Shamsaei voted best Asian futsal player

PTV - Iranian futsal garners glory with Vahid Shamsaei chosen as Asian player of the year and the national team receiving a prestigious award.

In a Tuesday ceremony held in Shanghai, Shamsaei surpassed compatriot Mostafa Nazari, who was Iran's goalkeeper at the 2008 Futsal World Cup, and Japan's Daisuke Ono to receive the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) award.

Iran, which had been voted the most impressive team in the Futsal World Cup, was also named the Asian futsal team of 2008. Japan and Thailand were the other nominees.

Iran also received the association of the year award.

Japan was the most successful Asian team in 2008 with five awards, including the national team of the year, club of the year (Gamba Osaka), diamond of Asia special award (Ken Naganuma), coach of the year (Akira Nishino of Gamba Osaka) and fairplay of the year.

However, Japan lost the prestigious player of the year award to Uzbekistan despite having two nominees in the final list.

Uzbekistan's Server Japarov received the player of the year award in a tight competition with Japan's Yasuhito Endo and Yuji Nakasawa, Qatar's Sebastian Soria and the UAE's Ismail Matar.

The complete list of winners is as follows:

Player of the year: Server Djeparov of Kuruvchi (UZB)

National team of the year: Japan

Club of the year: Gamba Osaka (JPN)

Diamond of Asia special award: Ken Naganuma (JPN)

Coach of the year: Akira Nishino of Gamba Osaka (JPN)

Youth player of the year: Ahmed Kalil (UAE)

Futsal player of the year: Vahid Shamsaei (IRI)

Referee of the year: Ravshan Irmatov (UZB)

Assistant referee of the year: Tammam Hamdoun (SYR)

Fairplay of the year: Japan

Association of the year: Iran

Futsal team of the year: Iran

Match commissioner of the year: Kamarudin Sakhari (MAS)