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Persianleague
- May 08, 2002
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Chinese players lead the pack in the list of nominations for the AFC Player of the Year Awards 2001. The awards ceremony will be held on May 17th 2002 in Shanghai in conjunction with the China Football Expo.

Showing the way in the list of nominations for the prestigious AFC Player of the Year award is China’s Fan Zhiyi, who played a key role in his country’s first-ever qualification for the FIFA World Cup. This is the second AFC Player of the Year nomination for the defender, who is currently on loan at Shanghai Zhongyuan Huili from Scottish side Dundee. His first nomination was for the 1998 award, following his successful move to English First Division side Crystal Palace.

Also staking a claim for the AFC Player of the Year award is Fan’s fellow Chinese international Li Tie. The Liaoning Fushun defensive midfielder, who was named as China’s player of the year, also made a huge contribution to his country’s World Cup qualification, as well as helping Liaoning province win the National Games. Scouted by several European clubs last year, Li has been rapidly growing in stature since spending several seasons training in Brazil in the mid-1990s as part of the Jianlibao squad of Chinese teenagers.

Iran’s Ali Karimi is also in the running. Now with UAE side Al Ahli, the mercurial Karimi kept himself in the Asian limelight with a series of exciting performances for Iran, who fell just short of reaching their second successive World Cup after being beaten by Republic of Ireland in the play-offs.

Abdullah Al Shehan of Saudi Arabia is the other West Asian contender. His five goals made him the leading goalscorer for Saudi Arabia in the Asian Final Qualifying Round – 2002 FIFA World Cup, while he also helped Al Shabab win the Asian Cup Winners’ Cup, scoring a match-winning hat-trick in the final against China’s Dalian Shide.

Mirdjalal Kasimov of Uzbekistan carries the hopes of Central Asia in the AFC Player of the Year award quest. Matching creativity with commitment, the set-piece specialist has been the brain of Uzbekistan’s national team for years. Last year he shone for Uzbekistan, scoring three brilliant goals during the final round of World Cup qualifying. He could now have the limelight focused on him for winning Asia’s most prestigious football award.

The quest for the AFC Youth Player of the Year is no less exciting. Again, two Chinese players, Qu Bo and Du Wei, are jostling for the honour, while Emad Mohamed of Iraq and Thailand’s Nirut Surasiang are the other nominations.

Qu Bo impressed at last year’s FIFA World Youth Championship in Argentina, and has become a regular member of the Chinese senior squad. He made an impact at the FIFA youth tournament when he came off the bench to score with his first touch against eventual champions Argentina. The Qingdao Yizhong player also got China’s only other goal of the tournament in the 1-0 win over the USA, and went on to score for the senior side against Qatar in World Cup qualifying.

Du Wei, who captained the side at the World Youth Championship, is often spoken of as the logical successor to Fan Zhiyi at the heart of China’s defence. “He has a perfect sense of how defence should be played and his speed is unparalleled,” Diego Maradona was quoted as saying after watching China defeat Argentina in a friendly youth tournament in Hong Kong. Like Qu, Du was also part of the Chinese squad that qualified for the World Cup, playing in the last two matches against Qatar and Uzbekistan.

Emad Mohammed starred for Iraq in the World Youth Championship, scoring against Brazil and Canada. He also featured prominently in Iraq’s World Cup qualifying campaign, scoring four goals to become his country’s top scorer in the final round.

South East Asia’s flagbearer, Nirut Surasiang outlined his huge potential with some solid performances in both the senior squad’s first-ever appearance in the final round of World Cup qualifying and with the Under 23 team at the 2001 SEA Games. Skilful and highly versatile – he has previously represented his country’s Futsal team - Surasiang was an important factor in BEC Tero Sasana’s 2000/2001 league winning campaign.

The tussle to be named AFC Coach of the Year is expected to be very keen this time round. A look at the list of nominations for the award is testimony to this fact. Staking their claim to fame are Nassar Al Johar of Saudi Arabia, China’s Bora Milutinovic, Wolfgang Sidka of Bahrain and Korea Republic’s Kim Ho. With the exception of Kim Ho, coach of Suwon Samsung Bluewings, the rest of the coaches are with the national teams.

Nassar Al Johar is increasingly known as the saviour of the Saudi national team. Having turned around the side’s fortunes at the 2000 Asian Cup, he was once again called upon to perform a miracle when Slobodan Santrac got the sack after two matches of the final round of World Cup qualifying. To his credit, Al Johar revived the struggling Saudi team and guided them to their third successive World Cup.

Bora Milutinovic has earned his place in Chinese football history. His was a splendid achievement as China finally made its first-ever World Cup final. What Milutinovic did was also to change the tide of Asian football’s progress. With a population of 1.3 billion people, China represents a huge and untapped potential for Asian football. Having qualified for the World Cup, it is hoped that China and Asia will benefit from the large number of young players who will be moved to take up football. For this we have to thank ‘Milu’, as he’s known in China.

Under Wolfgang Sidka, the diminutive nation of Bahrain did nothing but rewrite history in 2001. Eliminating nine-time Gulf champions Kuwait from the first round of World Cup qualifying was a good start. Claiming victories over Iraq and Iran as well as notching up four draws may not have got Bahrain through to Korea/Japan, but it did play a key part in deciding the fate of the contenders and achieved far more than any other Bahrain team had ever dreamed of!

For Kim Ho, the satisfaction of winning the 2000/2001 Asian Club Championship and the Super Cup surpassed leading Korea Republic to the 1994 World Cup. He built the Suwon team from scratch, winning the highest honours in Asian club football just five years after the Bluewings first entered the K-League in 1996.

Four other awards will be given at the presentation in Shanghai. These are for the AFC National Team of the Year, the AFC Club Team of the Year, the AFC Referee of the Year and the AFC Assistant Referee of the Year.

Full list of nominees

Player of the Year Awards:
Abdullah Al Shehan
Fan Zhiyi
Ali Karimi
Li Tie
Mirdjalal Kasimov

Youth Player of the Year
Du Wei
Emad Mohammed
Nirut Surasiang
Qu Bo

Coach of the Year
Nasser Al Johar
Kim Ho
Bora Milutinovic
Wolfgang Sidka