Qatari Akram Afif, the Al-Sadd striker, won the Best Asian Player award for the second time in his career, during the Continental Confederation ceremony in Seoul on Tuesday, ahead of Jordanian Yazan Al-Naimat and South Korean Seoul Young-woo.

The award is the second for Afif after 2019, when he helped lead his country to the Asian Cup title for the first time, before contributing to achieving the second title at the beginning of this year when Qatar hosted the finals.

Afif (27 years old) became the third player to win the award twice, after Japanese Hidetoshi Nakata (1997, 1998) and Uzbek Server Dzhiparov (2008, 2011).

Afif maintained the control of Arab players over this award in the last ten editions, specifically since 2014, when the Saudi Nasser Al-Shamrani (2014), then the Emirati Ahmed Khalil (2015), his compatriot Omar Abdel-Rahman (2016), and the Syrian Omar Khribin (2016) won it.

Afif excelled remarkably in the last edition of the continental tournament and became the first player to score 3 goals in the final match, as he finished the tournament with 8 goals and 3 assists, and was crowned best player and best scorer awards.

Afif said after his coronation, “I feel more nervous now than I felt while taking three penalty kicks in the Asian Cup final this year.”

He added, "I dedicate this award to my wife, who is my first support. She was tired and patient, but her patience was not in vain."

He concluded, “I thank the club players and my teammates in the national team.”

Afif also continued to shine with his club Al-Sadd, leading them to win the 17th Qatari League title (a record), after scoring 26 goals and providing 11 assists during 22 matches.

On the other hand, Al-Naimat was hoping to become the first Jordanian player to win the award, relying on him being one of the main players behind his country’s wonderful campaign in the Asian Cup when it reached the final for the first time in its history.

Al-Naimat, a professional with Al-Arabi Qatar, scored 4 goals and made two assists in the continental finals. He also contributed to the “Nashama” team being at the top of its group in the second round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, where he scored 3 goals.