Tien Linh wins top scorer title for the first time: Deserved, but...

How many goals did Tien Linh score?

With 14 goals in V-League 2024 - 2025, striker Nguyen Tien Linh has won the top scorer title for the first time in his career. The player born in 1997 shares this title with Lucao do Break (Hai Phong Club) and Alan Grafite ( Hanoi Police Club).

After Nguyen Xuan Son's injury, Tien Linh is considered the only domestic player with the potential to compete for the top scorer title.

Tien Linh won the V-League top scorer title with 14 goals

PHOTO: KHA HOA

Despite being quiet in the middle of the season, thanks to an impressive start (7 goals in the first 8 matches of the season) and finish (3 goals in the last 2 matches of the season), Tien Linh has leveled the gap with both "bombing" foreign players to become the most effective striker of the tournament.

With the title of top scorer in the tournament, Tien Linh has reached many milestones. Excluding naturalized foreign players, Tien Linh is the first Vietnamese player to have 2 seasons of scoring over 14 goals (2018 and 2024 - 2025).

In the V-League era, from 2003 to present, only Tien Linh and Anh Duc are domestic players who have won the top scorer title (Xuan Son won the top scorer title in the 2023-2024 season while still playing as a foreign player). Of course, Tien Linh is also the only player to have won the top scorer title in both the V-League and AFF Cup (6 goals in 2022).

Controversy and reality

The Golden Boot award is usually the least controversial. It's all about numbers, and numbers don't lie.

Tien Linh did not have an excellent season compared to himself. The 28-year-old striker's goal scoring efficiency this season is only 0.69 goals/match, lower than the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Tien Linh also had a quiet period in the middle of the season due to injury and loss of form.

At the same time, Xuan Son has Vietnamese nationality, joined the national team and carried the team to the 2024 AFF Cup championship. The appearance of a striker who can "do it all", from scoring, assisting, creating walls to designing the play, has caused Tien Linh to lose his starting position and his ability is doubted.

However, looking at domestic strikers, besides Xuan Son, it is clear that no one is better than Tien Linh.

The striker wearing the number 22 shirt is a rare domestic player who can play the role of center forward in a V-League team, instead of having to move to the wing or play back to make room for foreign strikers.

Tien Linh is still effective in V-League

PHOTO: KHA HOA

If other domestic strikers have foreign players to support them in creating walls or running to attract people, Tien Linh must play the role that foreign players often take on: playing highest in the attack, enduring pressure from defenders and finding space to score.

This season, Tien Linh has been assigned more roles, such as dropping back to receive the ball to develop the play, leading the attack. Although the player from Hai Duong has not met the requirements, the most important thing for a striker is to score goals, and Tien Linh has done it.

The 28-year-old player is sharp in the penalty area, "hunting for the ball", and knows how to occupy space to finish better than any other domestic player. In the list of goalscorers this season, the second highest domestic player has only 7 goals, half of Tien Linh's.

In a season lacking explosiveness and being criticized for his performance, Tien Linh still scored 14 goals. Even though this striker has declined, Vietnamese football still... has no better striker.

With Xuan Son injured and Tien Linh in decline, coach Kim Sang-sik had to deploy an attack without a striker against Malaysia. That attack did not have a shot on target for more than 70 minutes, before Tien Linh came off the bench and had his first shot on target.

Despite his controversial form, the Binh Duong striker is still better at scoring goals than anyone else. There is also no sign that any domestic strikers other than Tien Linh and Xuan Son can compete for this title next season.

When domestic football only has 1 or 2 players who can score goals, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the future of the Vietnamese national team's attack is very uncertain.

The top scorer title is a worthy reward, and also a motivation for the striker wearing the number 22 shirt to come back stronger. He and Binh Duong Club still have the National Cup goal to strive for, when they will meet SLNA in the semi-finals.

Thanhnien.vn

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/tien-linh-va-lan-dau-gianh-danh-hieu-vua-pha-luoi-xung-dang-nhung-185250624073950518.htm