The 'cool hand' coach of Hai Duong's young players

'Hats off'

We have heard about Mr. Trong's HVL Youth Football Training Center in Cuong Trang village, An Thinh commune (Luong Tai district, Bac Ninh) for a long time, but we have just had the opportunity to visit it. The center's headquarters is also Mr. Trong's private home, with a spacious campus and an artificial turf field of 1,600 m2.², adjacent to the river, creating a cool, airy space...

Mr. Trong warmly welcomed us and took us down to the field to watch his students enthusiastically practicing dribbling and shooting skills. "There are 25 students from many provinces and cities practicing here, with nearly half from Hai Duong," Mr. Trong informed.

Among the center's students, I recognized Nguyen Xuan Khoa - who recently won the award for outstanding player of the Hai Duong Province Primary School Football Tournament for the 2024-2025 school year. He was the key factor that helped Nam Sach district win this tournament for the first time.

Mr. Trong said that the center has 4 students (of the same U14 group) who have just been directly recruited by the PVF Youth Football Training Center to the final round of the 2025 recruitment and selection period. Notably, these students are all from Hai Duong. In addition to Khoa, there are also Nguyen Van Linh (Nam Sach), Pham Xuan Thanh Long (Tu Ky), Nguyen Gia Bao (Cam Giang).

HVL was newly established in 2019, with a modest management team, training staff, infrastructure, equipment... However, the achievements that this facility possesses have made many people admire. In the first year of operation, HVL has trained 7 students to be admitted to many famous youth football training centers in the country such as Hoang Anh Gia Lai, Viettel, PVF, Nutifoot.

The number of students admitted to these centers has increased year by year. "Hoang Anh Gia Lai and PVF are centers that recruit people very carefully and strictly. However, I have had a total of 12 students recruited by these two places, many of them from Hai Duong. This is a great motivation for us," Mr. Trong shared.

Visiting the HVL's traditional room, we were impressed by the many trophies and souvenir flags displayed here. Since its establishment, HVL's football teams have made many strong impressions by winning major tournaments.

In just the first 2 months of this year, the teams of the HVL Youth Football Training Center with many players from Hai Duong have excellently defeated dozens of strong teams to win the championship in 4 football tournaments, including: PVF Cup 2025 friendly (U11), Hoang Anh Gia Lai Future Warriors Football Festival (U13), Spring Football - Bac Kan Kid Cup 2025 (both U11 and U13 won the championship)...

Steal

Mr. Trong is a "good" coach of players from Hai Duong in particular and the HVL Youth Football Training Center in general. The interesting thing is that he is not a professional player but simply a person who is passionate and knowledgeable about the "king sport".

Mr. Trong has 2 children with football talent. Years ago, knowing that Hai Duong has a good football training environment, he sent his 2 children to study at a youth football training facility in Tu Ky district. After that, he applied to join the coaching staff of the district's children's football team and achieved some success.

Reality made him realize that many students, despite having good football skills, were ignored by some prestigious youth football training centers due to their underdeveloped physique. Seeing many children with football talent but not having an environment to develop made him worried.

In 2019, Mr. Trong returned to his hometown Bac Ninh, determined to establish the HVL Youth Football Training Center to create conditions for cases like the above to hone their talents. Despite many difficulties, thanks to his inquisitive spirit and eagerness to learn, he has steered HVL to the initial success it has today.

"My colleagues and I spent a lot of time researching and learning the training curriculum of some prestigious youth football training centers, especially Hoang Anh Gia Lai, through tournaments and collected documents. I also received a lot of guidance and advice from seniors who are coaches of Hai Duong's U11 and U13 teams," Trong revealed.

At HVL, in addition to cultural study time, students maintain professional training 2 sessions/day. From skills of leading, dribbling, finishing with the instep, cheek, sole of the foot to observation exercises, passing, handling the ball in a narrow space, small group coordination... are practiced fluently by students. This also explains why Mr. Trong always takes the student's football thinking as the top measure in training.

Nguyen Xuan Khoa revealed: "The teacher always reminds us to use our heads in handling each situation. His philosophy is that a pass is better than a goal. Players must have technique but must not abuse it. Passes must be made simply, quickly and always put teammates in the most favorable position to receive the ball and shoot."

HVL currently has 10 satellite centers in many provinces and cities. Each year, the center recruits 20-30 students.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Than, a caregiver at HVL, said: "Children are monitored and given regular health care. The nutritional content of daily meals is carefully calculated, suitable for each age. We also invite tutors in math and English to tutor the children from Monday to Saturday every week. This helps students develop comprehensively, and parents can also feel secure."

In the future, the young players from Hai Duong who are training at HVL may become big names, contributing to the sports of the province and the country. At that time, the love and dedication to youth football of Mr. Han Van Trong will certainly be mentioned again.