{"id":41460,"date":"2021-01-17T09:18:05","date_gmt":"2021-01-17T17:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=41460"},"modified":"2021-01-17T09:18:05","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T17:18:05","slug":"four-iranians-shortlisted-for-best-afc-international-player-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2021\/01\/17\/four-iranians-shortlisted-for-best-afc-international-player-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Iranians shortlisted for ‘Best AFC International Player 2020’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tasnim – KUALA LUMPUR, Iranian players Mehdi Taremi, Kaveh Rezaei, Ali Gholizadeh, and Sardar Azmoun have been nominated for the Best AFC International Player of 2020.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a footballing year like no other, but despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Asia\u2019s top players still delivered exceptional performances worthy of wider recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For that reason, the-AFC.com has invited the fans to cast their vote in Asia\u2019s Choice \u2013 Fan Awards: Best AFC International Player in 2020, which is open to men\u2019s players registered to clubs outside the Asian continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mehdi Taremi (Porto\/IRN)<\/strong>
Few Asian players outside the continent experienced such a transformative year as Taremi, who finished equal top scorer in the Portuguese top-flight, subsequently earning a move to one of the country\u2019s biggest clubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirteen of his 21 goals for Rio Ave came in 2020, with a further six coming in the colors of FC Porto, as well as one in a rare international outing for Team Melli, as Taremi confirmed his status as one of Asia\u2019s top strikers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sardar Azmoun (FC Zenit\/IRN)<\/strong>
A total 21 goals in all competitions, three pieces of silverware and equal billing with teammate Artem Dzyuba as the Russian Premier League\u2019s top scorer made 2020 a year to remember for Sardar Azmoun,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He scored multiple goals in a match on no less than six occasions, playing a starring role as Zenit navigated a series of challenges to win the League, Cup and Super Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali Gholizadeh (RSC Charleroi\/IRN)<\/strong>
One of a strong Asian contingent in the Belgian top-flight, and particularly at Charleroi, Gholizadeh prospered throughout 2020, delivering a string of excellent performances for the ambitious club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A regular provider of goals and assists from his wide attacking midfielder role, Gholizadeh has shone in both domestic and continental action to establish himself as a key player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaveh Rezaei (RSC Charleroi\/IRN)<\/strong>
From scoring a league hat-trick in his third outing of the calendar year to a run of six goals in as many matches in August and September, 2020 was an impressive year for the Iranian international.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His goals helped Charleroi qualify for European football and, for a time, powered them to the top of the Belgian First Division A table, as Rezaei added his name to the impressive array of Team Melli forwards in Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tasnim – KUALA LUMPUR, Iranian players Mehdi Taremi, Kaveh Rezaei, Ali Gholizadeh, and Sardar Azmoun…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":41461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,84,92,89,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions","category-c47-featured-news","category-c21-international-football-news","category-c16-iranian-legionairs","category-c22-players-spotlight"],"views":859,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41462,"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41460\/revisions\/41462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}