Winning the Golden Ball worth it
Not many people were surprised when Nguyen Tien Linh won the 2024 Vietnam Golden Ball. The striker born in 1997 had a commendable year of competition as a goalscorer in attack.
Throughout 2024 and the first 2 ASEAN Cup finals in 2025, Tien Linh scored 23 goals and assisted 3 times. No Vietnamese player has left a mark with as many goals as this player in the past year. Thanks to his sharpness in front of the opponent, Tien Linh has reached the milestone of 100 goals in his professional football career.
In the Vietnam national team, he also scored 25 goals in 59 matches and entered the top 3 strikers with the best achievements in the history of the national team. Even with just 3 more goals, Tien Linh will surpass legend Le Huynh Duc to become the number 2 outstanding striker in the history of the Vietnam team.
With those milestones, fans affirmed that the title of Vietnam Golden Ball for the first time in Tien Linh's career was deserved.
It is known that the total voting score from experts, coaches, journalists and reporters for this player is up to 40 points higher than Hoang Duc. This shows that Tien Linh is considered more outstanding than his teammates in the race in 2024.
The past was not peaceful
Few people know that, 19 years ago, Tien Linh was criticized for not knowing how to play football.
At the age of 2, Tien Linh had to be away from his mother because she worked far away. 4 years later, he had to leave his hometown of Hai Duong to follow his father to Di An (Binh Duong) to start a business. Living in loneliness far away, Linh came to football with children of the same age to ward off sadness. Then one day, he was accidentally chosen to join the children's football team of Di An district.
At that time, the team lacked a striker and Tien Linh was chosen to lead the attack. However, the nightmare came when this player did not know how to play football. He stopped missing and had to chase the ball.
The children's team coach shook his head, saying he would have a hard time being a player in the future. For a while, Tien Linh no longer wanted to play football. The confidence after that disappointing moment made him not dare to think about playing on the pitch.
But with the encouragement of his teachers and teammates, Tien Linh had more motivation to play football again. The turning point came to him in a youth tournament between districts. Thanks to his promising performance and scoring, Tien Linh received an invitation to join the Binh Duong U13 team.
In his early years at the Thu Dau Mot football team, Tien Linh played as a winger. Then, as fate would have it, the strikers in the team were suddenly injured and he was forced to play as a striker again.
However, compared to the failure when playing for the children's team, Tien Linh bravely overcame it. Even to become a top striker like his idol Nguyen Anh Duc in Binh Duong, he tried to learn, thanks to coaches to guide him on how to shoot, press the opponent or move in space.
After the team's training sessions, Tien Linh and some friends stayed to practice more. Over time, the striker's skills have improved.
The title of National U19 Top Scorer 2015 with 5 goals in Binh Duong's shirt opened a new chapter in Tien Linh's career. He was selected to join coach Hoang Anh Tuan's U19 Vietnam squad, before appearing in turn for the U23 and Vietnam national team.
The titles and medals are also increasing in the family's living room. And on February 26, his house welcomed a new title, which was the Vietnam Golden Ball.
That noble trophy is not only a recognition of a year of efforts by Tien Linh, but also an award to look back on the long journey of efforts of the striker born in 1997.
