{"id":9835,"date":"2017-12-24T20:00:08","date_gmt":"2017-12-24T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=9835"},"modified":"2017-12-25T14:57:07","modified_gmt":"2017-12-25T05:57:07","slug":"football-tribe-awards-top-10-asian-players-europe-part1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2017\/12\/24\/football-tribe-awards-top-10-asian-players-europe-part1\/","title":{"rendered":"Football Tribe Awards: Top 10 Asian Players in Europe (10-4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Football Tribe is proud to announce the first annual Football Tribe Awards<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

With extensive input from our editorial staff across all 10 editions, here are our top 10 Asian players in Europe from 10th to 4th.<\/p>\n

Who made the cut? Click to the next slide to find out!<\/p>\n

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Just 19 years old when he left Kyoto Sanga for BSC Young Boys, Yuya Kubo has blossomed over the last four seasons into a potent striker. After securing a midwinter transfer to Belgian outfit Gent, he raised eyebrows by scoring five goals in his first seven appearances for the club and another six in the Jupiler Pro League’s championship playoff.<\/p>\n

The 2017-18 season has seen Kubo start in fine form, scoring six goals from 19 appearances as of this writing. His status on the national team continues to rise after he scored his first two international goals in March’s World Cup Qualifiers. Kubo’s versatility, technique, and finishing have inspired some to consider him Japan’s next attacking hope, but like many young Japanese prospects he will need to continue to develop at higher levels in Europe.<\/p>\n

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2017 has been an adventure for the 23-year-old Korean, who left his home country to play for Dijon FCO in France. So far, this adventure has gone well. In his first full appearance against Olympique de Marseille, Kwon was able to demonstrate his dribbling, shooting, and creativity.<\/p>\n

It took the midfielder only a half a year to become a key player in his team, scoring five goals and recording two assists in the process. In Korea he often receives criticism for being greedy and selfish, as he tends to dribble too much and contribute less to defense. However, it might not be the worst thing for Korea to have such a passionate and aggressive player, a rare breed in Asia.<\/p>\n

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Team Melli\u2019s first-choice striker is one of the best Asian players in Europe. He proved himself at Rostov in UEFA Champions League, attracting the attention of several European giants including Liverpool and Lazio. However, he chose to follow his beloved manager Qurban Berdiev to Rubin Kazan.<\/p>\n

While the young Iranian didn’t start the season with the best form he has recovered well, recording two goals and two assists in his two most recent matches. His performance in FIFA World Cup qualifying should also be noted, helping not only Iran but also South Korea to qualify for Russia by scoring twice against Syria.<\/p>\n

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After a disappointing 2016-17 campaign for a Leicester side who appeared out of gas following their miraculous title run, Shinji Okazaki has roared back into form with six goals and two assists thus far in the 2017-18 Premier League season. His work rate and professionalism have made him a fan favorite, even as he struggled at times to earn the trust of newly-appointed manager Claude Puel.<\/p>\n

Okazaki’s role in the national team could end in Russia but he is still capable of contributing to the side, scoring his 50th goal for the Samurai Blue against Thailand in a March FIFA World Cup qualifier.<\/p>\n

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Ansarifard’s January move to Olympiacos sparked what has arguably become the best year of his career. After helping the Greek giants to a league title, he was unexpectedly left off the UEFA Champions League squad by new manager Besnik Hasi, who put the striker up for sale.<\/p>\n

The Albanian manager was fired in late September for poor results and Ansarifard has fortunately been able to work himself back into the starting lineup, becoming the league’s top scorer thus far with seven goals from 11 matches.<\/p>\n

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Players with strong dribbling abilities aren’t necessarily common in Asia, but here for consideration is Hwang Hee-chan who boasts superb abilities with the ball at his feet. The 21-year-old shines on the counter and is able to dribble, kick, and rush against any opposition.<\/p>\n

After earning promotion to Salzburg’s top team last season, he has become the team’s top scorer and the league\u2019s third-highest scorer in the 2017-18 campaign. After scoring six goals from 11 appearances his hamstring injury gave supporters plenty of concern, but Hwang was quick to show off in his return, finding the back of the net in Europa League action against Vitoria de Guimaraes.<\/p>\n

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While the speedy fullback has at times come under harsh criticism by Italian media and fans, nobody can doubt Yuto Nagatomo’s resilience. He has endured under no fewer than 12 managers at the San Siro, making 200 total appearances for Inter and rediscovering his role as a true fullback under current head coach Luciano Spalletti.<\/p>\n

In November, the 31-year-old also became just the seventh player in Samurai Blue history to earn over 100 caps. He remains Japan’s strongest player at left back and will play a key role in the 2018 FIFA World Cup and perhaps beyond.<\/p>\n

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The top three Asian Players in Europe will be announced on December 25. Who should go on top?\u00a0Let us know on our official\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0pages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Football Tribe is proud to announce the first annual Football Tribe Awards! With extensive input from our editorial staff across all 10 editions, here are our top 10 Asian players in Europe from 10th to 4th. Who made the cut? Click to the next slide to find out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":9833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[152,28,30,41,32,867],"tags":[1116,1117,84,1118,141,1064,767,145],"class_list":["post-9835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asian-players-in-europe","category-central-asia","category-east-asia","category-iran","category-japan","category-korea","tag-football-tribe-awards","tag-hwang-hee-chan","tag-karim-ansarifard","tag-kwon-chang-hoon","tag-sardar-azmoun","tag-shinji-okazaki","tag-yuto-nagatomo","tag-yuya-kubo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9835","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=9835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}