NEWS

Japan and Gamba Osaka midfielder Yasuhito Endo was named AFC Player of the Year for 2009, while Japan women’s Under-19 player Mana Iwabuchi took the Women’s Youth Player of the Year award at the AFC Awards ceremony in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday evening.

Endo beat out Japan teammate Kengo Nakamura, Iranian international Hadi Aghily, Syria’s Firas Al-Khatib and Bahraini international Mohamed Sayed Adnan for the honor. Endo made the short list last year but lost out to Uzbekistan international Server Djaparov.
It is the first time in seven years that a Japanese player has won the top prize. Masami Ihara won in 1995, Hidetoshi Nakata in 1997 and ‘98 and Shinji Ono in 2002.
In addition to Nippon TV Menina forward Iwabuchi winning an award, the Japan women’s Under-19 team were named Women’s National Team of the Year. There was no nomination for the Women’s Player of the Year this time.
Japan also won three other prizes. The JFA was named AFC Association of the Year for women, and also picked up the Fair Play awards for both men and women.
Japan coach Takeshi Okada lost out as Coach of the Year to Huh Jung Moo of Korea Republic.
The Referee of the Year honors went to Ravshan Irmatov of Uzbekistan (men) and Hong Eun Ah of Korea Republic (women), while the Assistant Referee of the Year awards were won by Matthew Cream of Australia (men) and Zhang Lingling of China (women).