Dinh Bac is the player with the most important goals at the 2026 AFC U23 Asian Championship - Photo: AFC
At the conclusion of the 2026 AFC U23 Championship, Nguyen Dinh Bac was honored with the Golden Boot award, scoring 4 goals and providing 2 assists in 409 minutes of play.
Three players also scored 4 goals in the tournament: Sato of Japan, Shahin of Lebanon, and Azaizeh of the UAE. Dinh Bac and Sato also provided 2 assists each.
In total, Dinh Bac and Sato have 6 goals and assists – a statistic often referred to as "G/A" (goal/assist), essentially "the number of times they've been involved in a goal".
No awards are given to the top scorer in this category, even though it is a very important indicator reflecting the effectiveness of an attacking star.
Dinh Bac and Sato are evenly matched in terms of G/A ratio, but Dinh Bac completely surpasses his Japanese counterpart in a series of other important metrics. These include the metric measuring the importance of the goals scored.
For example, a goal that seals a 1-0 or 2-1 victory for the home team will be more important than a goal that seals a 4-0 or 5-0 victory.
Top-level football statisticians call these goals GWG (Game-Winning Goal) – goals that decide the victory, or WPA (Win Probability Added) – goals that increase the chances of winning the match.
The development of top-level football today is closely correlated with the field of data analytics. Goals and assists are just the most basic statistics in the world of football.
Professional analysts, on the other hand, use metrics like GWG or WPA to assess a player's importance and level of excellence.
And at the 2026 AFC U23 Championship, Dinh Bac dominated in both GWG and WPA. Every single one of his contributions – his four goals and two assists – was indispensable in creating the miracle for coach Kim Sang Sik's team.
First, there was the opening goal in the first match against Jordan. Next, there was the only goal that helped Vietnam U23 win against Saudi Arabia.
In the quarter-finals, Dinh Bac scored one goal and provided one assist, helping his team win 3-2 against UAE. And in the third-place match, Dinh Bac continued his scoring and assisting streak, securing a 2-2 draw against South Korea, ultimately winning on penalties.
Therefore, 3/4 of Dinh Bac's goals were scored by GWG, because without those goals, Vietnam would not have been able to win the match.
Sato scored many goals, but didn't create the same emotional impact as Dinh Bac - Photo: AFC
Furthermore, all six of Dinh Bac's goals were counted as WPA (Winter Passing Award). For example, in the win against Jordan, Dinh Bac's goal was the opening goal, and also the first goal of the tournament.
From this perspective, Sato is completely inferior to Dinh Bac. The 19-year-old attacking midfielder scored 2 goals and provided 2 assists in the resounding 5-0 victory against Syria. In the final group stage match – a 2-0 win against Qatar – Sato scored the goal that sealed the victory.
In the final, Sato successfully converted a penalty to make it 3-0, after his teammates had already scored and together they had created a dominant performance.
Of the four goals Sato scored, none were counted as GWG, and his WPA rating was also quite low because Sato usually only scored when the game was already decided.
The statistics are anything but dry. When delving into the data analysis, experts have even more reason to appreciate Dinh Bac.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/chi-so-vinh-quang-tham-lang-cua-dinh-bac-dan-dau-ve-tam-anh-huong-den-nhung-ban-thang-quan-trong-20260124235805044.htm#content-1
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