Asian Footballer of the Year

The Asian Footballer of the Year is an annual prize awarded to the best Asian player in a calendar year, organized by Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The origin of the award was a poll, launched to mark the first edition of a football handbook in 1985.[1][2] The award began in 1988 through International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) with sport magazines and journalists, then it was adopted by the AFC in 1994 with the allocation of annual award.[3][4] When the AFC cancelled its awards ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, IFFHS selected the Players of the Year about the world and each continent.

Not to be confused with Best Footballer in Asia.

Player of the Year

Winners
Hidetoshi Nakata won the award in 1997, and 1998.
Server Djeparov won the award in 2008, and 2011.
IFFHS award (1988–1992)
Year Rank Player Team Points Ref.
1988 1st Ahmed Radhi Al-Rasheed 26 [3]
2nd Kim Joo-sung Daewoo Royals 16
3rd Majed Abdullah Al-Nassr 14
1989 1st Kim Joo-sung Daewoo Royals 38 [3]
2nd Majed Abdullah Al-Nassr 12
3rd Ahmed Radhi Al-Rasheed 6
1990 1st Kim Joo-sung Daewoo Royals 36 [3]
2nd Farshad Pious Persepolis 28
3rd Adnan Al-Talyani Al-Shaab 16
1991 1st Kim Joo-sung Daewoo Royals 31 [5]
2nd Chung Yong-hwan Daewoo Royals 28
3rd Samad Marfavi Esteghlal 16
1992 1st Kazuyoshi Miura Verdy Kawasaki 30 [3][6]
2nd Fahad Al-Bishi Al-Nassr 17
3rd Mehdi Fonounizadeh Esteghlal 13
AFC award (1994–2019)
Year Winner Shortlist Ref.
1994 Saeed Owairan
( Al-Shabab)		 — [3]
1995 Masami Ihara
( Yokohama Marinos)		 — [3]
1996 Khodadad Azizi
( Bahman)		 Ali Daei [3]
Ko Jeong-woon
Mohamed Al-Deayea
Yousuf Al-Thunayan
1997 Hidetoshi Nakata
( Shonan Bellmare)		 Khodadad Azizi [3]
Karim Bagheri
Choi Yong-soo
1998 Hidetoshi Nakata
( Perugia)		 Fan Zhiyi [3]
Jasem Al Huwaidi
Ali Daei
1999 Ali Daei
( Hertha BSC)		 Hidetoshi Nakata [3]
Masashi Nakayama
Sun Wen[note 1]
Hwang Sun-hong
Bashar Abdullah
2000 Nawaf Al-Temyat
( Al-Hilal)		 Hiroshi Nanami [3]
Ryuzo Morioka
Lee Dong-gook
2001 Fan Zhiyi
( Dundee)		 Li Tie [3]
Abdullah Al-Shehan
Ali Karimi
Mirjalol Qosimov
2002 Shinji Ono
( Feyenoord)		 Junichi Inamoto [3]
Ahn Jung-hwan
Li Tie
2003 Mehdi Mahdavikia
( Hamburger SV)		 Therdsak Chaiman [3]
Maxim Shatskikh
2004 Ali Karimi
( Al-Ahli)		 A'ala Hubail [3]
Shunsuke Nakamura
2005 Hamad Al-Montashari
( Al-Ittihad)		 Maxim Shatskikh [note 2]
2006 Khalfan Ibrahim
( Al Sadd)		 Bader Al-Mutawa [9]
Mohammad Al-Shalhoub
2007 Yasser Al-Qahtani
( Al-Hilal)		 Younis Mahmoud [10]
Nashat Akram
2008 Server Djeparov
( Bunyodkor)		 Yasuhito Endō [11]
Yuji Nakazawa
Sebastián Soria
Ismail Matar
2009 1st Yasuhito Endō Gamba Osaka 120 [note 3]
2nd Kengo Nakamura Kawasaki Frontale 100
Sayed Mohamed Adnan Al-Khor 100
2010 Saša Ognenovski
( Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma)		 Bader Al-Mutawa [13]
Farhad Majidi
Farshid Talebi
Hussain Salman
2011 Server Djeparov
( Al-Shabab)		 Hadi Aghily [note 2]
2012 Lee Keun-ho
( Ulsan Hyundai)		 Ali Karimi [14]
Zheng Zhi
2013 Zheng Zhi
( Guangzhou Evergrande)		 Javad Nekounam [15]
Ha Dae-sung
2014 Nasser Al-Shamrani
( Al-Hilal)		 Ismail Ahmed [16]
Khalfan Ibrahim
2015 Ahmed Khalil
( Al-Ahli)		 Omar Abdulrahman [17]
Zheng Zhi
2016 Omar Abdulrahman
( Al-Ain)		 Wu Lei [18]
Hammadi Ahmed
2017 Omar Kharbin
( Al-Hilal)		 Omar Abdulrahman [19]
Wu Lei
2018 Abdelkarim Hassan
( Al Sadd)		 Kento Misao [20]
Yuma Suzuki
2019 Akram Afif
( Al Sadd)		 Alireza Beiranvand [21]
Tomoaki Makino
IFFHS award (2020)
2020 Son Heung-min
( Tottenham Hotspur)		 Sardar Azmoun [22]
Takumi Minamino
  1. The only woman player to have been nominated for the award.
  2. Only two players of shortlist competed for the award under a new rule to have omitted nominees who didn't attend the ceremony.[7][8]
  3. Points of the AFC were exceptionally released in this year.[12]

