Vietnam mark 1,300 days as top 100 FIFA rank holder

Under coach Park Hang-seo, the Vietnamese national team entered the FIFA top 100 list on November 29, 2018. Since then, there have been 29 updates of the ranking and Vietnam have maintained their top 100 position throughout.

At one point, in real-time rankings and between the updates, Vietnam temporarily fell to 102nd position after losing to Australia in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, but quickly returned to the top 100 by beating China on February 1 this year. If only official updates are counted, Vietnam have been in the top 100 from November 2018 until now.

Vietnam have dropped one spot compared to the previous ranking update. The Golden Dragons have 1,219 points, eight less than Belarus in 96th place.

Vietnam still lead Southeast Asia, followed by Thailand and the Philippines. In Asia, Vietnam rank 17th.

The FIFA ranking is the seeding criterion for the qualifying rounds and finals of FIFA tournaments like the World Cup or Asian Cup.

While this has been Vietnam’s longest run in the top 100 FIFA rankings to date, the team are well short of the record 84th position achieved in September 1998.

Vietnam’s next official tournament is the 2022 AFF Cup, which will take place later this year. Thailand are the defending champions, while Vietnam were ousted in the semifinals in the previous edition of the tournament.