Minh Đoàn and the change as a PVF player

Huỳnh Minh Đoàn (2001, born in Đồng Tháp) has entered his 8th year at PVF. In the year of his tryout, Đoàn was the only player selected to join PVF in the Đồng Tháp recruitment campaign.

With the excitement mixed with nervousness, Đoàn took a bus to Hồ Chí Minh City in the morning, and got on the pitch of PVF in the afternoon. Immediately after that, he got sick for days. “At that time I was really small. Other players came in the academy a year earlier so they were stronger. I was just afraid that I could not keep up with everyone.” said Minh Đoàn.

Huỳnh Minh Đoàn

Thanks to his efforts and confidence, over two months, Minh Đoàn caught up with life at Thành Long Sports Center (PVF headquarters before August 2017). He was often trusted by coaches to play in the first team. As his Brazilian idol Dani Alves, Minh Đoàn is passionate and also quite an artist on the pitch.

The first memory in football competition of Minh Đoàn was the defeat to U15 Hoàng Anh Gia Lai in the final of National U15 Championship in 2016. “We played well and dominated the match, but failed to take advantage of opportunities and then lost in the penalty shootout. It was the official tournament that our team had been waiting for so long and we almost collapsed after that.” – said Minh Đoàn. That is football. The team had to put aside the pain to get up.

“The happy memory is when the whole team played in the Elite Gothia Cup 2018. All the teams from Africa and Japan had very good quality. We had to play one match each day under the hot weather condition. Coach Việt Thắng (currently an assistant coach at SHB Đà Nẵng) always encouraged the whole team to be determined. We went to the semi-final with Japan and lost 0-1 after first 15 minutes. We then equalized the score at 30 minutes. However, after the first half, we are nearly exhausted. Coach Việt Thắng told us to play with the spirit that there is nothing to lose and just play a memorable match. In the second half we got ahead and won 4-1 at full-time. In the final we won 1-0 against the team from Africa who defeated us 1-0 in the group stage. After the tournament, even when looking at each other’s worn-out shoes and feeling painful for playing in the synthetic pitch under boiling hot weather, we all felt happy.

The U19 PVF right-back said he had gained a lot of knowledge of football and life from Coach Việt Thắng. “He showed me all the basic skills that is necessary for this position. I used to make too many unnecessary fouls while playing. For a year in training, whenever I made a foul like that, Coach would shout at me. I was nearly obsessed that I need to change to limit over-intense confrontation.

The boy from the land of lotus said what he has learnt and accumulated in PVF so far is to know how to think for others, not to force his teammates to do something but let them choose what is suitable. Whenever he can do that, Minh Đoàn feels comfortable.

We all hope that Minh Đoàn together with PVF U19 will have a successful tournament at the 2020 National U19 Championship.