Malaysia\u2019s Arif Aiman will be the first ever Malaysian nominated for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Awards which will take place on October 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hosted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the first time, the 29th edition of the gala ceremony will be staged at the magnificent King Fahd Cultural Center and recognise the Continent\u2019s finest across a total of 20 award categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first ever Malaysian to be nominated, Arif Aiman enjoyed a stunning 2024\/25 campaign. He rose to the occasion on the Continent\u2019s brightest stage for Johor Darul Ta\u2019zim, bagging five goals as they reached the Round of 16 of the AFC Champions League Elite\u2122, while also winning the domestic treble. The 23-year-old forward is a key figure for his country as well, as they look to reach the AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027\u2122.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After another stellar season, Akram Afif is in contention to become the first player to win this award thrice. The Qatari superstar, who claimed the prize in the previous edition to add to his 2019 accolade, helped Al Sadd SC lift a record 18th league crown and reach the last eight of the AFC Champions League Elite\u2122 in 2024\/25. The 28-year-old also shone in the AFC Asian Qualifiers\u2122 – Road to 26, securing Qatar\u2019s place at the AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027\u2122 while staying in the hunt for FIFA World Cup qualification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saudi Arabian maestro Salem Al Dawsari will hope to add to his 2022 win after a sparkling 2024\/25 for Al Hilal SFC, whom he led to the Semi-finals of the AFC Champions League Elite\u2122 with a tournament-best 10 goals. The attacker, 34, also impressed as Al Hilal reached the last eight of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025, while he continues to be irresistible at the international level as Saudi Arabia chase FIFA World Cup qualification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following an anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained in late 2023, Holly McNamara bounced back superbly in the 2024\/25 season. Finishing as top scorer with 15 goals in 17 regular season appearances, the forward spurred Melbourne City FC to their fourth A-League Women Premiership crown and scored once in the AFC Women\u2019s Champions League\u2122 as they reached the Final. The 22-year-old also returned to the Matildas\u2019 set-up and scored her first international goal in June 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The talismanic Wang Shuang was central to Wuhan Jiangda Women\u2019s FC\u2019s historic triumph in the inaugural AFC Women\u2019s Champions League\u2122, scoring a late penalty in the Final to equalise before triumphing in the shootout. The 30-year-old, capped 130 times for China PR, remains one of Asia\u2019s most influential playmakers and could add a second award to her 2018 win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A stalwart for Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies, Hana Takahashi helped them win a second domestic cup title and finish third in the league, on top of a run to the Quarter-finals of the AFC Women\u2019s Champions League\u2122 2024\/25. The centre-back, 25, has also established herself for Japan in recent times, featuring in their successful 2024 Olympic Games qualification and subsequently in every match in Paris as they reached the last eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere, UEFA Champions League winners Lee Kang-in and Stephanie Catley headline the AFC Asian International Player of the Year nominees, while DPR Korea\u2019s astonishing success at the global women\u2019s U17 and U20 levels is reflected in the cast as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The full list of nominees for the AFC Awards:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Player of the Year<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Arif Aiman Hanapi (Johor Darul Ta\u2019zim FC and MAS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Akram Afif (Al Sadd SC and QAT)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Salem Al Dawsari (Al Hilal SFC and KSA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Women\u2019s Player of the Year<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Holly McNamara (Melbourne City FC and AUS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wang Shuang (Wuhan Jiangda Women\u2019s FC and CHN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hana Takahashi (Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies and JPN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Asian International Player of the Year (Men)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mehdi Taremi (Internazionale\/Olympiacos and IRN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Takefusa Kubo (Real Sociedad and JPN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain and KOR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Asian International Player of the Year (Women)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Stephanie Catley (Arsenal FC and AUS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maika Hamano (Chelsea FC and JPN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yui Hasegawa (Manchester City and JPN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Futsal Player of the Year<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Moslem Oladghobad (Gohar Zamin and IRN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Salar Aghapour (Gohar Zamin and IRN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Muhammad Osamanmusa (Jimbee Cartagena and THA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Coach of the Year (Men)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Trevor Morgan (Australia U20 and AUS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ri Song Ho (DPR Korea U20 Women and PRK)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Song Sung Gwon (DPR Korea U17 Women and PRK)<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Coach of the Year (Women)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lu Kuei-Hua (Taichung Blue Whale Women’s FC and TPE)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marziyeh Jafari (Bam Khatoon Women’s FC and IRN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neungrutai Srathongvian (BG Asian Scholars College and THA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Youth Player of the Year (Men)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Alex Badolato (Melbourne Victory and AUS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hamed Yousef (Al Ittihad and KSA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadriddin Khasanov (FC Bunyodkor and UZB)<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Youth Player of the Year (Women)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Choe Il Son (4.25 SC and PRK)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jon Il Chong (Amnokgang SC and PRK)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manaka Matsukubo (North Carolina Courage and JPN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Member Association of the Year (Platinum)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran<\/p>\n\n\n\n Japan Football Association<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saudi Arabian Football Federation<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Member Association of the Year (Diamond)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chinese Football Association<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Football Association of Thailand<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vietnam Football Federation<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Member Association of the Year (Gold)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Football Association of Hong Kong, China Limited<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Member Association of the Year (Ruby)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bangladesh Football Federation<\/p>\n\n\n\n Guam Football Association<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lao Football Federation<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Regional Association of the Year<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ASEAN Football Federation<\/p>\n\n\n\n East Asian Football Federation<\/p>\n\n\n\n South Asian Football Federation<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC President’s Recognition Award for Grassroots Football (Gold)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chinese Football Association<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saudi Arabian Football Federation<\/p>\n\n\n\n United Arab Emirates Football Association<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC President’s Recognition Award for Grassroots Football (Silver)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Guam Football Association<\/p>\n\n\n\n All India Football Federation<\/p>\n\n\n\n Football Association of Malaysia<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC President’s Recognition Award for Grassroots Football (Bronze)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bangladesh Football Federation<\/p>\n\n\n\n Northern Mariana Islands Football Association<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vietnam Football Federation<\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Referees Special Award<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Alireza Faghani (AUS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anton Shchetinin (AUS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ashley Beecham (AUS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note: all three to receive award<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n AFC Diamond of Asia Award <\/strong>and AFC President\u2019s Recognition Award for Outstanding Achievement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Note: Recipients to be announced during ceremony<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Malaysia\u2019s Arif Aiman will be the first ever Malaysian nominated for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Awards which<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[103,63],"class_list":["post-3708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-awards","tag-football"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-25-at-22-03-06-AFC-Awards-Riyadh-2025-nominees-revealed_compressed.jpg",1344,756,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-25-at-22-03-06-AFC-Awards-Riyadh-2025-nominees-revealed_compressed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-25-at-22-03-06-AFC-Awards-Riyadh-2025-nominees-revealed_compressed-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-25-at-22-03-06-AFC-Awards-Riyadh-2025-nominees-revealed_compressed-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-25-at-22-03-06-AFC-Awards-Riyadh-2025-nominees-revealed_compressed-1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-25-at-22-03-06-AFC-Awards-Riyadh-2025-nominees-revealed_compressed.jpg",1344,756,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-25-at-22-03-06-AFC-Awards-Riyadh-2025-nominees-revealed_compressed.jpg",1344,756,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-25-at-22-03-06-AFC-Awards-Riyadh-2025-nominees-revealed_compressed-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-25-at-22-03-06-AFC-Awards-Riyadh-2025-nominees-revealed_compressed-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-25-at-22-03-06-AFC-Awards-Riyadh-2025-nominees-revealed_compressed.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3710,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3708\/revisions\/3710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}