Southeast Asian media amazed as Vietnamese football dominates the region in 2025

Southeast Asian media forecast 2025 will be the year Vietnamese football takes control of the region with numerous remarkable honors and milestones.

Southeast Asian football just concluded an exciting 2025, summarized by ASEAN Football with “Top 10 defining moments of the region.” Notably, regional media emphasize that Vietnam appears most frequently on this list, highlighting Vietnamese football’s clear dominance throughout the year.

Most prominently is the fact that Vietnam achieved a historic “treble” in the regional arena. The national team won the AFF Cup 2024, the U23 team claimed the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Championship, and the men’s team secured the gold medal at the 2025 SEA Games. This is the basis for ASEAN Football’s assertion that Vietnam “established a new power in Southeast Asia.”

Alongside national team achievements, Vietnam also made its mark at the continental level. ASEAN Football stressed Vietnam is the only team in the region to have passed the qualifiers of all AFC tournaments they entered in 2025. This demonstrates that Vietnamese football is not only strong in Southeast Asia but also consistently competitive on the Asian stage.

At the club level, Vietnamese women's football was honored as Ho Chi Minh City Women’s Club reached the AFC Women’s Champions League Top 4, becoming one of Southeast Asia’s standout representatives in continental competition. This achievement further solidifies the development status of Vietnamese women’s football.

Vietnamese futsal also earned recognition when the women’s futsal team won the gold medal at the 2025 SEA Games, ending Thailand’s long-standing dominance alongside Indonesia. This success highlights Vietnam as a nation with comprehensive progress across multiple tournament systems.

Not only in words, ASEAN Football also “marked” Vietnam’s superiority through a visual summary: three prominent images belong to Vietnamese football, including the moment of winning the AFF Cup 2024 and the gold medal celebration at the 2025 SEA Games. Based on these achievements, regional media acknowledge 2025 as the year Vietnam truly stood as the number one football nation in Southeast Asia.