Asian elite nominated for The Best FIFA awards

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Sam Kerr of Australia. [file photo]

Four of the biggest names in Asian women's football have been nominated for FIFA's prestigious annual The Best Awards, with Japan and Australia both represented twice.


Australia's 2017 AFC Women's Player of the Year Sam Kerr and Japan's AFC Women's Asian Cup-winning captain Saki Kumagai were both among the 10-woman shortlist for the The Best Women's Player.


Alen Stajcic and Asako Takakura - the women's national team head coaches for the two nations - earned nominations in the women's coaching category.


The nomination is the latest in a long line of individual accolades for Kerr, whose Most Valuable Player Awards in both the Australian and American domestic leagues were just a small sample of the honours won by the prolific forward in the last year.


Kumagai, who finished runner-up to Kerr as Asia's best female player at the AFC Annual Awards last November, has since led Japan with distinction in their successful AFC Women's Asian Cup title defence in Jordan, in addition to claiming a third consecutive UEFA Women's Champions League title for French club side Olympique Lyonnais.


If either Kerr or Kumagai goes on to win the award, they will be the first Asian player to be officially crowned the world's best female player since Homare Sawa in 2011. 


In the coaching ranks, five-time AFC Female Coach of the Year Takakura is now on the shortlist for the most prestigious coaching award in the women's game, having masterminded Japan's AFC Women's Asian Cup-winning campaign in Jordan in April.


Takakura's opposite number in the final of that competition, Australia's Alen Stajcic, was also recognised for a highly successful year which saw the Matildas reach a FIFA rankings high of fourth in December 2017.


The winners are to be announced in London on September 24, but Australia and Japan are set to meet again on the pitch before then, with the two sides to resume their rivalry in a Tournament of Nations clash in Bridgeview, Illinois on August 2. 


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