When did Nghe An football start?

In Vietnam, football is said to have followed the legionnaires from France and French colonies, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1920,Vinh National School(College de Vinh) was born. A year later, the school's football team was also established. According to Professor Nguyen Xien's memoirs, this was the first football team of Vietnamese people in Vinh. The team was named "Lam Thanh Football Team". Interestingly, the members of this team were mostly figures who later became famous in modern Vietnamese politics and science, such as Ton Quang Phiet, Nguyen Loi, Hoang Xuan Han, Dang Thai Mai...

“Lam Thanh Football Team” of Vinh National School, the first Vietnamese football team in Vinh, founded in 1921. Photo courtesy

Professor Nguyen Xien wrote in his memoirs: “In 1921, the first football club in Vinh was born under the name “Lam Thanh football team”. Now there is still a photo on which we can still recognize, around Ton Quang Phiet, wearing a turban and ao dai, carrying the club president’s bag, were players wearing tank tops and shorts, including strong players like Dinh Van Tuong, Tran Van Thuy, Hoang Xuan Khang, Phan Tuyen who were strong enough to compete with the players in green loincloths, next to them were lighter but no less enthusiastic players like Dang Thai Mai, Nguyen Kim Cuong, Loi (Loi Lu), Son (coc), and even Hoang Xuan Han, a student of class 3”. “Lam Thanh football team” regularly played against the football teams of Western soldiers and other teams in the city. In particular, the team also “brought the bell to strike” all the way to Thanh Hoa, Nam Dinh…

In addition to “Lam Thanh Football Team”, in Vinh there are 5-6 football teams, such as: Candasport of Western soldiers; Garder Indigene (blue striped shirt) of green-clad soldiers; ASAT of Truong Thi Railway Factory; Lacomec of the Health sector; Corix Rouge (red striped shirt) of the Red Cross... Among them, the most famous is the ASNA team, which is the football team of the Nghe An Sports Association (ASNA is the abbreviation of “Association sportive Nghe An”, meaning Nghe An Sports Association). This is the team that is almost the official representative of Nghe An when participating in regional and Central tournaments. The team wears yellow shirts and white pants, so it is often called the Yellow Shirt team.

In Vinh in the 1930s there were a number of football fields (commonly called "grounds") such as the field ofTruong Thi Railway Factory, the football field behind Vinh Railway Station, Nha Tam Stadium in Cua Ta area... ASNA's stadium (commonly called Yellow Shirt Stadium) is considered the official stadium of the city (Stade municipal Vinh). This stadium is outside Nghe An city, in the area of ​​Pham Ngu Lao street, Cua Nam ward today. The stadium is made of soil, there is no drainage system, so when it rains the stadium is very slippery, even muddy.

The match between ASNA and Corix Rouge on the afternoon of September 18, 1933, had to be cancelled due to rain, making the field muddy and unplayable. At that time, the field had no stands and was surrounded by a fence, initially made of bamboo, later replaced by an iron fence. Whenever there was a ceremony, festival, or an important match, people would set up tents and borrow seats from theaters.

Football matches here were sold for charity. Tickets with seats in the theater usually cost 1 dong, tickets without seats cost 1 hao (0.1 dong). If compared with the price of 5 cents for 1 kilo of rice and the current life of the people, it can be seen that football tickets at that time were quite expensive. Some matches reported in the press had earned from ticket sales from 250 to nearly 400 dong. It was estimated that there were 2,000 - 3,000 spectators coming to watch the matches. With the population of Vinh at that time being just over 20,000 people, this proved that Nghe An people were very fond of football.

Some football matches in the 1930s. Photo from Thanh Nghe Tinh Tan Van newspaper.

Until the 1940s, the name “football” was not yet popular, but was often called “round ball”. The football team was also often called “Round ball association”. Players were often called “generals”, “warriors”, “player generals”. Similarly, positions on the field also have many other names today, such as “back-up” to refer to defenders; “center-up” to refer to attacking midfielders; “center-forward” to refer to “center forwards”… Not only were there no professional football teams, but the referee force was also amateur. Some tournaments even used the captains of the teams as referees. Article 9 of the Regulations of the Second Division Round Football Tournament of North Central Vietnam, held in Vinh in September 1933 stipulated: “The captains of the associations are all appointed as referees, but are not allowed to hold the whistle to play for their own association against other associations”.

The time of each match is not fixed at 90 minutes, but can be "flexible" a little according to reality. The friendly match for the "Le Do" Cup between ASNA and Da Nang on April 17, 1933, after 2 halves the score was still 2-2, the two teams had stopped, but the organizers saw that it was still light (at that time the stadium had no lights) so they asked for an additional 20 minutes to decide the winner.

In the 1930s, in addition to official tournaments, there were also many sports and football tournaments organized by businesses (such as SIFA, Truong Thi Train), businessmen (such as Le Viet Loi, Ky Sung Thuc, etc.), officials (such as Governor Nguyen Khoa Ky, Representative Tran Ba ​​Vinh, etc.), or with prizes. Therefore, the sports and football movement in Vinh during this period developed quite vigorously.

In the 1930s, Thanh Nghe Tinh Tan Van newspaper had articles and photos reporting football matches between the associations almost every week. In the 1930s, there were often friendly football matches between Nghe An teams, especially ASNA, and teams from Nha Trang, Da Nang, Hue, Thanh Hoa, Hanoi and Hai Phong. Nghe An's ASNA team participated in official tournaments of Central Vietnam many times and went deep into the tournament. However, although there were some good players in the Central Vietnam team, Nghe An football during this period did not have high achievements in Central Vietnam.

Although it was only amateur, Nghe An football during the French colonial period also had many faces considered "good players". We can mention players such as Khanh (striker, captain of ASNA, participating in the Central team); Tri Sui (center) of ASNA; Urini (goalkeeper of ASNA); A Quang, Rinh, Nhu, Nghia (Commet team)... The press also mentioned the trio of strikers (tam phong) Thu, Tich, Duoc of ASNA who made waves on the football fields at that time.

The yellow jersey of the current SLNA football team is maintained from the football team of Nghe An Gymnastics Association nearly 100 years ago. Photo: Ba Tuan

However, the most famous and influential player during the French colonial period in Nghe An was the famous player Tran Xuan, from Nam Dinh, who served in the French army, but because he played football well, he was recruited to the Hai Phong Olympic team. After being discharged from the army, in 1941, he and his wife went to Vinh to open a restaurant. Having been a famous player before, when he returned to Vinh this time, Tran Xuan was reborn and promoted. He was invited by the Corix Rouge team. A short time later, the Corix Rouge team and a few other teams were merged into ASNA and the famous player Tran Xuan became the Captain of the famous Yellow Shirt team. Despite his old age, for two consecutive years (1942 and 1943), Tran Xuan was still able to participate and play excellently in the Central football team participating in the Indochina football tournament, named after Marshal Petain. Later, Mr. Tran Xuan was the Deputy Director of Nghe An Sports and Physical Training, the person who built the foundation for Nghe An football today.

Not only a hobby, a sport, football is also a place to express, to forge the character and identity of the people of Nghe An. I think, 100 years of Nghe An football is also an event that needs and should have a suitable form of commemoration!

Pham Xuan Can