Pham Bui Minh - the mysterious figure in SLNA's coaching staff.

Pham Bui Minh, born in 1978, is a player who came through the SLNA youth academy. Like his peer Nguyen Thanh Cong, Bui Minh's playing career at SLNA was not particularly outstanding.

Pham Bui Minh when he was still the head coach of SLNA U19. (Photo courtesy of PV)

After being promoted to the SLNA first team, Bui Minh couldn't secure a place in the starting lineup, so he quickly chose his own path – going to school to become a coach. At one point, Bui Minh was even known for his role as a referee.

On the coaching bench, Bui Minh quickly made his mark when he earned the trust of head coach Nguyen Huu Thang, who chose him as his assistant during SLNA's 2011 National Championship victory.

When coach Huu Thang left, Mr. Minh was assigned the task of youth training, becoming a member of the coaching staff for the U-teams at SLNA.

In 2020, Coach Bui Minh was invited by Hai Phong to be an assistant to Coach Pham Anh Tuan. Later, he was appointed head coach of the SLNA U19 team...

During a recent training session of the SLNA first team, assistant coach Pham Bui Minh consistently created an enthusiastic atmosphere for the players. Photo: Duc Anh

Upon review, it's clear that SLNA's confident decision to select Bui Minh for the first team's coaching staff is based on concrete and clear grounds.

Comparisons are always flawed, but sometimes they can create a relative perspective to help visualize the story. For example, Bui Minh and Thanh Cong trained together, competed in youth tournaments, then moved up to the first team, and let's assume their achievements were comparable; as they matured, received further training, studied, took exams, earned degrees, and returned to work in different roles, they still continued to work together.

However, now that Thanh Cong is the head coach of so many V.League teams, having helped "rescue" teams in Central Vietnam from Quang Nam to Thanh Hoa, and then back to Hong Linh Ha Tinh... the fact that Bui Minh is still "lagging behind" as assistant coach of the SLNA first team is not due to any "rapid" promotion or vested interests, but is certainly for legitimate professional and technical reasons, carried out "according to procedure"!

Pursuing a career in football, training and growing from the age of number 6 at Dao Tan, everyone has always held one belief: no matter what position they hold, their greatest aspiration is to play for the SLNA first team, to be entrusted with some important responsibility in the SLNA first team's coaching staff, to bring pride to their neighbors, and to repay their parents for all the years of support and sacrifice.

Therefore, the fact that people with a long-standing connection to SLNA, like Bui Minh, were assigned the role of assistant head coach of the first team (while many others had the necessary qualifications, practical experience, and achievements) is a matter of choosing the best from a limited pool of options, and of course, it also involved the individual efforts of each person and the luck at each given time…

The success of coaches Thanh Vinh and Huu Thang in the first team, and the youth teams under coaches Nguyen Van Thinh, Dinh Van Dung, and Le Ky Phuong, are well worth considering and learning from for the current "quartet" of first-team coaches. Among them, coach Bui Minh has the most to learn and work hard, as he doesn't have the "starting point" of being a talented player like Huy Hoang, Nhu Thuat, or Van Quyen.

In this era of deep integration, Bui Minh and many football fans are undoubtedly aware that many world-class and domestic coaches like Mourinho and Thomas Tuchel, who were quite mediocre players, now command the admiration of many. In Vietnam, coach Chu Dinh Nghiem is excellent, but he didn't have any impressive achievements as a player.

A professional at SLNA commented that, besides his professional abilities, Bui Minh has a calm personality, which young players listen to and trust, meaning he can "control the troops." That is a necessary quality, perhaps even the most necessary in the current context of SLNA...