Lee nominated for Asia player of year

KUALA LUMPUR - Agence France-Presse

Ulsan Hyundai’s South Korean attacker Lee Keun-ho is one of the candidates for the Asian Football Confederation’s player of the year awards. REUTERS photo

Ulsan Hyundai’s Lee Keun-Ho and four others will vie for the Asian player of the year award, the Asian Football Confederation announced yesterday.

Iran’s Ali Karimi, the 2004 player of the year, and the Iran national team’s Mohsen Bengar are also among those nominated, Asian football’s governing body said in a statement.

The other two are defenders Lucas Neill of Australia and Chinese Zheng Zhi.

Lee, a winger for South Korea’s national team, helped Ulsan Hyundai win the AFC Champions League for the first time this year.

The women’s player of the year award will go to a Japanese, with all three nominees coming from the national team which won silver in the London Olympics earlier this year.

They are captain Homare Sawa, last year’s winner Aya Miyama and Nadeshiko striker Yuki Ogimi. Sawa won the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award last year.

For Asian international player of the year nominations went to Fulham’s goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer of Australia, Manchester United’s Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa and Inter Milan’s defender Yuto Nagatomo, also from Japan.

For the AFC foreign player of the year award, three Brazilians have been short-listed.

They are Sepahan’s striker Bruno Correa; 2012 ACL top scorer Ricardo Oliveira who plays for Al Jazira; and Rogerio de Assis Silva Coutinho, a midfielder for the 2012 AFC Cup champions Kuwait SC.
The awards will be presented on Nov. 29 in Kuala Lumpur.

Last year Uzbekistan’s midfield maestro Server Djeparov won Asian player of the year.