Vietnam’s U23 squad among top 3 nominees for “National Team of the Year”.
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Meanwhile, Thailand is currently in the lead, with the Philippines in the third place. The first award given by Four Four Two magazine honours the best teams and players in the Southeast Asian football scene.
In addition, Vietnamese midfielder Dinh Thanh Trung has been named among FourFourTwo’s top 5 favourites for the Player of the Year title. His challengers for the award are Chanathip Songkrasin and Teerasil Dangda of Thailand, Aung Thu of Myanmar, and Andritany Ardhiyasa of Indonesia.
Vietnamese midfielder Nguyen Quang Hai is one of the top 5 nominees for the Young Player of the Year award. The twenty-year-old Hai has been hailed as the hero of the Vietnamese team at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U23 Championship. He scored five goals, finishing only behind Almoez Ali of Qatar, who scored six.
Nguyen Quang Hai’s goal against Uzbekistan in the finals of the AFC U23 Championship was voted the best goal of the tournament by fans on the AFC website. Voters could choose between 10 goals scored during the AFC U23 tournament which finished in China on January 27, with Vietnam losing to Uzbekistan 2-1 after extra-time. After four days, there were a total of 218,915 votes for the 10 goals, with Hai’s free kick against Uzbekistan receiving 139,704 votes, 64% of the total. Hai’s long-distance strike against Qatar in the semi-finals received 53,970 votes, accounting for 25% to rank second.
