Vietnam Golden Ball 2025: Hoang Duc's Advantage

07/11/2025 14:15:00 ceshi

At the launch event for the Vietnam Golden Ball 2025 voting recently held, the organizing committee announced the nominees along with the full list of candidates for all categories. Although the 2025 SEA Games has not yet occurred, according to Sports & Culture, Nguyen Hoang Duc, the chief playmaker midfielder of Ninh Binh Club and the national team, is virtually unmatched.

The person closest to Hoang Duc might be his teammate Dang Van Lam. Besides him, there is Nam Dinh’s captain goalkeeper Tran Nguyen Manh, and winger Nguyen Van Vi, also from Nam Dinh.

Football is simply about results. In personal voting, club and national team achievements are the decisive factors. This year, there will be a Most Popular Player award ensuring votes are not purely emotional, balancing the line between achievement and popularity, which has caused much debate over the 30 years since the Vietnam Golden Ball award was created.

For example, in the first voting in 1995, Tran Minh Chien was definitely the most popular player, scoring the golden goal against Myanmar that took Vietnam to the SEA Games final against host Thailand, yet the Golden Ball went to Le Huynh Duc. Looking at SEA Games 95, Nguyen Huu Dang was also excellent, but that year, Dang only played for Khanh Hoa, while Le Huynh Duc was the national champion with the former HCMC Police team.

Returning to this year’s voting, the current Silver Ball holder Nguyen Hoang Duc is undoubtedly the best, having helped Ninh Binh promote to the 2025/2026 V-League, with outstanding form in the first half of this season. In the national team jersey, Hoang Duc’s position is also untouchable. Apart from Hoang Duc, only goalkeeper Dang Van Lam can compare.

Hoang Duc currently holds a huge advantage in the 2025 Vietnam Golden Ball award race. Photo: Nhat Anh

Tran Nguyen Manh and Van Vi are two of the most crucial parts of Nam Dinh’s success in defending their 2024/2025 V-League championship. However, this season, the Nam Dinh team has been shaky, with inconsistent performance.

Other candidates from Hanoi Club such as Thanh Chung, Hai Long, Tuan Hai, Duy Manh... are not very prominent and have no notable achievements this year. CAHN players like Quang Hai, Dinh Bac, Van Thanh, or Nguyen Filip... are similar. The current Golden Ball holder Tien Linh at Ho Chi Minh City Police faces even tougher challenges. Linh’s 2024 Golden Ball is considered the peak of this striker’s abilities.

Many hope that at SEA Games 33 later this year, if the U22 Vietnam team wins gold, the Golden Ball voting might bring surprises. However, from the author’s point of view, for a player under 23 years old, the chances are very slim. This is unlike 20 years ago when Van Quyen and Cong Vinh won the Golden Ball at just 19 years old.

In 2009, when Pham Thanh Luong won the Golden Ball at age 21, it was not surprising because he was already the AFF Cup 2008 champion at 20 and captained the U23 Vietnam team to the SEA Games 2009 final in Vientiane. Similarly, Quang Hai in 2018, with the "rainbow in the white snow of Thuong Chau," was also 21. Hoang Duc won the Golden Ball in 2021 at 23, considered the last of his generation.

It is unlikely there will be surprises in this year’s voting, as all attention and professional recognition probably go to Nguyen Hoang Duc.

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