Coach of Ninh Binh Club: 'Overseas Vietnamese player Tran Thanh Trung has great potential'

Speaking with Tuoi Tre Online on August 11, Coach Gerard Albadalejo praised Tran Thanh Trung (Chung Nguyen Do) during the pre-season training period.

"Tran Thanh Trung is a player from Europe, possessing a modern football mindset. Through his recent performance, I consider him a very potential player, with a bright future to contribute to Vietnam," coach Gerard Albadalejo shared.

Chung Nguyen Do was registered by Ninh Binh Club to participate in V-League 2025 - 2026 with the Vietnamese name Tran Thanh Trung. This is also the official name of this player in his Vietnamese passport.

In recent practice matches of Ninh Binh, Tran Thanh Trung often did not play the full 90 minutes and had to leave the field early due to heat shock. The past time was also the peak period of heat in the northern provinces.

"The biggest difficulty for Thanh Trung is adapting to the hot weather. When I first arrived, it took me a few days to get used to the climate in Vietnam. I sympathize with Trung, he needs time to get used to this. Once he gets used to it, he will bring his best performance," coach Albadalejo explained.

Tran Thanh Trung was born in 2005, has dual Vietnamese and Bulgarian citizenship. He plays as a central midfielder and is valued at over 12 billion VND by Transfermarkt .

At the age of 20, Tran Thanh Trung has already secured a starting position in the Bulgarian national championship and is a member of the Bulgarian U21 team. When he returns home, the expectation for this player to compete for a starting position in the V-League is very high.

"I cannot talk about Tran Thanh Trung's chances of playing, especially in the context that Ninh Binh has so many quality players in his position. We can mention Nguyen Hoang Duc, Nguyen Duc Chien, Nguyen Trong Long or Nguyen Duc Viet," said coach Albadalejo.

Despite being a V-League rookie, Ninh Binh Club still shows confidence and ambition to compete in the highest professional tournament in Vietnam, demonstrated through strong shopping in the transfer market.

In addition to Tran Thanh Trung, Ninh Binh also recruited Vietnamese-French Evan Abran and recruited many foreign players. The foreign central defender duo up to now includes Patrick Marselino and Janclesio Almeida Santos (who is in the process of applying for Vietnamese citizenship).

The team's foreign strikers are Gustavo Henrique - Daniel Da Silva - Geovane Magno. In total, Ninh Binh has 5 foreign players and 2 overseas Vietnamese in the squad. 2 Spanish foreign players, Alfredo Pedraza Arias and Victor Morales Alonso, have left the team to return home.

"Ninh Binh's first goal is to create a strong team capable of competing with leading Vietnamese clubs such as Hanoi Club, The Cong - Viettel, Cong An Hanoi or Nam Dinh . We really want to compete fairly with those forces," Mr. Albadalejo shared.

He continued: "I have watched and researched V-League before coming to Vietnam to take up the job. My job requires careful analysis. I have watched many matches live and have enough information about the playing style in V-League to build the most suitable tactics for Ninh Binh."

In round 1 of V-League 2025 - 2026, Ninh Binh Club will visit Ha Tinh on August 17.