Reigning AFC Best Women’s Player Saki Kumagai heads 2020 shortlist

Uefa Women’s Champions League winner is one of three Japanese players on 10-woman list, which also features three Australians

China’s Tang Jiali and Wu Haiyan represent Steel Roses against Tokyo 2020 play-off rivals South Korea’s Jang Sel-gi and Ji So-yun

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Japan’s Saki Kumagai celebrates with the Uefa Women’s Champions League trophy after the final. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:53am, 12 Jan 2021Updated: 11:53am, 12 Jan 2021

Japan’s Saki Kumagai heads the Asian Football Confederation’s 10-woman shortlist for the Best Women’s Player in 2020, which is currently being voted on by fans ahead of the awards ceremony on January 24.

The reigning AFC Women’s Player of the Year won the Uefa Women’s Champions League again with Olympique Lyonnais, opening the scoring in the final, in a season that also saw the team win the French league.

Kumagai was also shortlisted for The Best Fifa Women’s Player and the highest-ranked Asian player on the Top 100 Female Footballers in the World, produced by The Guardian and The Offside Rule, at 11.

The 2011 Fifa Women’s World Cup winner leads a list featuring three Japanese and three Australians, including her Olympique Lyonnais teammate Ellie Carpenter, who is shortlisted along with Sam Kerr and Caitlin Foord.

Yuika Sugasawa, who plays for Urawa Red Diamonds domestically, and Rikako Kobayashi of Tokyo Verdy Beleza are the two other Japanese players on the list.

China has two players – Shanghai Shengli’s Tang Jiali and Wu Haiyan of Wuhan Jiangda – with South Korea providing the other two in KFA Footballer of the Year Jang Sel-gi and Ji So-yun.