The joke's on Australia and South Korea, because in this pitiful display of "What the hell?", not one South Korean or Australian is present on the list. In fact the only two players out of the 15 no-names here that even remotely deserve to be on the list are Endo and Nakamura. Talk about a suspicious looking "award". http://www.goal.com/en/news/14/asia...n-stars-in-running-to-be-named-afc-player-ofI Did the AFC do this to show up the top 2 nations in Asia, or is it purely accidental? Maybe money talks louder than common sense...
Kengo deserves to be on the list he's having a really good season. But let's be honest, it's an useless award anyways.
The AFC reward points for how players rate in ACL, AFC Cup and Asian Cup matches, so for example, an unknown player from North Korea could score a hattrick against Yemen and get maximum points putting him on the shortlist. For good nations, you get many good players, all of which can't be awarded man of the match, so they score no points. So a field of Japan V Australia with 22 players would only give you one victor to get anywhere near the list and get overlooked by players from smaller nations. In essence, i think it keeps the smaller nations happy.
Aleksandr Geynrikh is nominated as the worst player of Uzbekistans NT in this year, and what a surprice, he is a one step away from being the Asian player of the year
Certainly it is a joke. I thought Endo deserved the award last year.Since European based players don't get nominated, with that in mind, this would have been my addition to that list: Dae-se (Tese) Chong (Kawasaki Frontale) Joshua Kennedy (Nagoya Grampus) Han Peng (Shandong Luneng) Choi Hyo-jin (Pohang Steelers) Ki Sung-yong (FC seoul)
Weren't European based players nominated last year? I made a similar point to druryfire last year about how the system works. Basically smaller countries are more likely to have 1 or 2 star players that are always their motm, whereas NTs that qualify for WC tend to have many good players that split motm. That doesn't account for the complete lack of South Koreans or Australians though. Nor does it explain why Yoshida is on there. I don't want to insult him, but I just can't imagine him as being anywhere near a contender for such an award.
The best thing AFC can do is to do away with this award and just give out MVP awards to ACL and AFC Cup tournaments. Otherwise it will always be a circus. They could just also ask for national team managers to vote, which FIFA do, but then this would be even more lopsided as it would become like the Eurovision singing contest
They introduced this mathematical system precisely because it's more transparent. It was done to appease those who always questioned the choice back in the day. This is the result. In the end, no real football fan cares about awards, surveys or prizes. It's all about goals, wins and trophies.
Some interesting facts... - In 2008, Schwarzer (Fulham), Burns (AEK Athens), and Ali Al Habsi (Bolton) were all short-listed. As a side note, many people apparently thought Endo deserved a piece last year. The fact is that he wasn't even in the top 3. He got beat out by Djeparov (Bunyodkor), Matar (Al Wahda), Soria (Qatar SC) - They were the first Euro-based players selected since 2005 when Nakamura (Reggina) finished 3rd. - In 2002 Shinji Ono (Feyenoord), Junichi Inamoto (Fulham), and Ahn Jung-Hwan (Perugia) were the 3 finalists (in order of winner to 3rd). - Since 2002, the only East Asian player to be in the top 3 was Nakamura. Twice in 2004 and 2005 -- finishing 3rd both times behind Ali Karimi (Al Ahli) and A'ala Hubail (Al Ahli) in 2004, and behind Hamad Al-Montashari (Al Ittihad) and Maxim Shatskikh (Dinamo Kiev) in 2005. - From 2003, the breakdown of finalists by country is as follows Thailand: 1 Japan: 2 (both Naka) Iran: 2 Uzbekistan: 3 Bahrain: 1 Kuwait: 1 UAE: 1 Qatar: 2 Iraq: 2 Saudi Arabia: 3 - The breakdown by club country since 2003 is: Germany: 1 (Mahdavikia) Ukraine: 2 (both Maxim Shatskikh) Italy: 2 (both Naka) Thailand: 1 Uzbekistan: 1 Bahrain: 1 Kuwait: 1 Qatar: 3 UAE: 3 Saud Arabia: 3 Let's be certain of 1 thing here. Impartiality has nothing to do with this award, no matter what point system may exist.
Oh yea... and there wasn't a single South Korean short listed last year either. Two years in a row and not a single South Korean player worth mentioning? Yea... I believe that one.
Scotch, Nobody said they can't be picked, but they are at a disadvantage because they play fewer games that make the count. A Euro based player will not take part in many AFC competitions (Asian cup only, and even then probably only the finals if at all), and not all FIFA (they will miss out on some qualifier games). It's pretty simple. On another note, I will also say something that will upset the Koreans and Aussies here, particularly with their superiority complex. While there's much to admire about their team ethic and athleticism, they really have very few standout individuals. A bunch of workhorses and thugs. So what if they run around (when they're not on the bench) like a donkey for a European team.
As I recall, AFC said they couldn't be picked in 06 and 07 because they wouldn't be able to attend the ceremony. Fittingly, those would have been the years you'd think Naka and/or PJS would've been the only players worth mentioning. How convenient.
