Midfielders Nguyen Minh Phuong and Tran Thi Kim Hong were respectively announced winners of the 2010 Golden Ball awards in the Best Male and Female Footballers category.
The 2010 Golden Ball awards was held at Ben Thanh Theatre at 9 a.m. this morning, May 12th. In the eventful atmosphere of the gala, all the important titles were announced by the organization board, Sai Gon Giai Phong Newspaper one by one, starting with The Best Foreign Footballer, then The Best Young Footballer, The Best Female Footballers and finally The Best Male Footballers.
With 387 voting points, Nguyen Minh Phuong of Da Nang Football Club excellently won the 2010 Golden Ball award. The 2010 Football Season was actually successful and memorable to Minh Phuong, because he has brought many spectacular goals to Dong Tam Long An Football Club and Vietnam National Football Team in the 2010 V-League season and 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup. This is the first time Minh Phuong gets the Golden Ball awards. In the 2006 and 2007 Golden Ball awards, he was given the Silver Ball awards.
“I highly appreciate the trust that the coaches, football experts and sport reporters have put on me. This is such a tremendous honor in my football career. I do promise that I will keep this good memory with me, despite whatever role I play in the football round”, Minh Phuong said after receiving the award.
The 2009’s winner of the Golden Ball awards, Pham Thanh Luong from Hanoi ACB and Nguyen Vu Phong from Binh Duong Football Club respectively got 132 and 89 voting points and were in turn offered the Silver and Bronze Ball awards in the male category.
In the race for the best female footballer title, there is a competition between Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh, Nguyen Thi Muon and Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet from Hanoi and Tran Thi Kim Hong and Dang Thi Kieu Trinh from HCMC. Finally, midfielder Tran Thi Kim Hong won the 2010 Golden Ball award with 283 voting points, very close to 258 points for goalkeeper Kieu Trinh who got the Silver Ball award this year. With 140 points, center back Ngoc Anh was ranked third and got the Bronze Ball award.
With 77 votes, Nguyen Van Quyet from Ha Noi T&T left Dinh Thanh Trung from Hoa Phat Hanoi, who only got 48 votes, behind and won the title for the Best Young Footballer in 2010.
Samson Kayode, a Nigerian striker who is playing for Dong Thap Football Club, surprisingly won the title for the best foreign footballer with 59 votes. He just got 10 votes more than Gaston Merlo, the No.1 scorer of SHB Da Nang.
