Thony Nguyen is planning to become a soccer star when he grows up.
The son of Ky Van, he is a second grader at Pillow Academy
He is the grandson of Ty Van and Gai Nguyen.
When he’s not busy with his studies, doing classwork after school at his mother’s Greenwood business 5 Star Nail & Spa, the 7-year-old enjoys playing soccer at his home.
What is your favorite subject in school? I like to learn about math.
What do you like most about learning math? Speed drills, because you have to get time real quick and you have to make fast decisions. You have to make fast decisions because if time runs out and you don’t finish all of them, you might get deducted some points on your grade. I usually subtract during speed drills or both adding and subtracting.
Did you enjoy being out of school for the holiday break? Yes, very much.
What did you enjoy doing the most during the holiday break? Probably playing soccer.
Do you like sports? Mostly soccer, and my second favorite is football.
Who is your favorite soccer player? Diego Maradona. He was in Argentina, but he died in 2020. And Cristiano Ronaldo. In 2021, I think he was on Manchester United, but I don’t know what team he is on in 2022 at all. And that’s all.
Do you have any other hobbies? Probably just playing video games and basketball.
What is your favorite video game? Roblox. I’m actually a veteran. I’ve played since 2017. I lost my account back then, and I’ve created 14 new accounts.
What’s your favorite food? Probably like steak or something.
What’s your favorite candy or dessert? That would be probably ice cream or Snickers.
Do you have a favorite TV show? I don’t watch TV.
Do you like to read books? Yeah, I do. I don’t know what type of books. It could be anything. My favorite type of books is probably sports genre type, like football, soccer, basketball.
Do you know what you want to be when you grow up? Probably a soccer player.
What soccer position do you want to play? Definitely a goal keeper, or a GK. That means defending the net as well as you can, but if they shoot it and it goes right behind you, that’s a goal.
If you could invent anything, what would it be? That’s a hard one. That would be … Definitely non-deflatable tires. Because if you drive over a nail, your tires will pop, but with non-deflatable, you can just drive anywhere. Tires that don’t deflate at all, and it will never wear out. That will save a lot of money.
If you could change anything about Greenwood, what would it be? The lack of a movie theater because there’s like zero here. And people should stop stealing and stop being racist. And that’s all.
- This article first appeared in Leflore Illustrated, a quarterly magazine published by The Greenwood Commonwealth.
