Coach Nguyen Van Thinh and his arduous career with SLNA

Coach Nguyen Van Thinh has been associated with many ups and downs with SLNA. Graphics: Trung Kien

Mr. Nguyen Van Thinh was born in 1960 in Vinh City. When he was 13 years old, peace was restored in the North. He was honored to be a member of the first amateur youth football team of Nghe An, consisting of 60 people. After 3 years of training, it was not until 1978 that the list of Nghe An's first gifted football team was reduced to 24 players, and Mr. Thinh was also among them.

In 1980, he and players of the same generation such as Nguyen Dinh Nghia, Nguyen Quang Hai, Nguyen Xuan Vinh were promoted to the Provincial Team 1. Nguyen Van Thinh was honored to be in the ranks of the Song Lam Nghe Tinh team participating in the A2 Tournament at that time and promoted to the national A1 level (the highest level at that time) in 1984.

He played prominently and excellently as a midfielder in the youth team, but when he played at the top level, Mr. Thinh could not compete for a starting position with other talented and outstanding players. And because he had no chance to perform, 1987 was the turning point in Mr. Thinh's football career.

At the age of 33, still in good health, Coach Nguyen Thanh Vinh and Nguyen Hong Thanh soon recognized the qualities of their student and decided to send player Nguyen Van Thinh to attend a coaching course. While his teammates continued to play until 1990, Mr. Thinh became a football coach at the Nghe An Sports Training Center.

One of the first honors of coach Nguyen Van Thinh was to contribute to training the young players Nguyen Huu Thang, Phan Thanh Tuan, Ngo Quang Truong, Pham Anh Tuan... The first golden generation of SLNA.

It was not until 1994 that Song Lam Football Team formed a youth team, but because of the task of developing amateur football in the province, it was not until 1996 that Mr. Nguyen Van Thinh was assigned the task of training the first generation of players Van Quyen, Nhu Thuat... He and his students won the bronze medal at the National Children's Championship that year, and in 1997, they won the runner-up position.

His first sweet fruit in coaching was in 1998, when players like Van Quyen, Minh Duc, Nhu Thuat, Van Vinh... won the National U14 Championship and continuously reaped other successes when competing in the U18 and U21 Championships.

One of the milestones of SLNA football and national football marked by Coach Thinh was the 2000 U16 Asian Cup in Da Nang. He led the aforementioned group of players to defeat U16 China 3-2, enter the semi-finals and finish 4th in Asia. From here, the name Pham Van Quyen began to emerge and was loved by fans nationwide.

After that success, Coach Nguyen Van Thinh was appointed as the head coach of U20 Vietnam, leading Quoc Vuong, Van Truong, Quang Cuong... to participate in the 2002 Southeast Asian Championship, winning the bronze medal and the U20 Asian Championship.

The miracle of U16 Vietnam led by coach Nguyen Van Thinh at the 2000 U16 Asian Cup is associated with the names Van Quyen, Nhu Thuat... Photo: Quang Minh

There was a time when Mr. Thinh was appointed as the Head of SLNA's youth training department. In V.League 2005, when coach Nguyen Thanh Vinh was no longer leading SLNA, Mr. Thinh took the position of head coach of SLNA's first team for the first time.

This was a period when SLNA faced many difficulties, internal problems, many talented players always wanted to "leave", but with his ability, Coach Nguyen Van Thinh still gradually led the team to overcome difficulties, reaching 5th place. Once again, Mr. Thinh had to leave because of side stories. After that, Mr. Thinh was seconded to the First Division team Dong Nai.

In 2007, he was recalled by SLNA to replace coach Nguyen Quang Hai and continue to lead SLNA. In V.League 2009, amidst numerous financial difficulties and no sponsors, Mr. Thinh helped SLNA enter the Top 3 with a generation of young players Trong Hoang - Van Binh - Dinh Dong - Au Hoan... Under Mr. Thinh's guidance, this generation of players soon joined the first team, played with great experience and matured remarkably.

