Vietnam’s top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh, ranked seventh in the world, is set to obtain the services of an international coach at home early next year.

A department official said the department had invited Shuharno while he was in Ho Chi Minh City with the Singaporean squad competing at the Yonex Sunrise Vietnam Open Grand Prix from October 7-11 and the Indonesian coach said he would consider it.

Shuharno has coached big names in world badminton like Taufik Hydayat, Sony Dwi Kuncoro and Simon Santoso, currently ranked 5^th, 9^th and 14^th in the world. He began coaching the Singaporean team in 2006.

Minh, who successfully defended the men’s singles title at home on Sunday, met Shuharno for the first time in 2007 when he was coaching Singaporean players at international competitions. He has since visited Singapore several times since 2008 to practice and learn from him.

Minh says his training in Singapore has cost a lot, at an estimated VND1 million (US$56) a day.

If Shuharno accepts the invitation from the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, he will receive a monthly salary of between $4,500-5,000, it is expected.

However, even if Shuharno comes, Minh will not have good players to practice with because he is the only Vietnamese badminton player to enter the world’s top one hundred rankings, and this could pose a problem.

Minh said he had met Shuharno at a dinner the evening before his final match against Chong Wei Feng of Malaysia and Minh admitted that it was the latter’s analysis that helped him beat the world number 58 the next day.

The dinner was arranged by Huynh Ngoc Lien, a senior official in charge of the sport in HCMC, who Minh credits with playing a significant role in his accomplishments.

Source: Thanh Nien