Playing for Quang Nam Club since the 2012 season, Dinh Thanh Trung experienced the happiest years in the Quang Nam team's shirt when he won the V-League championship in 2017 and won the Vietnam Golden Ball in the same year. At the end of the 2021 season, this midfielder born in 1988 left Quang Nam to play for his hometown team Ha Tinh.

At the age of 35, Dinh Thanh Trung is still a mainstay of the Hong Linh Ha Tinh football team.

At that time, Dinh Thanh Trung confided to the author: “I have been attached to Quang Nam for nearly 10 years, and have many memories of this place. Not to mention that football lovers in Quang Nam always consider me as a family member, so I have a lot of affection for this land. However, I want to spend the last years of my career to contribute something to football in my hometown of Ha Tinh.”

Another reason why this 1.68m tall midfielder wants to play in Ha Tinh is because he has an old mother who has no one to take care of her. After Dinh Thanh Trung's father passed away, his siblings all got married and moved far away, so in Ha Tinh, only his mother stayed to take care of the incense. Therefore, Dinh Thanh Trung wants to play in his hometown to be close to his mother.

Talking to the author, the captain of Hong Linh Ha Tinh shared: “Since the day I returned to Ha Tinh to compete, my mother has been very happy. In the past, my mother opened a grocery store at home to relieve her boredom, but now I told her to close the store because I don’t want her to have a hard time. Without a business, my mother spends more time exercising and participating in activities with the elderly community.”

In the 2022 V-League season, Dinh Thanh Trung only played about 15 matches due to injury. Also last season, Hong Linh Ha Tinh struggled in the relegation race. The Hong Mountain team eventually stayed in the league safely in 11th place, with 24 points, 2 points more than the relegated team Saigon. However, in the 2023 V-League season, things are completely different. Notably, in the last 5 rounds, Hong Linh Ha Tinh has been unbeaten, including 3 wins, rising to fourth place in the overall standings with 17 points.

Sharing about this, captain Dinh Thanh Trung said: “Hong Linh Ha Tinh's achievement did not surprise me too much, because coach Nguyen Thanh Cong had prepared very carefully in terms of expertise. Besides, the team's force is also much better than last year, especially foreign players. Therefore, this achievement is also inevitable for the team members. However, to be safe in the group of 8 top teams, we have to try harder in the remaining 2 matches of the first leg, because the teams are currently following each other very closely."

At the end of the 2023 season, Dinh Thanh Trung will end his contract with Hong Linh Ha Tinh, but the captain of the Hong mountain team shared: “I have determined that Hong Linh Ha Tinh will be the last team of my player life, so I will not go anywhere. I want to end up at my hometown team, like the lyrics of the song “Khuc hat song que”: “Con lai ve om mat nu song que”.

Article and photos: DO TUAN