KUALA LUMPUR, 22 November 2005 — Saudi soccer stars Sami Al-Jaber and Hamad Al-Montashari along with Uzbekistan’s Maksim Shatskikh are the three finalists from 10 short-listed nominees in contention for Asian Player of the Year award, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said yesterday. Both Al-Jaber and Al-Montashari play in Saudi Arabia for Al-Hilal and Al-Ittihad respectively while Shatskikh is at Ukraine’s Dynamo Kiev. South Korea’s Park Ji-sung was on the shortlist with Bolton Wanderers’ Japanese international Hidetoshi Nakata, Bayern Munich’s Ali Karimi of Iran, Tottenham Hotspur’s Lee Young-pyo of South Korea, and Celtic’s Japanese midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura. Completing the list of 10 were Iran’s Javad Nekounam, of Pas, and Saudi goalkeeper Mabrouk Zayed, of Asian champions Ittihad.
