Vietnam national football tea
The Vietnam national football team (Vietnamese: Đội tuyển bóng đá quốc gia Việt Nam) represents the Vietnam in men’s senior international association football and is controlled by the Vietnam Football Federation, the governing of football in Vietnam. The team’s nickname is the Golden Star Warriors (Vietnamese: Những chiến binh sao vàng).
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| Nickname(s) | Những chiến binh sao vàng (Golden Star Warriors)[1][2][3] |
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| Association | Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) | ||
| Confederation | AFC (Asia) | ||
| Sub-confederation | AFF (Southeast Asia) | ||
| Head coach | Kim Sang-sik | ||
| Captain | Quế Ngọc Hải | ||
| Most caps | Lê Công Vinh (83) | ||
| Top scorer | Lê Công Vinh (51) | ||
| Home stadium | Various | ||
| FIFA code | VIE | ||
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| FIFA ranking | |||
| Current | 116  1 (19 September 2024)[4] |
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| Highest | 84 (September 1998) | ||
| Lowest | 172 (December 2006) | ||
| First international | |||
as South Vietnam:[a] Hong Kong 3–2 Vietnam  (Mong Kok, Hong Kong; 20 April 1947) Post autonomy  Taiwan 3–2 Vietnam (Manila, Philippines; 1 May 1954) as Vietnam: |
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| Biggest win | |||
 Vietnam 11–0 Guam  (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; 23 January 2000) |
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| Biggest defeat | |||
as South Vietnam: South Vietnam 1–9 Indonesia  (Seoul, South Korea; 4 May 1971) as Vietnam: |
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| Asian Cup | |||
| Appearances | 5 (first in 1956 as South Vietnam 2007 as Vietnam) |
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| Best result | as South Vietnam: Fourth place (1956, 1960) as Vietnam: Quarter-finals (2007, 2019) |
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| ASEAN Cup | |||
| Appearances | 14 (first in 1996) | ||
| Best result | Champions (2008, 2018) | ||
| Southeast Asian Games | |||
| Appearances | 12 (first in 1959 as South Vietnam 1991 as Vietnam) |
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| Best result | as South Vietnam: Champions (1959) as Vietnam: Silver medals (1995, 1999) |
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| Asian Games | |||
| Appearances | 6 (first in 1954 as South Vietnam 1998 as Vietnam) |
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| Best result | as South Vietnam: Fourth place (1962) as Vietnam: Group stage (1998) |
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| Website | vff.org.vn | ||
Football was introduced to Vietnam by the French in the late 19th century during the French colonial period and Vietnam (future South Vietnam) played their first game in 1947. However, because various conflicts occurred in the country throughout the 20th century,[6][7] Vietnam was split into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (representing the communist-controlled North) and the State of Vietnam, later the Republic of Vietnam and Republic of South Vietnam (representing the capitalist-controlled South), beginning in 1954. As a result, two national teams (one for the North and one for the South) existed simultaneously and were controlled by separate governing bodies. While South Vietnam became a member of both International Association Football Federation (FIFA) in 1952 and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 1954, North Vietnam never held memberships in either. After North and South were unified into a single country in 1976, the separate governing bodies were combined into the Vietnam Football Federation.[8] However, the current unified Vietnam also inherited South Vietnam’s membership in FIFA, therefore Vietnamese team is considered a successor to the South Vietnamese team, while North Vietnamese team is considered a separate team for statistical purposes.[9]
For the first years of its history, reunified Vietnam experienced a prolonged international football hiatus and no senior national team matches were played between unification in 1976 and participation in the Southeast Asian Games (SEA) football tournament of 1991 (a Vietnam youth team participated in at least one international competition during this period). The 1991 SEA tournament marked the re-integration of Vietnam into international football, with the senior Vietnam national team subsequently achieving moderate success in Southeast Asia and reaching the final round of FIFA World Cup qualification in 2022. Vietnam also reached the quarter-finals of the AFC Asian Cup twice, in 2007 and 2019.