"Oh Clinsman" Son Heung-min failed to lose eight consecutive Asian Ballon d'Or games...Asian Cup Champion 1st - Ronaldo 4th
"Oh Clinsman" Son Heung-min failed to lose eight consecutive Asian Ballon d'Or games...Asian Cup Champion 1st - Ronaldo 4th
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The history of Son Heung-min (32, Tottenham Hotspur), who has maintained the "best in Asia," has stopped. The victory at the Asian Cup, which remains the long-cherished dream of Korean soccer, has had a big impact on whether it will win or not.
Chinese media "Sina Sports" said on the 22nd, "Son Heung-min, a nine-time Asian Ballon d'Or winner over the past decade, came in second this time," adding, "Akram Afif, the ace of the Qatar national team and MVP of the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Qatar Asian Cup, came in first."
The Asian Ballon d'Or refers to the Asian Golden Globe Awards, which is held annually by the Chinese media "Titan Zhou Bao" receiving votes from 63 Asian soccer experts. The event was launched in 2013 based on the idea given by French media "France Football" to the world's best soccer player. As the concept literally refers to the best player in the Asian continent, the event targets all players who play in AFC countries and clubs.
So far, Son has been dominating the award. From 2017 to last year, Son enjoyed the joy of winning the award for seven consecutive years. He became the ninth person in his career including the 2014 and 2015 awards. Other winners include Keisuke Honda in 2013 and Shinji Okazaki of Japan in 2016.
On top of that, Afif took over the throne from Son. Afif had a total of 181 points by receiving six points and 18 votes, which represented his country's No. 1. He became the first Asian Ballon d'Or winner, beating Son to score 168 points.
Afif was highly recognized for his capacity as an Asian Cup winner and MVP. Afif scored eight goals to become the top scorer at the Qatar Asian Cup early this year. Notably, he garnered a hat trick against Jordan, which advanced to the final after beating Korea, to win the title and MVP title. In addition, he garnered even more support as he led the team to victory by scoring 26 goals in the Qatar League in the 2023-24 season as a member of Al-Sad.
It is regrettable that the Asian Cup victory had a great influence on the selection of the winner. If Klinsmann had reached the top of Asia with Son Heung-min, the winner would likely have been different. Korean soccer is thirsty for an Asian Cup victory. The first competition in 1956 and the second competition held in Seoul in 1960 are the last wins of Korea's Asian Cup.
As a result, attention was focusing on whether Son will win this year's Asian Cup, the last time he participated in the event in his heyday. With Son Heung-min, the team mobilized the most European leagues and was called the "best power" in history, so it seemed time to put the championship title on its lips. However, when I opened the lid, the team was not thoroughly prepared. Despite facing relatively weak players, the team failed to secure a clear victory. It advanced to the semifinals with only one win, and was nicknamed "zombie soccer." In fact, he was skeptical about how long his luck would continue, and eventually stopped trying to win in the semifinals with Jordan.
Despite failing to win the title at the Asian Cup, Son ranked second with 168 points. Experts who recognized his performance at Tottenham gave him six points and 16 votes, four points and 13 votes, three points and five votes, two points and one point and three votes.
After Afif and Son Heung-min, Sufianne Rahimi (Morocco), who led Al Ain to the AFC Champions League title in the 2023-24 season, is third, followed by Cristiano Ronaldo (Alnasr, Portugal), who became the top scorer in Saudi Arabia's professional league. 스포츠토토
Other than Son Heung-min, Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain) ranked ninth, while Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton Wanderers) and Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich) ranked 25th and 29th, respectively.