The 2016 Best Footballer in Asia, given to the best football player in Asia as judged by a panel of 38 sports journalists, was awarded to Shinji Okazaki on 26 December 2016.
Voting The prize witnessed the first significant enlargement of the panel of jurors since its birth. There were 38 jurors in the panel. 33 jurors were from different AFC nations/regions including Afghanistan, Australia, Bahrain, Cambodia, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Korea Republic, Kuwait, Lebanon, Macao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, United Arabic Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Five jurors were invited from non-AFC media outlets.
Rules Each juror selects 5 best footballers and awards them 5, 4, 3, 2 points and 1 point respectively from their first choice to the fifth choice. The trophy of the Best Footballer in Asia is awarded to the player with the highest total of points.
Tiebreakers When two or more candidates obtain the same points, the rankings of the concerned candidates would be based upon the following criteria in order.
a) The number of the 1st-place vote obtained b) The number of the 2nd-place vote obtained c) The number of the 3rd-place vote obtained d) The number of the 4th-place vote obtained
If all conditions are equal, the concerned candidates will be tied in rankings.
Ranking RankNameClub(s)Points 1 Shinji Okazaki Leicester City 126 2 Omar Abdulrahman Al-Ain 123 3 Son Heung-min Tottenham Hotspur 109 4 Sardar Azmoun Rostov 46 5 Leonardo Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 34 6 Genki Haraguchi Hertha BSC 30 7 Hammadi Ahmad Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya 16 8 Paulinho Guangzhou Evergrande 15 9 Adriano FC Seoul 13 10 Wu Lei Shanghai SIPG 11 11 Koo Ja-cheol FC Augsburg 10 12 Hiroshi Kiyotake Hannover 96 Sevilla 7 13 Lee Jae-sung Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 6 14 Romarinho El Jaish 5 15 Tom Rogic Celtic 5 Chanathip Songkrasin Muangthong United 17 Ahmed Khalil Al-Ahli 4 18 Aaron Mooy Melbourne City Huddersfield Town 2 19 Sardor Rashidov El Jaish 2 20 Kwon Sun-Tae Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 1
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