My

Story

Thu

“I grew up in the South of Vietnam and was raised as an only child by my parents. In my childhood I played badminton and volleyball but I didn’t have any football experiences prior to my participation in the Young Coach education programme. I am very creative and love music and the arts.

I studied pedagogy to become a teacher and now I work at the Children’s Cultural Centre in Long An. Even though I am not a specialised sports teacher, I help out with physical education when the centre is short on staff. This is why the football education programme is of great value to me.

At the beginning of the programme, I was a little bit shy and nervous about my football skills. I was worried that I would not be good enough to become a Young Coach. However, these worries soon vanished as I met the other Young Coaches and started learning basic football skills, as well as activities and games which I could do with the children. I grew more confident and now I believe that I can be a football coach and organise regular activities and a football festival on my own.

I am really excited about becoming a Young Coach because I think this education programme will help me organise engaging activities for the children at the cultural centre. I realised that sometimes, arts and music activities can be boring for the kids. Football games on the other hand are very energetic and creative at the same time. I will try to incorporate these activities into my daily work.

When I am back home in the South of Vietnam, I will invite children from neighbouring schools to participate in a big football festival and enjoy fun games, as well as educational games on environment protection or hygiene. I am very excited about coming back for the second and third module and learning more about how to help children participate more actively and enthusiastically in my activities.”