- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Gamba Osaka's Yasuhito Endo chips the ball to score a first goal for the Japan side side. AP Photo/Kyodo News
If the AFC wanted to highlight just how pointless the Player Of The Year award is, they should have nominated Shane Smeltz for the gong.
The big Kiwi striker was in fine A-League form throughout 2009, scoring goals galore for both Wellington Phoenix and Gold Coast United.
Nevermind that Smeltz represents a non-AFC nation at international level, since logic appears to have little bearing on who is named the region’s best player.
If it did, we might be toasting the success of Tim Cahill given his outstanding form for both club and country, or perhaps celebrating the form of Mark Schwarzer.
We could otherwise be lauding the exploits of young South Korean striker Park Chu-Young, scorer of the opening goal against the Socceroos in Seoul last September.
The Monaco hitman has already registered strikes in wins over Paris Saint Germain, Marseille and Boulogne this season – no small feat for a 24-year-old from Daegu.
Instead, it was Gamba Osaka midfielder Yasuhito Endo who claimed the crown, and few could argue with the merits of rewarding one of the most dominant players in the J.League – even if his influence on the national team is limited.
Those who insist that the award is open only to players plying their trade within the AFC are mistaken, as the nomination of Hong Yong-Jo from Russian club FC Rostov attests.
North Korean skipper Hong was nominated to a fifteen-man shortlist on the back of his stellar form for the national team, but his cousins from down south had no such luck.
By finishing third at the 2007 Asian Cup, Korea Republic qualified automatically for the 2011 finals alongside reigning champions Iraq and traditional heavyweights Saudi Arabia.
With no Asian Cup qualifiers to contest, players from all three nations were at a disadvantage when it came to accruing enough MVP points to win the AFC Player Of The Year award.
Yet even the simple task of playing well appears to hold little relevance to the award on offer.
Bahrain defender Sayed Mohamed Adnan finished equal second in the rankings – despite missing a crucial penalty in Bahrain’s World Cup playoff against New Zealand, while his club side Al-Khor currently sit rock bottom of the Qatari League.
However, it’s the decision to lock European-based players out of the running that makes a mockery of the AFC Player Of The Year award.
And it’s a farce compounded by the fact that the decision was made on a whim because Manchester United star Park Ji-Sung couldn’t attend the ceremony in 2005.
The AFC wants it star players to turn out in the flesh to accept their awards, yet their scheduling hinders even Asian-based players.
I’m sure title-chasing Gamba Osaka were thrilled to see Endo in Kuala Lumpur just days before their J. League clash with leaders Kashima Antlers, although he at least had Kengo Nakamura from fellow high fliers Kawasaki Frontale to keep him company.
The whole thing reeks of a lack of professionalism at a time when the AFC’s mantra is to modernise the Asian game.
It doesn’t help that some fans in the region can be frustratingly shortsighted.
Those who insist that a lack of players in Europe means that Asian footballers are ‘substandard,’ are often the first to suggest that only Asian-based players should be honoured by the AFC.
If the AFC is so hell-bent on honouring the locals, they should create a separate category for overseas-based players so that the likes of Osasuna talisman Javad Nekounam and Venlo midfielder Keisuke Honda are not forgotten.
Otherwise the AFC Player Of The Year award is destined to end in an annual debate on which players were overlooked, instead of becoming the celebration of personal achievement it’s intended to be.