If nothing too special happens, it is likely that this individual award will belong to a player of the Vietnamese national team, as Dinh Bac and Xuan Son are sharing the leading position with 5 goals each. The closest chasing opponents that can surpass them are 2 strikers from Thailand - Teerasak Poeiphimai (4 goals) and Kakana Khamyok (3), but the possibility is not high.
With Dinh Bac and Xuan Son, many people may remember a similar race at the 1994 World Cup, where Hristo Stoichkov and Oleg Salenko shared the Golden Shoe with 6 goals each.
Saying it is sharing, but somewhere there is also a feeling of injustice for the Bulgarian legend. Because he carried his team with goals from the group stage (3 goals) to the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals all scoring 1 goal. Among the opponents, he scored against strong teams such as Argentina, Mexico, Germany, Italy. It was not until the third-place match (losing to Sweden 0-4) that his streak broke. Meanwhile, all 6 goals of the Russian striker were scored in 2/3 of the group stage matches (5 goals in the match against Cameroon 6-1). He became the only player in World Cup history to win the Golden Shoe even though his team was eliminated in the group stage.
Returning to Dinh Bac and Xuan Son, of course, when wearing the same jersey, every goal is valuable in team achievements, but football fans can hardly forget that 5 goals of the player currently playing for Hanoi Police Club were scored in 2 group stage matches against Timor-Leste (hat-trick) and Cambodia (double). Xuan Son also had 1 goal in the 7-0 victory over Timor-Leste, but the Brazilian-born striker also scored against Indonesia (1) and Malaysia (3 goals in 2 semi-final matches).
Salenko received the individual award at the age of 24 (more than 2 years older than Dinh Bac currently), but then his career did not leave much of an impression. 6 goals was also what he had in 8 matches for the Russian national team. Conversely, Stoichkov received the award at the age of 28 (1 year younger than Xuan Son currently) and ended his career in the position of a legend.
Saying that does not mean that Dinh Bac's career path - a player who scored 8 goals for the Vietnamese national team with 7 of them against the Philippines, Myanmar, Timor-Leste and Cambodia, will be like Salenko's. The problem here is that effort must be proportional to maturity in bravery to take advantage of opportunities in important matches.
