The ASEAN Cup 2024, of which Vietnam is the champion, is the final warm-up for the players before reaching the Golden Ball - the most prestigious title for Vietnamese professional football players.
Tien Linh takes the throne?
The Organizing Committee of the 2024 Vietnam Golden Ball Award has announced the shortlist of the top 5, including: Thanh Chung (Hanoi), Hoang Duc (The Cong Viettel/Phu Dong Ninh Binh), Quang Hai (Hanoi Police), Tuan Hai (Hanoi) and Tien Linh (Becamex Binh Duong).
Among them are 2 Hai Duong players including Hoang Duc and Tien Linh. In the list of 24 players before being shortened, there are 4 Hai Duong players including Hoang Duc, Tien Linh, Van Toan, and Van Thanh.
To win the Golden Ball, the above 5 players will depend on the votes of sports journalists, professional sports people... but with what they have shown in V-League 2023 - 2024 and especially at ASEAN Cup 2024, Tien Linh is assessed by experts to have a great chance of winning this noble title.
At the 2024 ASEAN Cup, this player from Cam Hoang (Cam Giang) was the second explosive player of the Vietnamese team, with 4 goals and shared the position of the second highest scorer with Shawal Anuar of Singapore. This achievement is only behind Xuan Son - the top scorer with 7 goals. Vietnam had a successful ASEAN Cup, and it can be said that this is a tournament that left a strong impression on Tien Linh personally.
In V-League 2023 - 2024, Tien Linh's Becamex Binh Duong only ranked in the bottom half of the overall rankings, but this striker clearly demonstrated his role as the main striker when scoring 23.5% of the team's goals.
In the Vietnamese national team, since the arrival of captain Kim Sang-sik, Tien Linh has been the best striker: a double in the 3-2 win over the Philippines in the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup, 1 goal in the friendly match with Thailand in September, 4 goals at the 2024 ASEAN Cup...
In V-League 2024 - 2025, just returning after a temporary break to focus on ASEAN Cup, Becamex Binh Duong is temporarily ranked 8th, with 14 points, 8 points behind the top team Thanh Hoa and exactly 1 point behind the team above, Hanoi Police.
Tien Linh is currently sharing the position of the player with the most goals, with 7 goals, after 10 rounds, with Xuan Son (Nam Dinh Steel) and Leo Artur (Hanoi Police). Tien Linh's 7 goals up to now are only 1 goal less than the total number of goals that this player scored in the whole previous season.
Tien Linh has never been called and has never considered himself a star, but this player born in 1997 is always loved by fans for his simple, gentle, scandal-free lifestyle both on and off the field. He is one of 18 examples of beautiful young people in 2024 - an award from the Central Committee of the Vietnam Youth Union.
In 2021, when fellow countryman Hoang Duc won the Golden Ball, Tien Linh won the Bronze Ball. In 2022, when Van Quyet won the Golden Ball, Tien Linh won the Silver Ball. In 2023, when Hoang Duc once again won the Golden Ball, Tien Linh was not on the shortlist.
Two-horse race with Tuan Hai!
To reach the Golden Ball for the first time in his career, Linh's most formidable opponent in the men's football category is Tuan Hai.
Although the number of minutes on the field at the ASEAN Cup 2024 was not as many as Tien Linh, only 2 goals (compared to Linh's 4 goals), Tuan Hai shone with the opening goal against Thailand in the second leg of the final in the 8th minute and forced Hemviboon to score an own goal in the 82nd minute. In the V-League 2023 - 2024, Tuan Hai scored 9 goals for Hanoi (1 more than Tien Linh), helping the club finish third overall.
Although Tuan Hai's contributions to the national team cannot be compared to Tien Linh's, the outstanding role of this Ha Nam player in the 2023 - 2024 season and at the ASEAN Cup 2024 is very important.
In the rest of the race, Quang Hai made important contributions to the Vietnamese team's play at the ASEAN Cup and also scored 8 goals for Hanoi Police in the V-League. However, in the 2024-2025 season, Hanoi Police is stuck in 7th place and the midfielder's role is not as clear as in previous seasons. This factor will also be considered by the owners of the votes, although the titles are only counted in the previous season.
In this year's Golden Ball race, perhaps Quang Hai and Thanh Chung will be out of the top 3.
Regarding Hoang Duc, the decision to move to play for the first division team Phu Dong Ninh Binh has caused a lot of public opinion. This also affected Hoang Duc's performance due to the low level of competition in this tournament. Last season, when he was playing for The Cong Viettel, this player from Hai Duong City only contributed 2 goals. However, when playing for the national team at the ASEAN Cup, Hoang Duc made clear contributions to the team's playing style and still demonstrated his important role.
However, in history, the Golden Ball has never been awarded to a player playing in a lower division, even though Hoang Duc's Phu Dong Ninh Binh is currently dominating the top spot with a series of consecutive wins.
With everything that happened in the V-League last season and the first leg of this season, along with the performance at the recent ASEAN Cup, as someone who has followed Vietnamese football for many years, I think that, although there is still nearly a month until the Vietnam Golden Ball is awarded, at this point, Tien Linh probably has a very clear advantage.
If he wins the 2024 Golden Ball, Tien Linh will have a complete collection of Golden - Silver - Bronze Ball titles, an achievement that few players have!
TIEN HUY