Nguyễn Tiến Linh (born 20 October 1997) is a Vietnamese professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a striker for

V.League 1 The V.League 1 (), also called LPBank V.League 1 for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football league in Vietnam, controlled by the Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company (VPF). It is contested by 14 clubs who play each ...

club Becamex Bình Dương and the Vietnam national team. In

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, Tiến Linh was nominated by a panel of sports journalists and football experts for

Best Footballer in Asia Best Footballer in Asia () is an annual association football award organized and presented by Titan Sports (newspaper), Titan Sports. It is awarded to the player who had the best performance for Asian football during the previous calendar year. ...

. He is considered one of the best Vietnamese footballers of his generation. After the match against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

in February 2022, he became the all-time leader for Vietnam in the World Cup qualifiers, passing

Lê Công Vinh Lê Công Vinh (born 10 December 1985) is a Vietnamese former Association football, footballer who played as a forward. He was part of the Vietnam national football team, Vietnam national team between 2004 and 2016, and played predominantly as ...

who had 7 goals.

Early life

Nguyễn Tiến Linh was born and raised in the Cẩm Hoàng commune of the Cẩm Giang district,

Hải Dương Hải Dương () is a city in Vietnam. It is the capital of Hải Dương Province, Hải Dương, an industrialized province in the Hanoi Capital Region and the Red River Delta in Northern Vietnam. The city is at the midpoint between the capita ...

. At the age of 2, his mother moved to South Korea for work. At the age of 6, he followed his father to Bình Dương. His mother returned to Vietnam when he was 9 years old. Tiến Linh began playing football for his school team. At the age of 13, he followed his PE teacher's advice and participated in the trial test of Becamex Bình Dương, in which he was later admitted to the club. At first, he played as midfielder, but then switched to striker.

Club career

Becamex Binh Duong U19

With 5 goals, Tiến Linh was the top scorer of Vietnamese National U-19 Football Championship.

Becamex Binh Duong

Tiến Linh made his first debut with

Becamex Binh Duong Becamex Binh Duong Football Club (), simply known as Becamex Binh Duong, is a professional football club based in Thủ Dầu Một, Bình Dương province, Vietnam. It currently plays in Vietnam's top division, the V.League 1. Their home grou ...

in 2016. Over 4 years, Tiến Linh scored 26 goals: 15 in 2018, 5 in 2020, and 6 in 2021 before the cancellation of the league due to

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

. Becamex Binh Duong won the Vietnamese National Football Super Cup and also placed second in the Vietnamese National Football Super Cup, also earning the Vietnamese Bronze Ball in 2021. In 2022, he earned the Vietnamese Silver Ball. Tiến Linh won the Vietnamese Golden Ball award for the first time in 2024.

International career

2018: First Match for Vietnam and won AFF Championship

On 8 November 2018, Tiến Linh made his debut for the national team in the match against

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

. He scored his first goal for Vietnam against

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

in their last group match. At the end, Tiến Linh and Vietnam won

2018 AFF Championship The 2018 AFF Championship was the 12th edition of the AFF Championship, the Association football, football championship of nations affiliated to the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF), and the 6th under the name AFF Suzuki Cup. This was the first t ...

2019-present

2022 World Cup qualification

On 15 October 2019, Tiến Linh scored his first goal in

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification was the FIFA World Cup qualification, qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar national football team, Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Par ...

against

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. A month later, he scored the only goal against

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal elective monarchy made up of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi serving as i ...

. In June 2021, he scored 3 goals in the last 3 matches of the second round of 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification to promote Vietnam to the third round. On 1 February 2022, he scored a goal in the match against

to surpass Le Cong Vinh as the top scorer for Vietnam in the history of World Cup qualification.

2020 AFF Championship

2020 AFF Championship The 2020 AFF Championship (officially AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 for sponsorship reasons) was the 13th edition of the AFF Championship, the football championship of nations affiliated to the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF), the 7th and the last edition ...

, he scored a brace in a 4–0 win against Cambodia, but his team lost in the semi-finals to

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

2022 AFF Championship

Tiến Linh scored 6 goals in

2022 AFF Championship The 2022 AFF Championship (officially AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2022 due to sponsorship reasons) was the 14th edition of the AFF Championship, the football championship of nations affiliated to the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and was the 1 ...

to share the top goalscorer award with Thai striker

Teerasil Dangda Teerasil Dangda (, ; born 6 June 1988) is a Thai professional footballer who plays as a striker for Thai League club BG Pathum United and the Thailand national team. Teerasil has played his trade in England, Switzerland, Spain, and Japan dur ...

, but Vietnam once again lost Thailand by 2-3 on aggregate in the finals.

2026 World Cup qualification

During the 2nd round, Tiến Linh scored two goals against the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and was awarded the Player of the Match title. Vietnam however was eliminated of the World Cup.

2024 ASEAN Championship

Tiến Linh scored 4 goals in

2024 ASEAN Championship The 2024 ASEAN Championship (officially the ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2024 due to sponsorship reasons) was the 15th edition of the ASEAN Championship (formerly the AFF Championship) association football, football tournament of nations affili ...

, contributed greatly to helping the Vietnam win the Southeast Asian championship for the third time.

Career statistics

Club

International

''As of match played 10 June 2025'' ''Scores and results list Vietnam's goal tally first.''

Honours

Club

Becamex Bình Dương *

Vietnamese National Cup Vietnamese National Football Cup (), commonly recognized and branded as the National Cup (), is a Vietnamese Association football, football competition. It is one of the most important club competitions in Vietnam. The Vietnamese Cup was first he ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Vietnamese Super Cup Vietnamese National Football Super Cup (), also called the Thaco National Football Super Cup due to sponsorship reasons, is Vietnamese football's annual match contested between the champions of the previous V.League 1 season and the holders of th ...

: 2016

International

Vietnam *

ASEAN Championship The ASEAN Championship (formerly known as the AFF Championship or AFF Cup), currently known as the ASEAN Hyundai Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the biennial football tournament organized by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) for men's natio ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Vietnam U23 *

SEA Games The Southeast Asian Games, commonly known as SEA Games is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with su ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Individual

* Vietnamese Golden Ball: 2024 * Vietnamese Silver Ball: 2022 * Vietnamese Bronze Ball: 2021 *

Top scorer:

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

All-Star XI:

*Third-class Labor Order: 2025

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Tien Linh 1997 births Living people Vietnamese men's footballers 21st-century Vietnamese sportsmen Men's association football forwards V.League 1 players Becamex Binh Duong FC players Sportspeople from Hải Dương province 2019 AFC Asian Cup players Competitors at the 2019 SEA Games SEA Games medalists in football SEA Games gold medalists for Vietnam Vietnam men's international footballers Competitors at the 2021 SEA Games