Qatar international Akram Afif and Japan's Seike Kiko were awarded as the best Asian men’s and women’s football players respectively at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Annual Awards 2023 in Seoul on Tuesday (29 October, 2024). Home hero Son Heung-min was named the International Player of the Year and Australian Ellie Carpenter won the women’s award.
The All India Football Federation, meanwhile, claimed the AFC President's Recognition award (silver medal) for grassroots football. The gold in the category went to Football Australia, and bronze to Vietnam Football Federation.
Afif picked up the men’s Player of the Year award for the second time in his career, having bagged it in 2019. He thus became the fifth male footballer to win the honour multiple times.
Afif 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 while receiving 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,” he said.
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.
Seike of Japan was named the women’s Player of the Year after breaking the record for most goals scored in a Japanese top-flight season. She helped Urawa Red Diamonds to back-to-back Japan Women's Empowerment League titles in May.
