The Daily Mail have revealed that Son Heung-min has beat a whole host of superstars, including Cristiano Ronaldo, to win the Best Footballer in Asia Award for 2023.
The report explains that the award is made available to any player that either represents a nation affiliated with the AFC, or who plays for a team based under the AFC’s jurisdiction.
That means that the likes of Ronaldo, Sadio Mane, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante and the whole host of other big-name stars who play in the Saudi Pro League are all eligible for the award.
Son wins Best Footballer in Asia for the ninth time
However, it was the Tottenham captain who came out on top, winning the award for the seventh time in a row and for the ninth time in total after scoring 27 goals for club and country in the past 12 months.
The Mail revealed that Son got 22.9 per cent of the votes while his international teammate, Kim Min-Jae, came in second with 19.54 per cent of the vote.
Ronaldo, who has been scoring goals for fun since his move to Saudi Arabia, finished in third place with 17.06 per cent of the votes.
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Ronaldo might have expected to be in contention for the award, given the sheer volume of goals he has scored for Al-Nassr but the Portuguese superstar is playing in a much inferior competition when compared to the likes of Son, Kim and the whole host of other top Asian players plying their trade in Europe’s top five leagues.