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Early history
The introduction of football into Vietnam traced its roots in 1896 during the era of colonial French Cochinchina. At the early stage, the sport are only played among French civil servants, merchants and soldiers. The French then encouraged local Vietnamese to played football and several other sports that were introduced to them to divert their interest from politics which resulting the sport being spread to other regions, mostly the northern and central region. On 20 July 1908, the newspaper Southern Luc Tan Van reported the match between two local Vietnamese teams for the first time. A first football guidebook then published in 1925 by a local Vietnamese doctor named Pham Van Tiec to attract the interest among Vietnamese youngsters. By 1928, the Vietnamese had established the Annamite Sports Bureau and in the same year they sent a Vietnamese football team to compete in Singapore. More local football clubs then established in both northern and southern Vietnam although it was not until after the World War II that football clubs in the region started to become more organised. It was the time Vietnam played their first ever international match, against Korea in Saigon which they lost 2–4.

Two Vietnams era
Main articles: South Vietnam national football team and North Vietnam national football team

Two national football teams then existed when Vietnam was divided into South Vietnam and North Vietnam. The team from the South participated in the first two AFC Asian Cup finals (1956 AFC Asian Cup and 1960 AFC Asian Cup) and finished in fourth place both times. They won the first Southeast Asian Games in 1959 in Thailand. The team also entered qualification for the 1974 FIFA World Cup, beating Thailand 1–0 to qualify the classification matches before losing their group opening matches by 0–4 to Japan and 0–1 to Hong Kong. The team played their last game against Malaysia in 1975 where they lost 0–3. Meanwhile, the team from the North was less active, not being a member of either AFC and FIFA, often playing against other Communist states between 1956 and 1966. They had their first match against China PR where they lost 3–5 under head coach Truong Tan Buu. They participated in the first GANEFO (Games of the New Emerging Forces) competitions at Indonesia in 1962 and Cambodia in 1966. Both team ceased to exist when the North and South regions were combined together into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam following the end of the Vietnam War, but North Vietnam remained not a member of AFC and FIFA before 1975. Due to South Vietnam was a member of FIFA, the later unified Vietnam team is classified as successor of South Vietnam by FIFA.

Post Vietnam War and redevelopment era
Vietnamese professional football league known as the All Vietnam Football Championship was launched in 1980 to redevelop Vietnamese football after a long period of civil war. In 1989, following the Đổi Mới reforms, a new football federation was formed. Vietnamese sports began to return to international events. After three months of preparation, in August 1989, the First Congress of the new football federation took place in Hanoi, declaring the formation of Vietnam Football Federation (VFF). Trịnh Ngọc Chữ, deputy minister of General Department of Sports, was elected president of VFF. The reunified Vietnam national football team then played their first match against the Philippines in 1991 where they had a draw. In 1996, Vietnam participated in the first Tiger Cup where they finished in third place. They hosted the second Tiger Cup in 1998 where they lost 0–1 to Singapore in the final.

Vietnam hosted the 2007 AFC Asian Cup along with Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. In the group stage, Vietnam defeated UAE 2–0, drew 1–1 with another Gulf team, Qatar, lost 1–4 to Japan and were the only Southeast Asian team to reach quarter-finals, where they lost to Iraq 0–2. Since 2007, after two unsuccessful attempts for 2011 and 2015, Vietnam qualified to the AFC Asian Cup again as they obtained four draws with Afghanistan and Jordan and two wins against Cambodia during the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification.

Vietnam won the first AFF Championship title in 2008, which they were held in Group B with Thailand, Malaysia and Laos. After losing Thailand 0–2 in the opener, Vietnam defeated Malaysia 3–2 and Laos 4-0. In semi-finals, Vietnam hold the defending champion Singapore by 0–0 in home match before winning 1–0 away. Vietnam met Thailand again in the finals and defeated them 3-2 aggregated, won the away match 2-1 then drew 1–1 at home. The 2018 AFF Championship is Vietnam's second AFF Championship title. In Group A, Vietnam managed 3 victories against Laos, Malaysia, Cambodia and a draw with Myanmar. In semi-finals, they defeated the Philippines twice by 2–1 both home and away hence progressed towards the finals, where they defeated Malaysia 3-2 aggregated, drawing 2–2 away and winning 1–0 home.