Qatar’s Akram Afif crowned Asia’s best player for second time
Qatari maestro Akram Afif was crowned the 2023-24 season’s AFC Asian Player of the Year during a glossy AFC Annual Awards ceremony in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday.
The 27-year-old became the first Qatari to win the award twice as he collected the gleaming trophy at the ceremony’s 28th edition, which was staged at the Grand Peace Palace of the Kyung Hee University in Seoul.
Having 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).
Afif is also the third Al Sadd SC player to win, with the other two Qatari winners being Khalfan Ibrahim (2006) and Abdelkarim Hassan (2018), also hailing from the same club.
The mercurial attacker 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.
Afif has been a key figure at Al Sadd since joining them in 2018 off the back of stints in Belgium with KAS Eupen and Spain with Villarreal and Sporting Gijon. With the latter, he had become the first Qatari player to feature in the La Liga.
The Aspire Academy graduate claimed the Best Player of the Qatar Stars League award for a fourth time after helping Sadd to a record 17th title. He hit 26 goals and gave 11 assists, in 22 games, and added the Amir Cup to complete a domestic double and cap a hugely successful campaign.
He was also instrumental in helping Qatar win the AFC Asian Cup title in 2019 in Dubai and at home, four years later, in emphatic fashion.
Afif revelled in the AFC Asian Cup at home, scoring eight goals and making three assists, memorably becoming the first player in tournament history to score a hat-trick in the final.
He bagged the Most Valuable Player and the Yili Top Scorer awards – the fourth player to ever claim both in the same edition.
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