Al Montashari to be named Asian player of the year; Japan team of year

Indonesia striker Bambaneq Bamongas (C) challenges Saudi Arabian defender Hamad Al Montashari during their World Cup qualifying match in February 2004. Al Montashari will be named Asian player of the year and Japan will be crowned team of the year at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpar.

Saudi Arabia defender Hamad Al Montashari will be named Asian player of the year and Japan will be crowned team of the year at a ceremony, according to the winners list seen by AFP.

The Al Ittihad star beat off the challenge of Uzbekistan's Dynamo Kiev striker Maksim Shatskikh for an award that has been diminished by the exclusion of most of Asia's best players because they could not travel to Kuala Lumpur.

Al Montashari was pivotal in his club winning the AFC Champions League and in helping Saudi Arabia reach the World Cup finals in Germany next year.

According to the list, Japan will be named team of the year, being preferred ahead of South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia, all of whom qualified for the World Cup.

Asian champions Al Ittihad will be club team of the year while North Korea's Choe Myong Ho picks up youth player of the year, according to the list.

Japan's Natsuko Hara is women's player of the year while the inaugural Asian association of the year goes to Qatar, the home nation of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Mohammed bin Hammam.

No coach of the year will be announced after the AFC decided to exclude foreigners and ruled that no Asian was worthy.

This year's awards have been dogged by controversy after the AFC decided that only players who attend the ceremony will be considered, ruling out most European-based stars who have commitments to their clubs.

It meant Manchester United's South Korean star Park Ji-Sung, South Korean teammate Lee Young-pyo of Tottenham Hotspur and the Japanese pair of Shunsuke Nakamura and Hidetoshi Nakata were out of the running.

Winners, according to the leaked list:

Player: Hamad Al Montashari (Saudi Arabia)

Women's player: Natsuko Hara (Japan)

Team: Japan

Women's team: Japan U17

Club: Al Ittihad (Saudi Arabia)

Youth player: Choe Myong Ho (North Korea)

Futsal team: Iran

Association: Qatar

Fairplay: Hong Kong

Official: Shamsul Maidin (Singapore)