Ngo Hoang Thinh (left)

HA NOI (VNS) — Midfielder Ngo Hoang Thinh will leave V.League 1's club Song Lam Nghe An (SLNA) after his contract with the club ends in December, the club confirmed.

"Although we want him to stay with us, we can't keep him," said Nguyen Hong Thanh, general director of SLNA Football Joint Stock Company.

Thinh said he wanted to play for a team more ambitious than SLNA, which ranked seventh in the national premier league this year.

Can Tho and Quang Ninh Coal team invited him to play for them but he said he hadn't decided.

Thinh was called to the national team for the ASEAN Football Federation-Suzuki Cup 2014. The 24-year-old midfield lynchpin was highly valued by coach Toshiya Miura for his combative and high-energy play in a team that prizes efficiency in passing and movement.

His teammates midfielder Nguyen Quang Tinh and defender Le The Cuong also left SLNA for Can Tho earlier this year. — VNS