Saudi Arabia’s Hamad named Asia’s top player

KUALA LUMPUR: Saudi Arabia defender Hamad Al Montashari was named Asian Player of the Year yesterday and Japan were crowned Team of the Year at an awards ceremony overshadowed by controversy. 

THE BEST: Hamad Al Montashari holds aloftthe Asian Player of the Year trophy. --APpic

The Al Ittihad star beat off the challenge of Uzbekistan’s Dynamo Kiev striker Maksim Shatskikh for a title diminished by the exclusion of most of Asia’s best players because they could not travel to Kuala Lumpur. 

An Asian Football Confederation (AFC) dictate that a player must attend the ceremony to be eligible for the award ruled out Manchester United star Park Ji-Sung and his South Korean teammate Lee Young-pyo of Tottenham Hotspur. 

It also excluded the Japanese pair of Shunsuke Nakamura and Hidetoshi Nakata, and last year’s winner Ali Karimi of Bayern Munich. 

The ruling sparked an angry rebuke from the Korean FA, and an admission from the AFC that they would re-examine the rules. 

“So much has happened in Asian football this year. In coming years I promise you we will be better than this year and we will be celebrating better achievements than this year,” said AFC president Mohammed bin Hammam. 

 

The full list of winners 

Player of the Year: Hamad Al Montashari (Ksa). 

Women's Player of the Year: Natsuko Hara (Jpn).  

Team of the Year: Japan. 

Women's Team of the Year: Japan’s Under-17 squad. 

Club of the Year: Al Ittihad (Ksa). 

Youth Player of the Year: Choe Myong Ho (Prk). 

Futsal Team of the Year: Iran. 

Association of the Year: Qatar. 

Fairplay: Hong Kong 

Official of the Year: Shamsul Maidin (Sin). – AFP