Controversies

Since 2005, this award gives a qualification to nominees who attend the awards ceremony, so the rule caused much controversy about excluding players who could not attend the ceremony by playing for European clubs.[23][24][25][26][27] Among them, Park Ji-sung and Shunsuke Nakamura were nominated for Ballon d'Or. The AFC is awarding the Asian International Player of the Year award to reduce the controversy since 2012, but AFC awards were still having problems that the process and criteria of selection were obscure, and a Chinese sports newspaper Titan Sports made the Best Footballer in Asia award inspired by Ballon d'Or in 2013.[28]

Multiple winners
Player Wins
Kim Joo-sung 3 (1989, 1990, 1991)
Hidetoshi Nakata 2 (1997, 1998)
Server Djeparov 2 (2008, 2011)

Wins by country
Nation Wins Players
 Japan65
 Saudi Arabia55
 South Korea53
 Iran44
 Qatar33
 China PR22
 United Arab Emirates22
 Uzbekistan21
3 nations
 11

    Wins by club
    Club Wins Players
    Al-Hilal44
    Al Sadd33
    Daewoo Royals31
    Al-Shabab22
    Al-Ahli22
    18 clubs
    		 11

    International Player of the Year
    Son Heung-min, won the award in 2015, 2017, and 2019.

    The AFC Asian International Player of the Year is an annual award of the AFC presented to the best Asian footballer who played in other continents.

    Year Winner Shortlist Ref.
    2012 Shinji Kagawa
    ( Manchester United)    		 Yuto Nagatomo [29]
    Mark Schwarzer
    2013 Yuto Nagatomo
    ( Internazionale)    		 Keisuke Honda [30]
    Son Heung-min
    2014 Mile Jedinak
    ( Crystal Palace)    		 Tim Cahill [31]
    Ki Sung-yueng
    2015 Son Heung-min
    ( Tottenham Hotspur)    		 Ki Sung-yueng [32]
    Massimo Luongo
    2016 Shinji Okazaki
    ( Leicester City)    		 Shinji Kagawa [33]
    Son Heung-min
    2017 Son Heung-min
    ( Tottenham Hotspur)    		 Aaron Mooy [34]
    Shinji Kagawa
    2018 Makoto Hasebe
    ( Eintracht Frankfurt)    		 — [35]
    2019 Son Heung-min
    ( Tottenham Hotspur)    		 Sardar Azmoun [36][37]
    Makoto Hasebe
    2020 Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic[note 1] [40]
    1. Instead, AFC held the Fan Awards, and the polls of fans responsible for 60% of points were taken in its website.[38] And as a result, Son Heung-min was selected as the International Player of the Fan Awards.[39]

