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Son Heung-min named No. 1 Asian player

May 14, 2015

A screen capture of the football magazine FourFourTwo website shows Son Heung-min named as No. 1 Asian player. (Yonhap)

By Kim Jae-heun

British football magazine FourFourTwo has named Korean football star Son Heung-min as the No. 1 Asian player.

The magazine’s website said 2014 was not a perfect year for Son, whose team crashed out in the group stage of last year’s World Cup games and lost to the host nation Australia at the Asian Cup earlier this year. But Son had proved his importance with his German club, Bayer Leverkusen and the Korean national team, it said.

FourFourTwo said the club’s initial refusal to release the forward for the Asian Games last year was understandable and it could not have played six games without Son.

Son scored 17 goals this season — 11 in the Bundesliga, one in the DFB-Pokal Cup and five in the UEFA Champions League.

Japanese striker Shinji Okazaki of FSV Mainz was ranked No. 2.

In the third place was Korean midfielder Ki Sung-yueng after he became the first Asian to score the opening goal in the English Premier League, and the first to score eight goals in the same season. Ki was also praised for his defense and passing ability.

Six more Koreans made the list, including Cha Du-ri (13th), Kim Young-gwon (20th), Kim Jin-su (23rd), Koo Ja-cheol (30th), Kwak Tae-hwi (39th) and Park Joo-ho (45th).