Referee Nguyen Trong Thu has been voted the winner of the Golden Whistle prize for the 2013 football season, announced the Vietnam Football Federation on September 18.

The Da Nang-born referee won the majority of votes cast with a total of 230 points, 30 points more than the Silver Whistle winner Vo Minh Tri, and 67 points above the third place finisher Phung Dinh Dung, who was honoured with the Bronze Whistle award.

This is the first time Nguyen Trong Thu, who proved his skills in many difficult matches of the season, has been named the league’s best referee, following two consecutive Bronze Whistles in 2011 and 2012.

Vo Quang Vinh, who won the Gold Whistle awards for the past two years, is absent from the list of the top five referees of the 2013 football season because he did not work in the second half of the season owing to his heel wound, according to the VietnamNet Bridge.

The 2013 Golden Flag award was presented to linesman Pham Manh Long, who received 231 points, naming him the most outstanding assistant referee in the V-League for the fifth time (2006, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2013), more than any other linesman in league history.

Linesmen Tran Thanh Liem and Tran Minh Thang won this year’s Silver and Bronze Flag prizes with 134 and 130 points, respectively.-VNA