By Michael Church
SEOUL (Reuters) – Qatar’s Akram Afif has been named the Asian Football Confederation’s Player of the Year for a second time with Kiko Seike from Japan securing the women’s title at the regional body’s annual awards ceremony in Seoul on Tuesday.
Afif, who had previously won the award in 2019, was presented with the trophy after his performances had been instrumental in Qatar’s successful defence of their Asian Cup title on home soil earlier in the year.
“I’m nervous like I’m about to take a penalty in the final,” Afif said as he accepted the award. “I thank my wife and all the national team members, coaches, administrators and medical team.
“I will try again to win this award for a third time.”
In February the 27-year-old Al-Sadd forward became the first player to score a hat-trick in the Asian Cup final and netted eight times throughout the tournament to secure the award ahead of Jordan’s Yazan Al-Naimat and South Korean Seol Young-woo.
Afif becomes only the third player to win the trophy more than once, following in the footsteps of Japan’s Hidetoshi Nakata, who won in 1997 and 1998, and Server Djeparov of Uzbekistan, winner in 2008 and 2011.
Seike succeeds Australia’s Sam Kerr to win the women’s award ahead of Australia’s Cortnee Vine and Kim Hye-ri of South Korea and is the fourth Japanese player to claim the title after Homare Sawa, Saki Kumagai and three-times winner Aya Miyama.
The striker’s form was key to Urawa Red Diamonds’ title win in the Asian Women’s Club Championship in 2023 as well as helping her club secure a second consecutive Japanese domestic league title before signing for Brighton & Hove Albion in July.
“I’m very happy to receive this prestigious award.” said Seike via video message, who could not attend the ceremony due to ongoing commitments with the Japan national team.
“I will continue to do my best for my club, the national team and to raise the value of Asian football.”
Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min was named the AFC Men’s International Player of the Year and Australian Ellie Carpenter won the women’s award, recognising players who have made the biggest impact on the global stage outside Asian competitions.
Go Oiwa won the Coach of the Year title after leading Japan to the Under-23 Asian Cup and the quarter-finals of the Olympic Games with Park Young-jeon, head coach of South Korea’s Under-20s, winning the women’s title.
(Reporting by Michael Church, Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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