From Nghe An Newspaper Cup champion to V-League's brightest face

Journey of over 40km every day to go to soccer practice

Born in 2002 in the mountainous district of Tan Ky, Nguyen Van Viet has shown his qualities as an excellent goalkeeper since his elementary school years. In 2012, Van Viet was selected by the Tan Ky District Cultural Center to participate in the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth and Children's Football Tournament.

Goalkeeper Van Viet (bottom row, far right) and the Tan Ky district team won the 2013 Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth and Children Football Championship. Photo: NVCC

A year later (2013), Van Viet and his district team won the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth - Children Football Championship. And from then on, goalkeeper Nguyen Van Viet fell in love with football.

Born into a farming family, Van Viet's parents were not well off, but because of his burning love for football, the family still created conditions for Van Viet to live out his passion. So even though the house was 20km away from the district center, every day, Van Viet's mother still took her son to the District Cultural Center stadium to practice football with the Tan Ky district team. The 40km round trip that his mother traveled created more motivation for Van Viet to try his best and practice hard to achieve the best results.

When he heard that he was selected to join the training center of Song Lam Nghe An Club, Van Viet was very proud and happy. From that moment, the journey to the football career of goalkeeper Nguyen Van Viet officially began.

Nguyen Van Viet (yellow shirt, far left) and U15 Vietnam won the 2017 Southeast Asian U15 Championship. Photo: NVCC

Continuous efforts through the seasons

The first achievement that Viet achieved when he started his career was winning the Silver Medal with U13 Song Lam Nghe An in Hue in 2015. Two years later (2017), Viet and U15 Song Lam won the Bronze Medal at the U15 National Cup. Although U15 Song Lam Nghe An did not achieve high results in that year's tournament, with their outstanding performance, Van Viet and Dinh Xuan Tien were still selected to join U15 Vietnam to participate in the U15 Southeast Asia tournament. After defeating U15 Thailand in a nerve-wracking penalty shootout, Van Viet and U15 Vietnam won the U15 Southeast Asia Championship 2017.

A year later, Van Viet continued to be called up to join the Vietnam U16 team to prepare for the 2018 U16 Asian qualifiers.

During the following period, this young goalkeeper was promoted to play with the seniors from U17 to U21. Because of that, Van Viet learned a lot of experience from the guidance of his seniors.

After winning the Silver Medal with U21 Song Lam Nghe An in the 2020 National U21 Finals, Van Viet was loaned to Hai Nam Vinh Phuc Club. Viet also played excellently and helped Vinh Phuc team get promoted.

Van Viet and the first matches at V-League 2023.

After 1 year, Van Viet returned to his homeland, but for a young goalkeeper like Van Viet, playing in a harsh arena like V-League is not possible. But this goalkeeper did not get discouraged, Viet still persevered in training, learning from his seniors. During the training sessions, Viet also showed his ability and received the trust of the coaching staff. In the last two rounds of Song Lam Nghe An Club in V-League 2023, Viet was chosen to be the main goalkeeper.

Young goalkeeper Van Viet with amazing saves at V-League 2023.

Faced with the team's difficulties this season, the pressure on this young goalkeeper is enormous. However, when selected, Viet has shown his mettle, he has made some amazing saves, especially in the match against Hanoi Police Club, Van Viet showed his quick reflexes and sharp judgment in situations.

Van Viet is sharp in judging situations.

Although the results were not as expected, with what Van Viet has shown in the last two matches, the coaching staff of Song Lam Nghe An will have more options for upcoming plans, as this young goalkeeper is maturing through each match.

And if he practices hard and studies hard, in the near future, Van Viet will be the one guarding the goal for the Song Lam Nghe An football team./.