Son Heung-min, Cho Kyu-seong, Kim Min-jae, Kim Young-kwon… Nominated for ‘Asian Ballon d’Or’

Heung-Min Son (Tottenham), Kyu-Sung Cho (Jeonbuk), Min-Jae Kim (Napoli), and Young-Kwon Kim (Ulsan) were nominated for the Asian Best Player Award, called ‘Asia’s Ballon d’Or’.

The Chinese sports media Titanzhou Bao (Titan Sports), which hosts the awards ceremony, selected and announced 25 candidates on the 30th.

In Korea, four candidates, including Son Heung-min, were nominated. Japan received the most seven candidates, including Wataru Endo (Stuttgart) and Kyōgo Furuhashi (Celtic).

In addition, Iran’s Mehdi Taremi (Porto), Vietnam’s Nguyen Thien Linh (Binh Doong), Thailand’s Tiraton Bunmatan (Buri Ram United), Nigeria’s Odion Ighalo (Al-Hilal) playing in the Saudi Arabia League, Qatar Kenyan Michael Ulunga (Alduhail), who is active on stage, was also nominated.

This award was created in 2013 based on the Ballon d’Or awarded by France Football, a French football media. Players who are active in countries or clubs belonging to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) are eligible for the award.

A jury of football experts, journalists and coaches selects players based on their personal records and achievements over the past year. Sports media from 37 Asian countries cast one vote each, and the winners are determined by adding the results of the vote by 13 special invited judges. The judges submit a list of 5 people from 1st to 5th, with 6 points for 1st place, 4 points for 2nd place, 3 points for 3rd place, 2 points for 4th place and 1 point for 5th place. put 메이저놀이터

Son Heung-min is the most likely candidate. Son Heung-min, who won the award for 5 consecutive years from 2017 to 2021, is the most award winner ever (7 times) and the most consecutive award winners (5 times). Son Heung-min became the first Asian player to win the top scorer last year in the English Premier League (EPL), one of the world’s best leagues.

Titan Sports introduced Son Heung-min and Cho Kyu-seong in the first order, introducing the major players in turn among the 25 candidates. The media said, “Son Heung-min has been active worldwide this year as he has been for the past five years. He is well deserving of the award.” However, he was concerned about his vacancy due to his orbital fracture, saying, “Recently, there was a time when I couldn’t show my skills due to an injury.”

Regarding Cho Kyu-sung, “Now we will never forget this handsome Korean player. He pointed out that he was the first East Asian player to score multiple goals in one World Cup match.” He was referring to his performance in the 2022 Qatar World Cup group stage against Ghana, where he scored multiple goals with a header.

Winners will be announced in February and an awards ceremony will be held in the same month.