Van Sy Son - the V-League championship record holder?

Van Sy Son's football career has been with the Nghe An football team since 1991 until now.In 2007, at the age of 36, he retired. This was also the period when the Van Sy brothers (Van Sy Hung, Van Sy Son, Van Sy Thuy and the youngest Van Sy Linh) were an indispensable part of SLNA.

Vinh Stadium is where Van Sy's family has many happy and sad memories, where Van Sy Son lifted the V-League Championship Cup for the first time in 2001. The once famous left-back of SLNA was once given a disciplinary warning and suspended for 1.5 years for lack of responsibility in the 2003-2004 season.

The most successful Nghe An player in V-League

Few people thought that, despite contributing so much to SLNA, the trio Van Sy Hung, Van Sy Son, and Van Sy Thuy could not win a position as youth team coach for the Nghe An team.

Assistant Van Sy Son is the person who has won the most V-League championship titles. Photo: Internet

In 2008, after obtaining a football coaching certificate, with no chance of becoming a coach of SLNA’s youth team, Van Sy Son had to pack up and go to Hanoi to work as an assistant to Trieu Quang Ha, a contemporary friend. Together with Chu Dinh Nghiem, a former player of Nam Dinh (present since 2005), they and Trieu Quang Ha brought Hanoi T&T (predecessor of Hanoi FC) to the professional level.

But the following season, due to poor performance, Trieu Quang Ha resigned as coach so that Huu Thang, the "replacement" from Vinh, could take over to help Hanoi T&T stay in the league.

It turns out that 10 years with the Capital team is the time when Van Sy Son has had the most success in his life on the football field. This is the third season that assistant coach Van has won the championship with the team. Along with the championship as a player, Van Sy Son is the person who has won the most championship titles in V-League. That is not to mention 1 super cup, second and third place with these 2 teams.

Over the past decade, Van Sy Son has been an assistant to coaches such as Trieu Quang Ha, Nguyen Huu Thang, Phan Thanh Hung, Pham Minh Duc and most recently, his close friend Chu Dinh Nghiem.

The team of Van Sy Son, Chu Dinh Nghiem, The Anh (goalkeeper coach) has worked alongside coach Phan Thanh Hung for 6 impressive years with the Capital team. But recently, the 2018 V-League season was the first time Mr. Van Sy Son directly "commanded the troops" when Chu Dinh Nghiem was disciplined and banned from coaching 4 matches.

In the 4 matches coached by Van Sy Son, Hanoi FC drew 1-1 with HAGL in the second leg at Hang Day Stadium to reach the semi-finals of the National Cup, including the impressive substitution, bringing defender Thanh Chung onto the field and scoring the equalizer at the end of the match.

In V-League 2018 from round 8-10, under the direction of Van Sy Son, Hanoi FC won all 3 matches, including winning against home team Nam Dinh (2-0), away team FLC Thanh Hoa (4-3), and winning against home team SLNA (2-1).

Of course, Van Sy Son still has the effective support of his colleague Chu Dinh Nghiem, but it is clear that this professional assistant has overcome a lot of pressure, from expertise to spirit for his students while coach Dinh Nghiem was doing very well before.

Compared to his time as a player, Van Sy Son's somewhat hot-tempered and impulsive competitive nature has decreased a lot, but there have been many times when he has caused himself to receive disciplinary punishments such as suspension and fines from the Disciplinary Board for arguing with referees, culminating in the time he bowed to referee Vo Minh Tri.

That time, Van Sy Son was fined 10 million VND and suspended from duty for 4 matches in Vietnam's professional football tournaments in 2017. Previously, in January 2014, he was banned from directing three matches and fined 10 million VND by the Disciplinary Board for rushing out of the directing area and yelling at the referee in the match between Hanoi T&T and Ninh Binh.

Tireless wings

In addition to Van Sy Son, this year, Van Kien - another player from Nghe An also contributed to the overall victory of Hanoi FC with 2 goals in V-League. The player from Nghia Dan, born in 1996, is a product of the VST training center in Cua Lo before joining Hanoi T&T, playing in the right-back position, and was called up by coach Park Hang Seo to the list of the Vietnam U23 team to prepare for the 2018 U23 Asian Cup finals.

With 2 goals, Van Kien contributed to attaching the 4th star to Hanoi FC's shirt. Photo: Internet

However, the medical team later determined that he was suffering from heart disease. Now that he has completed treatment and is performing impressively this season, the path to the national team is open again for him.

Having joined the first team for only 3 years, Van Kien has won 2 V-League Championship Cups and 1 third prize. Perhaps apart from his colleagues in the same shirt, it is difficult for any young player in Vietnam to have the same achievements as this defender. Working tirelessly on the right wing, Van Kien is a tireless bird in the young star squad of Hanoi FC.