Qatar's Captain Akram Afif Named AFC Player Of The Year
Date
10/29/2024 9:20:18 AM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
AFC
Seoul: Qatari maestro Akram Afif was recognized for a stunning 2023/24 season with the AFC Player of the Year accolade on Tuesday night at the AFC Annual Awards Seoul 2023.
The 27-year-old became the first Qatari to win the award twice as he collected the gleaming trophy at the 28th edition of the ceremony, which was staged at the Grand Peace Palace of the Kyung Hee University in Seoul.
Afif, who beat Yazan Al Naimat of Jordan and Seol Young-woo of the Korean Republic to the prize, won his first AFC Player of the Year nomination in 2019, Afif made it two for two to become only the third player to win the award more than once after Japan's Hidetoshi Nakata (1997, 1998) and Uzbekistan's Server Djeparov (2008, 2011).
He is the third Al Sadd SC player to win, with the other two previous Qatari winners, Khalfan Ibrahim (2006) and Abdelkarim Hassan (2018), also hailing from the same club.
The mercurial attacker, who had played a prominent role in Qatar's first-ever AFC Asian Cup success in 2019 by bagging 10 assists, took center stage when they retained Asia's crown jewel earlier this year.
Afif reveled in the occasion on home soil by scoring eight goals and making three assists, memorably becoming the first player in tournament history to score a hat-trick in the Final, to ensure that his side lifted back-to-back titles in glorious fashion.
He bagged the Most Valuable Player and the Yili Top Scorer awards – the fourth player to ever claim both in the same edition.
The stellar season continued for Afif, who recorded two goals and five assists to help Qatar progress to the third round of the AFC Asian Qualifiers and stay on track for a second FIFA World Cup appearance.
Silverware followed at club level as well with Al Sadd, where Afif has been a key figure since joining in 2018 off the back of stints in Belgium with Eupen and Spain with Villarreal and Sporting Gijon – becoming the first Qatari to play in La Liga with the latter.
The Aspire Academy graduate claimed the Best Player of the Qatar Stars League for a fourth occasion after helping Al Sadd to a record 17th title with 26 goals and 11 assists in 22 games and added the Amir Cup to complete a domestic double and cap a hugely successful campaign.
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