By Niloufar Momeni
For a second year, we follow every Asian football player in the Europe.
From Japan, South Korea and North Korea and China, all the way to Iran, Jordan, and Uzbekistan, Asian players have moved to the European continent to advance their football career. Out of these players, many play in second-division leagues of Europe, or smaller European leagues such as Poland, Greece, and Austria which are not considered among the elite.
At Football Tribe Asia, we rank the best ones who currently play in top-flight leagues in England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands, Russia and Portugal as per UEFA Coefficient ranking.
The followings are top 5 Asian players in the elite football leagues of Europe based on performance and ratings in February 2017.
(Players’ ranking includes considerations such as the number of goals scored, assists, their Pass Accuracy Ratio % and their rating*).
5. Makoto Hasebe: Despite making headlines for a comical penalty miss against Ingolstadt, the 34-year-old Hasebe has been solid performer recently, racking up nearly 50 passes per match for Eintracht Frankfurt with an accuracy rate of around 82,5%. He earned an average rating of 7.15.