Trần Thị Kim Thanh (born 18 September 1993) is a Vietnamese

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for

Women's Championship The Women's Championship (formerly The FA Women's Championship) is the second-highest division of women's football in England. The division was established in 2014 as the FA Women's Super League 2 (WSL 2). WSL 2 replaced the previous level 2 d ...

club Hồ Chí Minh City I and the Vietnam women's national team.

Early life

Trần Thị Kim Thanh was born on 18 September 1993 in Đức Hóa, Long An,

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. Trần's father was a construction worker and her mother was a

farmhand A farmworker, farmhand or agricultural worker is someone employed for labor in agriculture. In labor law, the term "farmworker" is sometimes used more narrowly, applying only to a hired worker involved in agricultural production, including harv ...

on a bean farm. Throughout her childhood, Trần would help her mother harvesting beans in the fields when she returned home from school. Her father recounts struggling financially while raising his children and not having enough money for food. At the age of 15, Trần left school and moved away from her hometown to play football in

Ho Chi Minh City , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

International career

Trần received her first national team cap in 2014, but did not become a starter until Đặng Thị Kiều Trinh retired in 2018. In one of her first starts as Vietnam's first choice goalkeeper, she conceded 4 goals against Australia's U20 team in the semifinals of the

2018 AFF Women's Championship The 2018 AFF Women's Championship was the tenth edition of the AFF Women's Championship, an international women's football tournament organised by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF). The tournament was hosted by Indonesia from 30 June to 13 July ...

. After the match, she doubted her ability to start for Vietnam until being consoled by the coaching staff and team captain

Huỳnh Như Huỳnh Như (born 28 November 1991) is a Vietnamese footballer who plays as a forward for Portuguese Campeonato Nacional Feminino club Länk FC Vilaverdense and the Vietnam national team. She won five Vietnamese Golden Balls. Club career Ho Ch ...

. Trần was Vietnam's starting keeper at the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup is scheduled to be the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the quadrennial international women's football championship contested by the women's national association football teams organised ...

, where she rose to international prominence for her heroic goalkeeping display. Prior to their opening match against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, Vietnam were expected to lose by a very large margin, and were compared to the

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

team that lost 0-13 to the United States at the 2019 edition of the tournament. Instead, Trần kept the scoreline down to a 0-3 loss despite the United States having 26 total shots. She also stopped a penalty from Alex Morgan in the 44th minute.

Career statistics

References

1993 births Living people Women's association football goalkeepers Vietnamese women's footballers Vietnam women's international footballers Asian Games competitors for Vietnam Footballers at the 2018 Asian Games SEA Games gold medalists for Vietnam SEA Games medalists in football Competitors at the 2017 SEA Games Competitors at the 2019 SEA Games Competitors at the 2023 SEA Games 21st-century Vietnamese women People from Long An Province 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players {{Vietnam-women-footy-bio-stub