Australian defender Sasa Ognenovski has been named the Asian Player of the Year.
Ognenovski, the 31-year-old captain of South Korea’s Seongnam Ilhwa club, edged out four other finalists from Iran, Bahrain and Kuwait.
Attendance at the Asian Football Confederation’s awards ceremony in Malaysia was a prerequisite for the award. Several candidates playing for European clubs were unable to attend.
Ognenovski helped his club win the AFC Champions League in Tokyo last week with a 3-1 victory over Iran’s Zob Ahan.
The four other finalists at the ceremony were two from Iran – Farhad Majidi and Farshid Talebi – as well as Kuwait’s Bader Al Mutawa and Bahrain’s Husain Salman.
