Why has no overseas Vietnamese player ever won the Vietnamese Golden Ball?

Over three decades have passed, and the Vietnamese Golden Ball remains an unfulfilled dream for overseas Vietnamese players, with the highest achievement being only the Bronze Ball won by Đặng Văn Lâm in 2023.

Throughout the thirty years of establishment and development of the Vietnamese Golden Ball award, domestic football has yet to see any overseas Vietnamese player claim the most prestigious title. The best result so far has been the Bronze Ball earned by goalkeeper Đặng Văn Lâm in 2023, a memorable milestone but still leaving some regrets.

Since the early 2000s, Vietnamese football has witnessed a wave of players of Vietnamese descent returning to compete domestically, hoping to prove their abilities and contribute to their homeland. However, despite the growing number of overseas Vietnamese, few have truly made a significant impact. Most of them struggled to maintain consistent form or have not reached a level of influence strong enough to compete for annual individual awards.

Names like Lee Nguyễn, Mạc Hồng Quân, Nguyễn Filip, Đặng Văn Lâm, Cao Pendant Quang Vinh, and Viktor Lê were once expected to create breakthroughs for overseas Vietnamese players in domestic awards. Lee Nguyễn made a big splash when he returned to the V.League in 2009, but at that time, he did not hold Vietnamese citizenship, which limited his chances to fully compete for the Golden Ball. This is considered one of the special cases in the award’s history.

Mạc Hồng Quân also had a notable period playing for Vietnam’s U23 and Olympic teams, especially at the 2014 ASIAD and 2015 SEA Games. However, at the club and national team levels, he found it difficult to surpass domestic stars at their peak like Phạm Thành Lương or Anh Đức during the same period. This made the competition for the Golden Ball even tougher for players of Vietnamese origin.

In 2018, Đặng Văn Lâm set a record for clean sheets at the AFF Cup and played a key role in helping the Vietnamese national team win the championship. However, the outstanding performances of Nguyễn Quang Hải across all competitions that year prevented the overseas goalkeeper from reaching the top honor. It was not until 2023 that Văn Lâm became the first overseas Vietnamese player to step onto the podium with the Bronze Ball.

Looking ahead, opportunities for overseas Vietnamese players remain wide open. The recent performances of Nguyễn Filip and Cao Pendant Quang Vinh demonstrate increasingly clear potential to compete. As Vietnamese football enters a vibrant phase with many regional and continental tournaments, the question “when will an overseas Vietnamese player win the Vietnamese Golden Ball?” remains unanswered, but hope has never been more tangible.