Shay Given was in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday 31st May. He was a guest of Fox Football Vietnam, the terrific Football Academy in District 2. Shay was, of course, a top international goalkeeper playing for Blackburn Rovers, before hitting the headlines during his successful stint at Newcastle United. From there he moved to Manchester City before moving to Aston Villa, a loan spell at Middlesbrough and finishing his playing career at Stoke City. He gained a magnificent 134 caps for the Republic of Ireland.
Read more about Fox Football at http://foxfootballvietnam.com
Shay Given: A Truly Great Career
Shay Given undoubtedly had his best years at Newcastle, he did though play some great football whilst at my club, Manchester City, between 2009 and 2011. Always a popular figure, he was in Ho Chi Minh City on a promotional tour with Techno, one of Man City’s partners.
Manchester City are partnered with http://www.tecno-mobile.com/vn/index.php?id=836#/, the mobile phone people and together with https://lagardere-se.com the sports entertainment and management company, they organised the Blue Dream Youth Football Camp. I met up with Shay, together with Kevin Fox and Richard Harcus from Fox football at Jaspas restaurant in Thao Dinh.
Jaspers is a fantastic new venue in District 2 Saigon: https://www.facebook.com/jaspashcmc/
Since retiring from playing Shay has been keeping busy by getting his A and B coaching badges and is currently working on attaining his goalkeeping A licence. He has done a lot of media work especially in Ireland. He still lives in Macclesfield just 20 miles south of Manchester, which makes him ideally placed for his continued work with Manchester City.
Shay’s First Time in Vietnam
I asked him about his first impressions of Vietnam on the whistle stop tour. Predictably he mention the traffic. He joked, “It’s just mental.” I have to admit when you live here you forget just how crazy it looks to first time visitors. He was though impressed at the standard of football here. Shay again, “If they could produce just one top player football it would be massive for Vietnam, The goalkeeper for the national side looks very good.”
Not wishing to miss out on the chance of discussing my team I asked Shay about his experience at Manchester City. Shay answered, “Personally it was very interesting. The new owners made a lot of promises and they certainly delivered. Signing Robinho made a big statement”. I asked about the impact that Yaya Toure had on the club. “This was serious news. City were playing catch up back then, he has been a huge part of the club’s history”. I found Shay to be a really warm and affable bloke and a real football guy. It was great to meet him. He had all the time in the world for the youngsters, signing autographs and chatting to them.