AFC Asian Player of the Year Winners List (Since 1994)

Who is the AFC Man of the Year? Who is the best Asian football player in 2024? What is the Asian Football Confederation Award? Can Saudi League players win the Ballon d’Or? Who is the football king in Asia? Here GoalTheBall lists out the AFC Asian Football Player of the Year winners.

Asian Footballer of the Year

The Asian Football Confederation Award is known as the AFC Annual Awards. There are multiple categories in it. The AFC presents the “AFC Player of the Year” award to the Asian player with the best performance at AFC club(s) in a calendar year. Meanwhile, they also reward the best performing Asian player outside the Asian club(s) with another award. Fans know this award as the “AFC Asian International Player of the Year”. On the contrary, the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) also offers an award “IFFHS Asian Player of the Year”.

AFC Asian Player of the Year

AFC has presented this award every year since 1994 only except in 2020 and 2021. Saeed Owairan won it as the foremost player. Salem Al-Dawsari is the latest winner. Saudi Arabia represents the most number of winners of this award. In fact, 6 Saudi footballers have won this award so far. Meanwhile, 4 Japanese have grabbed it on 5 occasions while Iran offers 4 different winners. Hidetoshi Nakata is the only player in history to win it more than once (1997 & 1998).

Who is the Best Asian Football Player?

AFC has represented it since 2012. Mainly, the European club stars pocket this award. Son Heung-min has lifted this trophy the most. The Tottenham superstar of South Korea has won it no less than thrice. No other player has won it twice.

IFFHS Asian Player of the Year

Presented since 1988, it was in fact the predecessor of the AFC Player of the Year. However, IFFHS only presented from 1988 to 1992, only 5 times. By the way, the authority revived it in 2020 and started presenting once again from that year onwards. Son Heung-min made a hat-trick winning it in 2020, 2021, and 2022. His compatriot and former South Korea winger Kim Joo-sung also did it years back. He also won this prize for 3 consecutive years (1989, 1990, and 1991).

Who is the Number One Player in Asia?

Numbers and stats speak for Son Heung-Min and so do our experts. Surely, he is the best football player in Asia at the moment. Indeed, he is often labeled as one of the most decorated Asian footballers of all time if not the very top one. The Korean sensation has 6 Asian Best Player awards beside his name. Another Korean Kim Joo-Sung follows Son with 3 awards. Only 2 more players have multiple awards: Japan’s Hidetoshi Nakata as well as Uzbek star Server Djeparov. Each of them has 2 Asian Best Player Awards.