recent days has taken his son Nguyen Sy Khai Phong (born 2015) on a journey of more than 20km to practice with the football team.

Mr. Dung said: “Every day, we witness the teachers and the children persistently practicing under the hot and humid weather, and we can see the high determination of the whole team. Because of the children's passion, we always accompany the team.”

Among the 12 athletes of the Tan Ky District Children's Football Team participating in the Nghe An Newspaper Cup this year, only Nguyen Van Nhat Thanh from Ky Son commune participated in the 2023 season and also had a long time to practice at the Song Lam Nghe An amateur gifted class.

"We are practicing hard every day and the whole team will be determined in every match in the upcoming tournament," Nhat Thanh shared.

Following the players closely is coach Nguyen Van Linh - a dedicated, passionate and experienced sports officer. According to him, the biggest difficulty for the team right now is that all the players are selected from many communes in the district, many of them are from remote communes such as Tien Ky, Dong Van... the travel distance is far, some places are up to 30 km from the district center, so every time the team gathers for practice, it is very difficult for parents to pick up and drop off the players twice a day.

"In addition, this year's regulations only allow students from grade 4 and below to participate in the tournament, so the players are still young, many players have only been practicing with the team for a few weeks, leading to not really smooth coordination. Besides, the team has very few outstanding players, so we only know how to focus on training techniques and tactics for the whole team," said coach Nguyen Van Linh.

Tan Ky District Culture, Sports and Communication Center considers the selection of talented players to practice and compete as a key task for the tournament, so every year the coaching staff has made efforts to search in localities and schools to regularly supplement human resources for the Song Lam Nghe An amateur football talent class in the district.

Mr. Tran Xuan Phuong - Deputy Director of the Center for Culture - Sports and Communication of Tan Ky district said: "As soon as the Department received an official dispatch on organizing the Youth - Children's Football Tournament of Nghe An Newspaper Cup in 2024, the Center developed an early and specific training plan, carefully prepared the field as well as other conditions to create favorable conditions for players to participate in training.

Currently, the young athletes are on summer vacation, so we have arranged accommodation for them to practice. With all their efforts, Tan Ky Children's Football Team is determined to win every match to achieve the highest results."

With the enthusiasm of the young coach and the passion of the children, especially the wholehearted support of the district's officials, people and parents, Tan Ky promises to continue to be a strong candidate at the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament this year.