    See also

    References
    1. Pierrend, José (3 January 2008). "Asian Player of the Year 1984". RSSSF. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    2. "THE ASIA-OCEANIA SOCCER HANDBOOK". Sportsmemories by Heartbooks. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
    3. Pierrend, José; Garin, Erik. "Asian Player of the Year". RSSSF. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
    4. "Asian Player of the Year". Infoplease. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
    5. "Asia's Footballer 1991". IFFHS. Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
    6. "Asia's Footballer 1992". IFFHS. Archived from the original on 13 September 2008. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
    7. "Al Montashari named Asian Player of the Year". World Soccer. 30 November 2005. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    8. "Uzbekistan's Server Djeparov wins AFC Player of the Year award". Goal. 23 November 2011. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    9. "Qatari teenager Ibrahim named Asian Player of the Year". ChinaDaily.com. Reuters. 30 November 2006. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    10. "UPDATE 1-Soccer-Yasser Al Qahtani named Asian Player of the Year". Reuters. 28 November 2007. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    11. "Shamsaei Wins Best Asian Futsal Player Award". FutsalWire.com. 25 November 2008. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    12. "Japan's Yasuhito Endo Named AFC Player Of The Year". Goal. 24 November 2009. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    13. "AFC Player Of The Year Profiles: Bader Al Mutawa, Farhad Majidi, Farshid Talebi, Sasa Ognenovski, Husain Salman". Goal. 23 November 2010. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    14. "AFC Player of the Year: Lee Keun-ho". AFC. 29 November 2012. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    15. "Zheng Zhi is first Chinese to win AFC Player of the Year award in decade". South China Morning Post. 27 November 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    16. "AFC Player of the Year: Nassir Al Shamrani". AFC. 30 November 2014. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    17. "AFC Awards: Ahmed Khalil wins Player of the Year award". Sportstar. 30 November 2015. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    18. "Al Ain's Omar Abdulrahman named AFC Player of the Year". ESPN. 2 December 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    19. "Prolific Syrian Khrbin wins AFC Player of the Year award". NST.com.my. AFP. 29 November 2017. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    20. "Qatar's Abdelkarim Hassan is AFC Player of the Year". Gulf Times. 28 November 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    21. "Player of the Year - Men and Women nominees". AFC. 29 November 2019. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
    22. "The Best Man Player in AFC 2020 by IFFHS : Heung Min Son (South Korea/Tottenham Hotspurs)". IFFHS. 31 December 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
    23. "Saudi Arabia's Hamad named Asia's top player". The Star Malaysia. 1 December 2005. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
    24. "Saudi Arabian is Asia's footballer of the year". Rediff.com. 1 December 2005. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
    25. Somerford, Ben (20 September 2011). "The Asian Football Confederation Needs To Change The Criteria Behind Its Player Of The Year Award". Goal. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
    26. "Djeparov wins AFC Player award". Al Jazeera. 24 November 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
    27. "Class act Al Montashari". The World Game. 23 April 2014. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
    28. "Best Footballer in Asia award: All you need to know". Fox Sports Asia. 26 December 2017. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
    29. "Manchester United playmaker Shinji Kagawa wins inaugural Asian Player of the Year award". The Independent. 29 November 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
    30. "AFC Asian International Player of the Year:Yuto Nagatomo". AFC. 26 November 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
    31. "Gyan and Jedinak land AFC awards". AFC. 30 November 2014. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
    32. "AFC Asian International Player of the Year 2015: Son Heung-min". AFC. 29 November 2015. Archived from the original on 2 December 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
    33. "AFC Asian International Player of the Year 2016: Shinji Okazaki". AFC. 1 December 2016. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
    34. Kin Fai, Ooi (29 November 2017). "Son Heung-Min wins 2017 AFC Asian International Player of the Year". Goal.
    35. "AFC Asian International Player of the Year 2018: Makoto Hasebe". AFC. 28 November 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
    36. "AFC Asian International Player of the Year 2019: Son Heung-min". AFC. 2 December 2019. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
    37. "AFC Annual Awards Hong Kong 2019 nominees revealed". AFC. 15 November 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
    38. "Asia's Choice – Fan Awards: Voting closes for Best AFC International Player of 2020". AFC. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
    39. "Son Heung-min wins Asia's Choice – Best International Player of 2020". AFC. 24 January 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
    40. "AFC cancels Annual Awards Doha 2020". AFC. 17 June 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
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