However, when the season ended, it was also the time when the North Asia Sponsor officially took over SLNA. Starting a new phase that promised many successes, but Mr. Thinh "unluckily" had to go down to the youth team to make way for Coach Nguyen Huu Thang.

Not wanting to waste the "brainpower" of a talented coach like him, SLNA leaders often second him to lead other teams in the First Division and V.League.

“When I was loaned out to coach other teams, I saw it as an opportunity to improve my skills and also an opportunity to improve my financial situation. During this time, I grew up a lot.”

Coach Nguyen Van Thinh

Saying goodbye to Quang Nam due to disagreements in the way of doing football with this locality, Mr. Thinh returned to Nghe An, no longer on the payroll at SLNA, for more than a year, he lived in seclusion to have time to take care of his family. However, for a person whose blood and flesh are involved in football, leaving his ego behind, Mr. Thinh accepted to teach summer football classes at SLNA with an income of 90,000 VND/day. Only later was he officially appointed by SLNA leaders to lead the U11 SLNA team and later the U21 SLNA team.

Football career of coach Nguyen Van Thinh. Graphics: Trung Kien

In fact, Coach Nguyen Van Thinh has enough experience and expertise to lead a team in V.League, but because he does not have the foreign language ability to study for an A - AFC license and update modern football knowledge, Coach Nguyen Van Thinh only stops at a B license.

In 2014, when coach Huu Thang left SLNA, Mr. Thinh became the leading candidate for the hot seat. SLNA leaders fully understood that Mr. Thinh deserved to sit in this chair, but because he did not have the qualifications required by VFF, coach Ngo Quang Truong was forced to take charge. And in V.League 2016, when coach Nguyen Duc Thang took the helm of SLNA to replace his predecessor, Ngo Quang Truong, Mr. Thinh was the number 1 assistant.

V.League 2016 witnessed a rather deadlocked and struggling SLNA, the Nghe An team started from scratch, only finishing in 9th place overall. By V.League 2017, the playing style that the coaching team built for SLNA became clearer, SLNA won the National Cup but only finished in 8th place.

And in V.League 2018, the mark of the duo Duc Thang - Van Thinh is extremely clear. SLNA, amidst numerous economic difficulties, still finished 4th overall.

Coach Nguyen Van Thinh is currently a professional assistant to head coach Nguyen Duc Thang. Photo: Duc Anh

Under coach Nguyen Duc Thang and assistant Nguyen Van Thinh, SLNA demonstrated an extremely effective defensive counter-attacking style of play even though foreign players were not really a mainstay for the team. Coach Van Thinh's experience and expertise, along with the decisiveness and management ability of head coach Duc Thang, SLNA became a team with a clear and extremely annoying playing style.

Not only that, SLNA received the award for the most fair-playing team in V.League 2018. During the entire season, the Nghe An team received the fewest penalty cards and was the club that did not receive any red cards.

There is a very remarkable statistic, since coach Duc Thang led SLNA with Mr. Thinh as his assistant, a professional “architect”, SLNA has never received a red card. Even though the Nghe An team is still known for its “tough and decisive” playing style in the past.

From the time he retired early and became a football coach, many years of hardship in youth training and traveling around the world, Coach Nguyen Van Thinh is considered to have made a great contribution to the achievements of SLNA. However, sometimes his frank and straightforward personality cannot help him have a chance with the coaching career.

I don’t know how many times I had to write a resignation letter, not having the fate to be a football manager after so many years in the profession, but clearly no one is more suitable for the role of “advisor” than Mr. Thinh. People call him “unlucky” Thinh, but in his current role, he is bringing good luck to SLNA. And with the current SLNA coaching staff, including Coach Anh Tuan - Huy Hoang, the Nghe An team will certainly reap more success./.

Plus points of SLNA coach Nguyen Duc Thang

(Baonghean.vn) – Since coach Nguyen Huu Thang left, coach Ngo Quang Truong could not stand the "heat" on the SLNA coaching bench, the chosen person Duc Thang is doing quite well in his first year leading the Nghe An team.

Trung Kien