{"id":4204,"date":"2017-06-15T10:30:49","date_gmt":"2017-06-15T01:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=4204"},"modified":"2017-06-15T10:30:49","modified_gmt":"2017-06-15T01:30:49","slug":"five-best-asian-players-europe-2016-17-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2017\/06\/15\/five-best-asian-players-europe-2016-17-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Five best Asian players in Europe in the 2016-17 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Niloufar Momeni<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

For a\u00a0second year, we follow every Asian football player in the Europe.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The followings are top 5 Asian players in the elite football leagues of Europe based on performance and ratings in the 2016-2017 season.<\/p>\n

(Players\u2019 ranking includes considerations such as the number of goals scored, assists, their Pass Accuracy Ratio % and their rating*).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Dijon<\/p>\n

5. Hiroki Sakai<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Japanese defender joined Marseille from Hannover 96 at the start of the 2016-17 season, and immediately became a first-team regular. He made 35 league appearances last season, helping the French club to finish fifth in the Ligue 1 table. His defending performances were highly praised, with him making an average of 2,6 tackles and 1,8 interception per games. He maintained a relatively high rating of 7.13 out of 10 throughout the season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n


\n<\/strong>4. Maya\u00a0Yoshida\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 28-year old Japanese defender was a consistent player for Southampton in all competitions, including the English Premier League. With 1 goal in 29 appearances, his overall rating among his Asian peers stood at 7.10 out of 10. However, finishing 8th in the league standing means Southampton won’t be able to participate in any European tournament next season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Shinji Kagawa<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 28-year-old attacking midfielder once again became fans favorite upon his return to Borussia Dortmund. Throughout the season, he had 13 appearances, one and six assists, with the rating of 7.12 out of 10 amongst his peers. In disappointment though, Kagawa and Borussia Dortmund only secured the third spot on the Bundesliga league table, but that’s enough to secure a place in next season’s Champions League.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Vitali Denisov<\/strong><\/p>\n

New to our list this year is the 30-year old Uzbekistan-native defender playing for Russian giant Lokomotiv Moscow. His strength lies in his interception ability, and his peak performance and rating were from October to January. If Vitali stays at Lokomotiv next season, they are set to play in UEFA Champions League.<\/p>\n

Vitali\u2019s rating for 2016-2017 stood at 7.31 out of 10.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1. Alireza Jahanbakhsh<\/strong>\u00a0 The 23-year old had an impressive season at AZ Alkmaar. He featured in 26 games, scoring 11 goals, with 8 Assists and helped AZ Alkmaar secure 6th spot for a Europa League playoff spot next season. His overall rating in 2016-2017 was highest among other Asian players with the rating of 7.32 out of 10 for the whole season.<\/p>\n

The 23-year old had an impressive season at AZ Alkmaar. He was featured in 26 games, scoring 11 goals along with 8 assists to help AZ Alkmaar secure the 6th spot for a Europa League playoff berth next season. His overall rating in the 2016-17 season was highest among other Asian players, 7.32 out of 10.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Narrowing down by nationality, we could also point out the top rated Asian players in each country.<\/p>\n

Amongst Japanese players in elite European leagues, the top 3 rated players are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Shinji Kagawa (Borussia Dortmund)<\/li>\n
  2. Maya Yoshida (Southampton)<\/li>\n
  3. Kosuke Ota (Vitesse)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Amongst South Korea players in elite European leagues, the top 3 players are:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Son Heung-Min (Tottenham Hotspur)<\/li>\n
    2. Ji Dong-won (FC Augsburg)<\/li>\n
    3. Koo Ja-Cheol (FC Augsburg)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Amongst Australian players, the top 3 players in elite European leagues are:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Jason Davison (FC Groningen)<\/li>\n
      2. Matthew Leckie (FC Ingolstadt)<\/li>\n
      3. Brad Jones (Feyenoord)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Amongst Central Asian and Middle-Eastern countries, the top rated players are:<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Alireza Jahanbakhsh (AZ Alkmaar)<\/li>\n
        2. Vitaliy Denisov (Lokomotiv Moscow)<\/li>\n
        3. Reza Ghoochannejhad (SC Heerenveen)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Signing off on this season\u2019s rating of Asian players, we hope to see more Asian players plying their trade in elite European leagues, and we will continue reporting on their performance next season.<\/p>\n

          *Source of Ratings: whoscored.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          By Niloufar Momeni For a\u00a0second 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 … Continue reading “Five best Asian players in Europe in the 2016-17 season”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":3325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[152],"tags":[776,267,595,635,305,613,408,746,85,415,819,468,225,95,70],"class_list":["post-4204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asian-players-in-europe","tag-alireza-jahanbakhsh","tag-az-alkmaar","tag-borussia-dortmund","tag-english-premier-league","tag-europa-league","tag-football-tribe","tag-germany","tag-inter","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-italy","tag-jason-davidson","tag-shinji-kagawa","tag-slider","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}