Hai Phong Club is a team that “favorites” mature players from SLNA. There was a time in the squad of the Port team with 7-8 faces from Nghe. It is Vuong Quoc Trung, Nguyen Dinh Bao, Nguyen Anh Hung, Dau Thanh Phong… In which, Nguyen Anh Hung is a special face, equally outstanding as Dinh Bao, who plays in the striker position.
In terms of talent, Nguyen Anh Hung is no less than other teammates. He joined the SLNA furnace with the same generation of players born in 1992 as Khac Ngoc, Quang Nam, Phi Son… One of the most outstanding achievements of Nguyen Anh Hung was winning the 2012 National U21 Championship with his teammates.
However, following that championship, only half of the cylinder team remained in the SLNA 1st team. Among a series of other outstanding stars, Nguyen Anh Hung drifted to join the Hung Vuong An Giang club for the 2014 season. This is also the worst time for the original defender Nghia Dan’s playing career.
In the 2014 V.League match, Nguyen Anh Hung suffered a terrible injury while returning home to face his hometown team SLNA. After the collision with Dinh Dong, Nguyen Anh Hung was taken straight to the emergency hospital with a broken right shin bone. Everything, career, future… seems to have completely collapsed in Hero’s mind. The life of a player only has two legs to support himself and his mother, the prospect of having to retire early always haunts this player. Nguyen Anh Hung lost his father at a young age, so his mother had to single-handedly take care of her son until he was an adult. With such a serious injury, Nguyen Anh Hung and his family faced many difficulties.
After a long year of struggling with injuries, learning to walk, removing nails, Nguyen Anh Hung races with fate to return to the pitch, determined not to give up. This small defender joined Hai Phong Club and officially returned to the pitch during the trip to SLNA on Vinh Stadium. It was the opening match of V.League 2015 and his team won 3-0. The miraculous return of Nguyen Anh Hung made many people relieved, especially Dinh Dong who caused a serious injury to him. During the time when Nguyen Anh Hung had to lie down, the most tormented and suffering person was still Dinh Dong. In addition to having to pay for hospital fees and medicine for Nguyen Anh Hung, Dinh Dong was also banned from playing for 1 year, and was also cut by the SLNA club.
Breaking his dominant leg back to professional football was difficult, Nguyen Anh Hung even came back strong. In Hai Phong shirt, Nguyen Anh Hung is irreplaceable in the right-back position. In the first season, he and the port team finished in 6th place with 24/26 matches, the 2016 season was the runner-up with only 2 absences. In the last two years, Nguyen Anh Hung has always been trusted by coach Truong Viet Hoang thanks to his smart, speed and efficient play.
“Besides energy, hard work and patience, Hung is a player with good expertise. He plays well on both sides and always gives his best every time he plays. With him on the field, I have more options,” coach Truong Viet Hoang once commented on his students.
Because of his gentle and kind play, Nguyen Anh Hung almost had to receive serious injuries. The match between Hanoi and Hai Phong in the 14th round of the 2017 V.League, Sam Ngoc Duc on the Hanoi side had a move with both feet on Nguyen Anh Hung. Nguyen Anh Hung had to leave the field on a stretcher and needed the care of the medical team. Fortunately, defender Hai Phong’s legs are still healthy. The injury before Dinh Dong has not stopped haunting, the collision phase made Nguyen Anh Hung even more scared.
After many years of asserting himself in Hai Phong shirt, Nguyen Anh Hung said goodbye to Hai Phong club to dock with the Quang team under a 3-year contract in early 2020. was revealed, but the salary and bonus are much higher than the old team. However, only 1 year later, when Hai Phong Club had a strong reorganization of the force and invited Nguyen Anh Hung to return, this defender did not refuse.
Now, at the age of 31, Nguyen Anh Hung is no longer as agile and fierce as his twenties, but experience and wisdom are what he has in abundance. So, in the 2022 season, even though he only played 6 matches in the V.League, this Nghe An defender still has a great influence on the team. It is not difficult to understand when in the 2023 season, coach Chu Dinh Nghiem continued to enter Nguyen Anh Hung’s name on the list of matches, instead of liquidating the contract like many other veteran faces. Hopefully this will continue to be the season where this 1m69-high defender continues to make important contributions to the Port team.