China's Wang Dalei will compete for the "Youth Player of the Year" Award of the Asian Football Confederation while the U-19 team is among the nominees for "Women's Team of the Year". 
 
The Asian Football Confederation has unveiled the nominations for its 2004 annual awards, which will be presented in Kuala Lumpur on December 8.

Chinese young goalkeeper in the under-17 team Wang Dalei has been nominated as the Youth Player of the Year award, while the U-19 team is among the nominees for Women's Team of the Year.

The Chinese national team, who suffered a heartbreaking elimination from the 2006 World Cup, has only earned the nomination for the Fair Play Award.

The most prestigious individual award, the AFC Players of the Year, will see the competition between Bahrain striker A'ala Hubail, Iran forward Ali Karimi and Japan playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura.

The three are up for the award following their impressive displays at the Asian Cup 2004 in China.

Hubail and Karimi were the tournament's joint-top scorers with five goals each while Nakamura won the Emirates MVP of the Tournament award after helping Japan to lift their third Asian Cup title.

They also helped their countries to reach the final round of the Asian qualifiers for 2006 World Cup.

In the National Team of the Year award category, Asian Cup champions Japan will vie with Bahrain, who defied the odds to reach the semi-finals in only their second Asian Cup appearance, and Olympic semi-finalists Iraq. 

(CRI November 23, 2004)