LookAtVietnam – Former national coach Alfred Riedl has voted striker Le Cong Vinh for this year’s Golden Ball - the country’s top annual football award.

Former national coach Alfred Riedl has voted striker Le Cong Vinh (red) for this year’s Golden Ball - the country’s top annual football award.

The 50-year-old Austrian coach also named national goalkeeper Duong Hong Son in second position for the Silver Ball, and Nguyen Vu Phong in third place for Bronze Ball.

The trio were key players when Riedl took charge as the national team coach for the third time between 2005-07 before resigning when Viet Nam failed to reach the Southeast Asian Games finals in Thailand.

According to the organising committee, Vinh, Son, Phong and defender Vu Nhu Thanh are leading the poll, which is officially announced later this month.

The Nghe An-born striker Vinh received the Golden Ball for the third time in a row last year, levelling with former national forward Le Huynh Duc, who coaches V-League SHB Da Nang.

Riedl also selected Do Thi Ngoc Cham of Ha Noi team as Best Female Footballer of the year.

Cham is likely to win the title after she helped Viet Nam rank second at the AFF Championship in HCM City last year. The country lost to Australia 1-0 in the final.

Last year, former team captain Doan Kim Chi of HCM City, who has since retired from the sport, took the Golden Ball for the third time.

Pham Thanh Luong, 21, is favourite to win Best Youth Player after his star performance in the AFF Cup last year.

Brazilian striker Jose De Emidio Almeida, who plays for SHB Da Nang, is expected to win Foreign Player of the Year as he headed the V-League’s topscorer board for two consecutive years.

He netted the ball 16 times in the V-League in 2007 and racked up 23 goals in 26 matches in 2008.

The organisers will collect votes from current national men’s and women’s team coaches Portuguese Henrique Calisto and Chinese Chen Yun Fat for the last tally this month.

The poll is organised annually by Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) newspaper to acknowledge the best footballers of the year and will be voted by a panel of over 200 sport experts, coaches, referees and sports reporters nationwide.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News