Qatari Akram Afif won the AFC Player of the Year award presented by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), during the 2023 annual awards ceremony held Tuesday at the Grand Peace Palace of the Kyung Hee University in Seoul, South Korea. Afif competed for the award with Yazan Al Naimat, the Jordanian national team striker, and South Korean Seol Young-woo. Afif became the 26th winner of the award since its launch in 1994, and he is also the first Qatari player to win the award for the second time in his history after winning it for the first time in 2019. This comes after the Al Sadd club star led the team Qatar to win the 2023 AFC Asian Cup after defeating the Jordanian national team in the final match (3-1). Afif is the third player to win this award more than once after Japan's Hidetoshi Nakata in 1997 and 1998 and Uzbekistan's Server Djeparov in 2008 and 2011. The 27-year-old Qatari star became the first player to score a hat-trick in an Asian Cup final, and the first player to contribute to 10 or more goals in more than one edition of the tournament. Akram Afif's four goals in the 2019 and 2023 AFC Asian Cup finals came from penalties. Afif also became the second Qatari player to win the top scorer award in the AFC Asian Cup after Almoez Ali in 2019. In a related context, the Qatar Football Association (QFA) won the AFC Asian Cup Host Appreciation Award during the annual awards ceremony, in appreciation of the successful hosting of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup. The award was received by HE President of the QFA Jassim bin Rashid Al Buainain. The AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said that it is a great honor to present the AFC Asian Cup Host Appreciation Award to the QFA, and all Asian football representatives join in expressing their deep gratitude to them for hosting what will be remembered and cherished in history as the greatest ever celebration of Asian football. The AFC also presented the AFC Diamond of Asia to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, in recognition of his outstanding contribut ions to the development of Asian football. The AFC Diamond of Asia is the highest honor awarded by the AFC in recognition and honor of exemplary individual endeavors towards the development of football in Asia. Source: Qatar News Agency
Tuesday, November 05, 2024