World Football

Japan snubbed for Asia's top team award

05:07 GMT, Thu 19 Nov 2009
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Japan's Hisato Sato (L) celebrates with captain Yuji Nakazawa (C) and Shinji Okazaki after Sato scored a goal against Hong Kong during their AFC Asian Cup 2011 qualifying match in Hong Kong November 18, 2009.   REUTERS/Bobby Yip  (CHINA SPORT SOCCER)

SYDNEY, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Two Japan players have been nominated for this year's Asian Player of the Year award after their national side was surprisingly overlooked for the final nominations for the team of the year award.

Kengo Nakamura and Yasuhito Endo were both included on the shortlist of the five nominees for the region's most prestigious individual award, to be announced in Kuala Lumpur next Tuesday.

They were joined by Bahrain's Sayed Mohamed Adnan, Iran's Hadi Aghily and Syria's Firas Al Khatib.

Despite being the first team to qualify for next year's World Cup in South Africa, Japan did not make the final cut for the men's team of the year.

Australia, South Korea and North Korea, who all also qualified for the World Cup, were the three final nominations.

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