Asian Footballer of the Year


Asian Footballer of the Year is an annual prize awarded to the best Asian player in a calendar year, organized by Asian Football Confederation. The origin of the award was a poll, launched to mark the first edition of a football handbook in 1985. The award began in 1988 through International Federation of Football History & Statistics with sport magazines and journalists, then it was adopted by the AFC in 1994 with the allocation of annual award.

Winners

IFFHS award (1988–1992)

AFC award (1994–present)

Controversies

Since 2005, this award gives a qualification to nominees who attend the ceremony, so caused much controversy about excluding players who didn't attend the ceremonies by playing for European clubs like Park Ji-sung, Lee Young-pyo and Shunsuke Nakamura. 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.

Multiple winners

Wins by country

Wins by club

AFC Asian International Player of the Year