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Shinji Ono is Asian Player of the Year

Shinji Ono

KUALA LUMPUR may 28. Japan international Shinji Ono won the Asian Football Confederation's 2002 best player award, while World Cup co-host South Korea was voted best team and its Dutch mentor Guus Hiddink took the honours as best coach.

Ono, a midfielder with Feyenoord in the Dutch league, beat compatriot Junichi Inamoto, South Korean striker Ahn Jung-hwan and China's Li Tie for the top award in regional soccer.

He became the third Japanese winner after Masami Ihara (1995) and Parma midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata (1997 and `98) since the inception of the AFC's annual awards in 1994.

Ono, 23, AFC's young player of the year in 1998, was a member of the Japanese line-up that reached the second round of the World Cup it co-hosted with the Koreans and also helped Feyenoord win the UEFA Cup in 2002.

The South Koreans were convincing winners of the top team award after a stunning run to the World Cup semifinals, beating Italy, Spain, Portugal and Poland en route to the last four and the best finish ever by an Asian team.

Hiddink, who quit after guiding the Koreans in the World Cup and then coached PSV Eindhoven to the Dutch league title this season, was the favourite to win the regional coaching honours.

Hiddink molded the South Koreans into one of the fittest teams at the World Cup and became a folk hero on the Korean peninsula during the unprecedented run, which ended in a semifinal loss to the Germans.

South Korea also picked up the fair play award and its midfielder Lee Chun-soo was voted Asian young player of the year.

The AFC's club of the year was Pakhtakor, which advanced through qualifying to reach the semifinals of the inaugural Asian Champions League and became the first team from Uzbekistan to advance so far in a regional competition. — AP

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