Hanoi [Vietnam], April 7: Coach Mai Duc Chung expressed gratitude to his wife for always being a strong support system and for accepting sacrifices so that he could focus on leading the women's national football team. He also felt guilty for sometimes being unable to control his anger when under work pressure.
Coach Mai Duc Chung shared about his wife.
Making his first appearance as a guest on The Khang Show , coach Mai Duc Chung had ample time to share his thoughts about his work and life after retiring from football. Speaking of his wife, he acknowledged her as a wonderful woman, devoted to caring for her husband and children and managing the household well.
Throughout the time coach Mai Duc Chung led the national team to compete abroad, his wife was always a strong support system, giving him peace of mind. "Sometimes I think that if I dedicate too much time to my family, my work won't be stable, but if I dedicate too much time to work, my family life will suffer. So I think my wife is at a disadvantage at home. Besides, she doesn't get to go out much, and sometimes I think about quitting my job to take her to different places," he said. Coach Mai Duc Chung confided that he couldn't take his wife with the team because he had a lot of work to handle, leaving him with very little time to care for her.
Besides that, Mai Duc Chung admitted that there were times when work worries made him unable to control his anger in front of his wife. He confided: "I said and did things that weren't good to my wife, so I have to apologize to her because work can be very stressful at times. When I was working at Becamex Binh Duong in 2010, we lost two or three matches in a row, so they called me in to ask questions. If we won this match, we could stay, but if we lost, we had to go home, but we lost that match. At that time, my mind was stressed, and my wife also asked, so I said some unpleasant things to her. I regret it very much, and there were times when I had to talk to my wife to get her forgiveness." After retiring, coach Mai Duc Chung hopes to take his wife on a trip to South Korea to enjoy a happy life in their old age.
Speaking further about his career, Mai Duc Chung confessed that besides football, he doesn't know what else he could do. If he could be 20 years younger, he would still want to coach the women's national football team. On the other hand, during his coaching career, Mai Duc Chung also witnessed many difficult circumstances faced by some female players.
He recounted, "I used to go around soliciting sponsors to fund the women's football team. I didn't hide anything from the girls; I told them I'd managed to raise 200 million VND so they could share the money for Tet (Lunar New Year) celebrations and buy gifts for their families. I felt so sorry for them because they were struggling so much. Some of them lost their fathers early, leaving only their mothers and two younger siblings. And then, their younger brother died in an accident, so sometimes I had to use my own money to buy medicine for their mother. Sometimes, I even cut back on my own allowance to share with them."
Mai Duc Chung stated that he is a principled person, but sometimes needs to handle situations with a gentle and flexible approach. This helps the female players to both perform well on the national team and fulfill their responsibilities to their families.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
