Cha tops among Asian players

Sacked South Korean World Cup coach Cha Bum-kun has been named Asian 'Player of the Century' in a poll by the German-based International Federation of Football History and Statistics.

Cha - dumped by South Korea and subsequently banned from coaching in the country for five years - pipped countryman Kim Joo-sung and Saudi Arabia's 'Desert Pele' Majed Abdullah for the honour.

Cha is the most successful Asian player to play in Europe and won a UEFA Cup winners' medal with Eintracht Frankfurt during a lengthy stint in the Bundesliga in the 1980s where he scored 98 goals in 308 games.

In fourth place is Japanese striker Kazuyoshi Miura, while Iranian World Cup stars Ali Daei and Khodadad Azizi are seventh and eighth on the all-time list.

Surprisingly, there is no place on the list for 1998 Asian Player of the Year Hidetoshi Nakata of Japan. Nakata, 21, has just moved to Italy's Serie A to join Perugia and was one of the Asian stars of France 98. The talented playmaker hit the headlines earlier this month when he scored two goals on his debut against Juventus.

China has two players on the list - current international Fan Zhiyi, who has just started playing in England with Crystal Palace, and Gu Guangming.