Trần Thị Kim Thanh

Trần Thị Kim Thanh (born 18 September 1993) is a Vietnamese footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Women's Championship 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. Trần's father was a construction worker and her mother was a farmhand on a bean farm. Throughout her childhood, Kim Thanh 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, Kim Thanh left school and moved away from her hometown to play football in Ho Chi Minh City.

International career
Kim Thanh 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. After the match, she doubted her ability to start for Vietnam until being consoled by the coaching staff and team captain Huỳnh Như.

Kim Thanh was Vietnam's starting keeper at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, where she rose to international prominence for her heroic goalkeeping display. Prior to their opening match against the United States, Vietnam were expected to lose by a very large margin, and were compared to the Thailand team that lost 0-13 to the United States at the 2019 edition of the tournament. Instead, Kim Thanh 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.