Yangon: As Myanmar look to advance their hopes of reaching the semifinals at the AFF Suzuki Cup when they host Vietnam tomorrow, it’s remarkable to think that one of their key defenders has only been playing the game for barely a decade.

Meet Zaw Min Tun – the Arsenal-loving, commanding central defender who first discovered football as a teenager.

“I was born in a small village, it was kind of like the jungle and I had never seen a football pitch or training ground until I was 13.

“I’d never seen any of those things until that time and then when I did when I was 13 when I saw the pitch and the game for the first time.

“It was then that I decided that I wanted to be a football player so I started to watch games on TV and went to the stadium and that’s when I decided that I wanted to be a national team player.”

Barely five years after he’d first discovered the game, the now 26-year-old was a member of the Myanmar youth team before making his senior debut in 2011 and it’s been a rapid rise to international prominence since then.

“In 2011 I was called up to the senior team but before that I’d played for the youth national teams so when I got my senior debut I was so happy and it was my dream come true.”

At his fourth AFF Suzuki Cup the powerful central defender has developed into one of Myanmar’s most influential players and is still pinching himself that he gets to work alongside a former player that was his inspiration as he arrived late to the game.

“In terms of the players I looked up to when I was younger one was John Terry, the England defender because we both played the same position.

“In a local context it was my current assistant coach with the national team, Soe Myat Min.

“He was an amazing player and played three different positions, as a defender, midfielder and a striker.”

It’s that combination – the star defender who only starting playing as a teenager and his hero, the assistant coach - that Myanmar will lean heavily on tomorrow as the Asian Lions look to topple a red-hot Vietnam side.