Shocking Son Heung-min Passing, AFC Player of the Year Why SON was excluded? A sluggish Japanese player is the candidate
Sep 26, 2025
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The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) unveiled the candidates for the award on its official website on the 25th (Korea time) ahead of the 2025 AFC Awards in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Surprisingly, Son Heung-min was missing from the AFC Asia International Player of the Year list. Mehdi Taremi (Inter Milan), Kubo Takefusa (Real Sociedad), and Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain) were nominated for the men's category of the Asian International Player of the Year award.
AFC seems to have tried to allocate the nationalities of the three finalists, but Son Heung-min's absence is a ridiculous decision. Lee Kang-in also failed to secure enough time to play as he went down to the bench in the second half of last season, but he has good reason to select PSG because it helped them rise to the strongest position in Europe.
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Taremi is wearing an Inter Milan uniform and has only three goals and nine assists in 43 games. Taremi was recognized as the best striker in the Portuguese league in FC Porto, but showed limitations in big clubs. Taremi, who struggled throughout the season, only played a role as a bench resource. It was even a military officer.
Kubo is even worse. Five goals and two assists in 41 games are all about performance. Kubo was the worst performer after moving to Sociedad. Considering that Lee Kang-in scored six league goals and six assists with rotation-level resources at PSG, it shows how disappointing Kubo's offensive point productivity is. It was a season where Kubo and Taremi could never get better reviews than Son Heung-min. It is Son Heung-min passing, which is bound to be controversial.
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Since PSG won the treble and Lee Kang-in showed strong impressions at the beginning of the season, Lee Kang-in can win the award like Son Heung-min and Kim Min-jae. Taremi and Kubo did not perform better than Lee Kang-in in their team, nor did they have a winning history.
Meanwhile, the AFC Awards will hold awards in a total of 18 categories. The final candidates were revealed in various categories, including players, coaches, prospects, associations, presidents, and referees, and the only Korean candidate was Lee Kang-in, who was a finalist for the International Player of the Year Award. Considering that North Korea has a total of four finalists for this year's Coach of the Year and Women's Youth Player of the Year, it is clear that South Korean soccer's 2024 performance was not good.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
