Mainland has failed to produce anyone worthy of player of year list - Velappan
Chinese players have been ignored for the 2005 Asian Player of the Year Award because of the country's shambolic league and their failure to qualify for the World Cup, officials said yesterday.
Peter Velappan, general secretary of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), said China have failed to make an impact on regional football since reaching the Asian Cup final in August, 2004.
Manchester United's South Korean international Park Ji-sung was one of three English Premiership players among 10 shortlisted by the confederation yesterday. Park, his compatriot, Lee Young-pyo, of Tottenham Hotspur and Bolton Wanderers' Japanese international Hidetoshi Nakata are on the list along with European-based Shunsuke Nakamura, of Japan (Celtic, Scotland), reigning champion Ali Karimi, of Iran (Bayern Munich, Germany) and Uzbekistan's Maksim Shatskikh (Dynamo Kiev, Ukraine).
Four Asian-based players have made the cut: Sami Al Jaber (Al-Hilal, Saudi Arabia), Hamad Al-Montashari and Mabrouk Zayed (both Al-Ittihad, Saudi Arabia) and Javad Nekounam (Pas, Iran).
Said Velappan: 'In the case of China, no player at this moment is worthy of mention in the top 10. They didn't qualify for the World Cup in Germany and the C-League has been going through some turbulent times.
'Quite simply, we have not seen any player of quality who can win a place. The 10 players in the final list have been selected on merit.'