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Daei claims Player of Year honors |
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April 8, 2000
BEIRUT, APR 7 (UNB/AP) - Iranian striker Ali Daei, who scored four goals for Hertha Berlin including notable tallies against Chelsea and AC Milan in the European Champions League, was selected as the Asian Player of the Year on Thursday.
The 31-year-old Daei played for Taxirani and Pirouzi in his native Iran, Qatar's Al-Sadd and German clubs Armenia Bielefeld and Bayern Munich before transferring to Hertha this season. |
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The leading scorer at the 1996 Asian Cup finals was selected over two-time winner Hidetoshi Nakata of Japan and AS Roma, as well as Masashi Nakayama of Japan's Jubilo Iwata and China's Sun Wen, who shared the scoring title at last year's Women's World Championship.
Wen, the first woman nominated for the AFC's player award was honored with a Special Women's Most Valuable Player award.
Others honored at the Asian football Confederation's annual awards night included Uzbekistan's Mahmoud Rakhimov, who was killed in an automobile accident in December shortly after assuring the former Soviet republic of a berth in the 2000 Asian Cup finals.
Rakhimov took over the side in the second half of the year and led the side to an unbeaten 4-0-0 record in Group 3, outscoring its opponents 16-2 and beating out the United Arab Emirates, which lost the championship match at the 1996 finals.
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