Vietnam Golden Ball 2023: The race between Tuan Hai and Hoang Duc

1. Currently, the 2023 Vietnam Golden Ball Award has officially sent votes to coaches, experts, and professionals to find the owner of the most prestigious title in 2023 of Vietnamese football.

Although the Vietnamese team did not participate in any important tournaments for a year, from V-League or some events such as SEA Games, U23 Asia qualifiers, 2026 World Cup qualifiers... the Organizing Committee also found the 20 best players to be nominated for the 2023 Vietnam Golden Ball award.

After the voting period, the Vietnam Golden Ball 2023 will check the votes and announce the winner at the award ceremony scheduled for early January 2024.

2. The list of candidates for the 2023 Vietnam Golden Ball award is very long, but in reality, with their form and achievements in the club's jersey... experts, media and fans predict that it will most likely be the final competition between Hoang Duc and Pham Tuan Hai.

As for Hoang Duc, although he was not trusted by coach Troussier in the first two matches of the Vietnam team in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, it is hard to deny that last year the midfielder from Hai Duong played consistently at the club level or every time he was used in the national team jersey.

Meanwhile, Pham Tuan Hai suddenly emerged as the only candidate competing with Hoang Duc after his excellent performances at the end of the year before the Organizing Committee "closed the book" and received votes.

The race is getting hotter because if we evaluate fairly in the 2023 V-League season, Hanoi FC's striker is also very good, not much worse than Hoang Duc.

3. Hoang Duc or Tuan Hai, who will be the winner of the 2023 Vietnam Golden Ball award? Although the name will only be announced on January 5, 2024, it is clear that this year's race is a bit less fun without an extremely strong candidate, even the most deserving: Van Quyet.

The captain of Hanoi FC had the most memorable season of his career with an incredibly high performance despite his old age. It is not an exaggeration to say that if it were not for Van Quyet's excellence, the capital team would have had difficulty finishing as runner-up in the 2023 V-League.

But in the end, Van Quyet could not participate in the race for the Vietnamese Golden Ball title as the most promising candidate for the same reason as in 2017: being caught up in a disciplinary case by the VFF.

Although we feel sorry for Van Quyet, we must respect the decision of the Organizing Committee when there are also very specific criteria for the award. However, even if we do not count the case of the Hanoi FC captain, experts and fans still expect the race to the 2023 Vietnam Golden Ball award to be more competitive, instead of just the duo Hoang Duc - Tuan Hai as we are seeing.