You may know Nammi Nguyen for her amazing works at the Sheaf, but did you know that she is also heading to Vietnam to play professional soccer this summer? 

Originally from Saskatoon, Nammi would begin her university career with the University of Ottawa Gee-gees. After two years with the Gee-gees, she would transfer home to join the Huskies, where she has been a standout for the past two years and was named a Canada West second team all-star in the 2024 season. 

Nammi will be playing for Ho Chi Minh City W.F.C, the most successful team in the Vietnamese Women’s Football Championship league. Nammi won’t be taking part in regular league play, however. Rather, she was signed primarily to bolster the roster for the team’s upcoming Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Champions League Semi Final taking place in Wuhan, China on May 21st. 

This competition pits the best club teams in the AFC against each other yearly to determine the best club team in Asian soccer. This year’s semi finalists include Ho Chi Minh City, the Wuhan Jiangda (China), Melbourne City (Australia) and the Incheon Red Angels (South Korea). If Ho Chi Minh City wins their semifinal against Wuhan, they will go on to play in the final on May 24th. 

Nammi’s signing with Ho Chi Minh was a whirlwind of events that happened in the last few months. She was initially planning to go to Vietnam this summer on an invitation to a month-and-a-half long training camp with the Senior Women’s National team in preparation for Asian Cup Qualifiers and the Southeast Asian Games. 

“Originally I thought I was going just for a national team camp that would start in the beginning of May, but then I found out about this opportunity, which is a bit of a bigger deal, just because it’s kind of unprecedented how far the team kind of got,” Nammi commented. “They didn’t expect to make it to these finals, so I ended up signing on to them, and hopefully I’ll join the National Camp after we’re done in the championship.”

So how did Nammi receive so much attention across the globe for her soccer skills? It all started a little over a year ago when she went to Vietnam to attend her cousin’s wedding in January 2024.

“It’s all about connections in Vietnam. I went back to Vietnam last January for my cousin’s wedding. And I sat at this table pretty far from her — which I was slightly offended by — and sat with this young guy,” said Nammi. “I mentioned I played soccer, and he told me his buddy works for the Vietnamese Football Federation as an assistant coach and that I should try and play.”

Nammi had thought about playing before since she has dual citizenship, but this connection made it possible for an opportunity to materialize. 

“My cousin who was also there told me he worked for a third party football scouting agency in Vietnam and told me to send a highlight video and he’d post it. I did it, but I didn’t think much would come out of it. I found it on Instagram and they only had about 200 followers on their account,” Continued Nammi. “But then I found their Facebook, which had like 30,000 followers. Facebook is much bigger in Vietnam and the video got a lot of traction. People in Vietnam are super invested in soccer, and lots of people were commenting about how I played, talking about how I was so strong or too short.”

As a result of all this attention, Nammi had a Vietnamese-Canadian agent reach out to her to offer advice. Teams reached out to Nammi on multiple occasions last year, but the timing wasn’t right for her. 

“Last year I had opportunities to play for the domestic league, but it was very short notice. I wasn’t super sold on it,” Nammi remarked. “Just over a year later, it’s all kind of come together. It was a really amazing opportunity, and I didn’t say no.”

The magnitude of this opportunity — getting to go to Vietnam for two months to play for the nation’s top professional club and for the national team — isn’t lost on Nammi.

“Coming in and having basically to try and meld with the team and then play this semi final is really surreal. It hasn’t hit me yet, but it’s actually quite a big deal. I’m quite nervous about it, but I just want to go in and try to not put too much pressure on myself and just really enjoy it, because that’s all you can really do.”

Although there is a lot of anxiety associated with performing in a professional environment for the first time, there is also a lot to be excited about. 

“Even though it’s just a two month, signing my first contract is really cool. Besides that, I think I’m most excited for the people I’m going to meet. It’s a totally new team, and talking to some of the other foreign players, they say everyone is so nice and welcoming,”  Nammi said. “I am also excited to be back in Vietnam and be more immersed. Usually when I go back it’s as a tourist or visiting family. It’ll be cool to actually be working so I can really work on speaking Vietnamese, understanding it, and building a bigger connection to my home country.”

A supply chain student in the Edwards School of Business, Nammi is excited for her future career in supply chain management — but not until she is done with soccer, mentioning that she wants to “try and play soccer at the highest level for as long as possible,” Nammi continued to say, “I think this is a really great starting point. I feel like it will open up so many opportunities, if I do end up getting senior national caps or just from playing pro in general.”

Good luck in Vietnam Nammi with this exciting opportunity! We can’t wait to hear about it when you come back as The Sheaf’s social media director next fall — a job that is only slightly less cool than being a professional soccer player.