South Korea’s two legends ranked first and second side by side in Asia’s top soccer player rankings in the 21st century.
On the 26th (Korea Standard Time), the global media ‘Mad Football’ announced the “Top 18 Best Footballers in Asia in the 21st Century” on social networking services (SNS).
The media selected 18 Asian soccer players who have achieved great fame since their heyday in 2001 and decided their rankings.
Asian soccer powerhouses Korea and Japan produced six players each, followed by Korea and Japan, with three from Middle East powerhouse Iran. India, Israel and the United Arab Emirates also picked one each.
Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur), the captain of the South Korean national soccer team, is the No. 1 player in Asia in the 21st century selected by the media.
Fans could not disagree that Son was the best soccer star in Asia in the 21st century. Son, who made his debut in the German Bundesliga in the past, has been playing in the English Premier League, one of the best professional soccer leagues in the world, for more than nine years.
Son Heung-min is enjoying his prime with his current club, Tottenham. He has 165 goals and 88 assists in 420 appearances for Tottenham so far, and became the first Asian player to become the top scorer in the Premier League in the 2021-22 season, scoring 23 goals in the league.
Son Heung-min was the first Asian player to score his 100th Premier League goal, and he was selected 11th at the 2022 Ballon d’Or Awards and recorded the highest ranking among Asian players.
Korean soccer legend Park Ji-sung, who contributed to the heyday of Manchester United, came in second place after Son Heung-min. Park Ji-sung, a Korean soccer legend and contributed to the heyday of Manchester United, came in second place as the Asia’s best soccer player in the 21st century.
Global soccer media “Score 90” has drawn backlash from fans by placing Park Ji-sung in third place and Shinji Kagawa (Cerezo Osaka) in second place when ranking the five best players in Asia in the 21st century.
Japanese soccer legend Daisuke Honda was ranked third, while Iranian and Indian legendary strikers Ali Daiei and Sunil Chettri ranked fourth and fifth, respectively. Japan’s Hidetoshi Nakata, who became the first Asian player to lift the Scudetto (winning shield) by contributing to the victory of Serie A as a member of AS Roma in the 2000-01 season, ranked sixth.
Shinji Kagawa, who played for Borussia Dortmund, was ranked seventh, while Yoshi Benayoun of Israel, who played for Liverpool and Chelsea, was ranked eighth. Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), one of the best defenders in the world, was chosen ninth. 온라인바카라
Japanese national soccer team captain Endo Wataru (Liverpool) ranked 10th, Korean legend fullback Lee Young-pyo ranked 11th, Iranian legend midfielder Ali Karimi ranked 12th, and Nakamura Shunsuke, who played for the prestigious Celtic in Scotland, ranked 13th.
Korean legendary midfielder Ki Sung-yueng (FC Seoul) ranked 15th, while Japanese soccer star Takefusa Kubo (Real Sociedad) was selected 16th. Omar Abdulrahman of the UAE and Mehdi Taremi (Inter Milan) of the Iranian national team were ranked 17th and 18th, respectively, and Lee Kang-in (PSG), the future of Korean soccer, was selected as the last 19th.