On the morning of November 6, Saigon Giai Phong newspaper held a press conference to announce the launch of the 2025 Vietnam Golden Ball Award. This is the 30th year the Vietnam Golden Ball award has been held, becoming the most prestigious and longest-standing award in Vietnamese football.
In the nomination list released by the organizing committee, it is worth noting that the name Nguyen Xuan Son is not included, even though this striker has made a great contribution to the Vietnam national team in the journey to the throne at the ASEAN Cup 2024.
Sharing about this issue, Vice President of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF), Tran Anh Tu, expressed his opinion: Xuan Son suffered a serious injury after the 2024 ASEAN Cup final and had to miss a long competition. In 2025, he will not participate in a single match.
Of course, we understand that Xuan Son's efforts are great. But if Xuan Son does not play a single match in the 2025 season and puts him in the squad, I think it is a bit forced, and the organizing committee has also considered this to not put Xuan Son in the nomination list.
"If Xuan Son recovers from his injury in the near future and is called up to the national team, this player will only play 1 match with the Laos team in 2025.
Playing too little is very difficult to put Xuan Son on the nomination list. Hopefully, Xuan Son will be on the nomination list for the 2026 Vietnam Golden Ball if he plays well in the next season, Mr. Tu added.
In the 2024 Vietnam Golden Ball season, although he was naturalized and competed under the name Nguyen Xuan Son, even wearing the Vietnam national team jersey at the ASEAN Cup, however, because most of the year this player played in the V.League as a foreign player under the name Rafaelson, he was only honored in the category of Best Foreign Player.
The 2025 Vietnam Golden Ball Award Ceremony is scheduled to take place in early 2026.
