OFFICIAL: Xuan Son is not nominated for the Vietnam Golden Ball Award

Xuan Son does not appear on the nominee list for the 2025 Vietnam Golden Ball Award.

This morning, on November 6, the 2025 Vietnam Golden Ball Award officially launched its new voting season – the 30th edition. The press conference announcing the event was held ceremoniously at the Saigon Liberation Newspaper (SGGP) headquarters by the organizing committee.

The most notable category of the 2025 Vietnam Golden Ball Award, the Best Male Player of the Year, has been revealed with 23 nominated candidates. Most are familiar names who delivered outstanding performances at both national team and club levels, such as Hoang Duc, Tien Linh, Quang Hai... along with some excellent U23 young players like Dinh Bac, Thanh Nhan, and Khuat Van Khang.

Unfortunately, a highly anticipated name, Xuan Son, is missing from the nominee list for the 2025 Vietnam Golden Ball Award. The naturalized striker of the Vietnam national team missed almost the entire 2025 season due to an injury sustained in the second leg final of the 2024 AFF Cup and has only recently begun preparing to return to play.

This is naturally reasonable since Xuan Son did not compete and had no achievements, making him ineligible for nomination for the 2025 Vietnam Golden Ball Award, although the second leg of the AFF Cup final took place in January 2025. The 2024 Vietnam Golden Ball Award ceremony was also postponed until February to wait for the conclusion of the AFF Cup 2024.

However, fans have the right to feel regretful as Xuan Son was not nominated for the Best Male Player category of the Vietnam Golden Ball Award for two consecutive years. Previously in 2024, Xuan Son performed exceptionally well at both club and national team levels but was only nominated in the Best Foreign Player category.

If nominated for the 2024 Vietnam Golden Ball Award, Xuan Son would clearly have been unrivaled when compared to Tien Linh, Hoang Duc, or Tuan Hai. However, since he officially naturalized only in September 2024 and mainly played in 2024 as a foreign player, Xuan Son was only listed among the nominees for the Best Foreign Player award.