Well it doesn't matter, while most of these 'excellent' players nominated for this 'prestigious' award will watch the next World Cup from home, those scrubs and donkeys of Korea and Australia (who topped their respective WC qualifying group) will actually play in South Africa representing their nation and continue their professional career in Europe and elsewhere afterwards. Anyway, I wonder how many of those players nominated could get a place in Korea or Australia's national squad.
Please see the list of these players who were nominated for this year's AFC player of the year and tell me again if players like Ali Ashfaq of Maldives is individually better than any Australia or South Korea NT players. 2009 AFC Player of the Year ------------------------------------------------- Alexander Geynrikh (Uzbekistan) Pakhtakor Ali Ashfaq (Maldives) VB Baba Malick (Qatar) Umm Salal Firas Al Khatib (Syria) Al Arabi/Al Qadsiya Hadi Aghily (Iran) Sepahan Hong Yong Jo (North Korea) Rostov, Russia Kengo Nakamura, (Japan) Kawasaki Frontale Li Weifeng (China) Suwon Bluewings, Korea Markus Rihihina (Indonesia) PSMS Medan Maya Yoshida, (Japan) Nagoya Grampus Mohammed Noor, (Saudi Arabia) Al Ittihad Nassir Al Shamrani, (Saudi Arabia) Al Shabab Ri Myong Guk (North Korea) Pyongyang Athletics Club Sayed Mohamed Adnan (Bahrain) Al Khor Yasuhito Endo, (Japan) Gamba Osaka AFC player of the year has always been a joke since Bin Hammam became the president of AFC. (Since Hammam was elected, AFC Player of the year award has always been handed to players in West Asia. Can you explain anything about this?) You're saying this "reward points" system is transparent, yet there's no source to find how many points are awarded to each player and which particular player got "x" points in AFC CL and "y" points in Asian Cup and etc. And btw, who judges points? It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that all the judges turned out to be Bin Hammam's puppets. Take Li Weifeng for instance, he's currently playing for Suwon Bluewings of K-league. Yet, Suwon has been awful this season getting knocked out by Nagoya in the last 16 of AFC CL. Li Weifeng has not been called up for China NT for a very long time so he only got the points from the AFC CL. Now, take Ki Sung-Yong of FC Seoul for comparison. He's only 20 years old but this year he's contributed a lot. He single-handily helped his team advance to the quarter finals of AFC CL with a last minute goal against Kashima at Japan. He was also a key player in helping Korea NT qualify for the WC. (He scored a goal against UAE & He was the Motm at Iran) If the points system were objective & transparent as you say, Ki would have gotten more points than Li. This "one instance" alone can tell how rigged the AFC player of the award system has been for all those years and why nobody, even the Asian football journalists, cares about it anymore. (There are a lot of articles that criticize about the AFC player of the year award so have a read on some of them)
yes, iircc both Park Ji-sung and Nakamura had been short-listed (list of 5 or so players) in differnt years and both said they would not be able to attend the award ceremony and on that grounds were not chosen as they put in a new stipulation that the winner must attend the award ceremony. it is vital that the AFC Player ofthe Year award regains some of its credibility. this is just yet another symptom of the corruption and lack of professionalism within the AFC. It is not only the fans within the AFC who will note what a joke this award is (when in other confeds the corressponding award is one of the most prestigious) but FIFA and other cofeds will take note as well. In another words this is detrimental to AFC's own standing and influence as an organisation in global football. Not just something the fans within AFC are embarassed about.
IT's given according to a points system based on MoM awards in FIFA and AFC competitions, which has been in use since the 2007 edition. It may not be the most inspired set of criteria, it may discriminate unfairly against certain classes of players, but it's nothing if not transparent. By the way I don't get why Uzbekistan (where the last winner came from) is being suddenly lumped in with "West Asia" for the purposes of this award. Seems a little too convenient. Uzbekistan is in central Asia, not west Asia, and to imply that there's some sort of regional-based connection between Bin Hammam and Uzbekistan is stretching an already flawed theory beyond any bounds of possibility.
Also if a foriegn players gets all the MOM awards - are they eligible for the AFC player of the year - similar to Kaka winning the UEFA award. IMO they need two awards - one for best AFC player - no matter where they play, and one for best player in AFC - no matter where they are from.
shambles of an award. why dont they split it into 2? domestic asian player of the year and overseas(or european) asian player of the year?
A better question is why there haven't been any South Koreans short-listed in 2 years? Why hasn't a single player plying their trade in South Korea, Japan, Australia, or China been in the final 3 since 2003?
Started his regime in August 2002. Odd how that coincides so closely to the "since 2003...." tidbits.
i guess i should be mad about it, but i can't say i really care. this award has become a monkey business for some time now. it's probably a bit embarrassing for the winners.
u forget that finalists aren't scored just for talent, but also for evening wear and swimsuit categories.