Guangzhou Evergrande win AFC Club of the Year

The annual Asian Football Conference Awards were held last Sunday night in India’s capital, New Delhi. Chinese football has been nominated for six awards and won two of them.

Securing the AFC Champions League title for the second time in three years helped Guangzhou Evergrande to win the AFC Club of the Year award, while their Brazilian recruit and AFC Champions League top scorer, Ricardo Goulart, won the AFC Foreign Player of the Year award. Evergrande captain Zheng Zhi, though nominated for the AFC Player of the Year Award, lost out to Emirati Ahmed Khalil.

Among other awards, Asian Cup champions Australia won the men's team of the year award, while Japan claimed the women's team honour. Ange Postecoglou won the top coach’s honour for masterminding Australia's home triumph. Tottenham Hotspur's South Korean forward Son Heung-Min was named international player of the year.

"What a year it has been - with the (viewership) record broken on the opening days of January in Australia, right up to the last few days in Guangzhou," said AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, who has himself entered the FIFA presidency race.

"For a long time, people talked of the future being Asia and now they are convinced that the present is Asia. I'm certain that we stand on the very brink of greatness in this continent - the dawning of an Asian age."

Source: Eurosport

Proofread by John Devlin