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AFC Awards 2026 Nominees: Alireza Beiranvand Faces Saudi Stars Faras Al-Briqan and Salem Al-Dosari
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Beiranvand nominated for AFC Best Player of the Year alongside Al-Dosari and Al-Briqan. The ceremony is in Bangkok on November 19, 2026.
AFC Awards nominees revealed
The Asian Football Confederation announced nominees for the 30th edition of its football awards in 2026, with Alireza Beiranvand returning to the list for the best player of the year in Asia after seven years. The nominees set up a men’s Best Player of the Year in Asia race between Beiranvand and Saudi figures Faras al-Briqan and Salem Al-Dosari, while the women’s Best Women’s Player of the Year category includes Holly McManaman, Kim Kyeong-yeong, and Kim Hae-ri. The AFC Awards ceremony is scheduled in Bangkok on Thursday, November 19, with the Axara King Power Complex serving as the venue once again after Bangkok hosted the event for the first time in 2017.
The AFC also included Hossein Taibi and Saeed Ahmadvasi among the nominees for Asia’s best men’s futsal player, and the list placed Marzieh Jafari among the nominees for Asia’s best women’s coach. The AFC Awards nominees list also showed an absence of Iranian players in the Best Asian Legioner category and Iran’s Football Federation being left out of the race for the Best Federation of the continent.
World Cup form drives talk
Alireza Beiranvand’s nomination drew attention to his 2026 World Cup display against Belgium, where he made seven saves to help Iran secure a goalless draw and was named Player of the Match. Beiranvand’s World Cup run also featured in the nomination framing as he featured in all three of Iran’s group-stage matches, even as the national team failed to advance to the knockout stage. The AFC Awards list placed Beiranvand in competition with Salem Al-Dosari, who the sources describe as seeking a record third Player of the Year title after winning in 2022 and 2025.
The sources also tied Faras al-Briqan’s nomination to his scoring of the winning goal in the 2025/26 AFC Champions League final for Al-Ahli Saudi FC, and they described the striker as having started every match of the 2026 World Cup. The nomination coverage also emphasized that Beiranvand’s second appearance among the finalists came after his first nomination in 2019, when Akram Afif won the award.
Iran’s presence and gaps
The AFC nominees list presented Iran as represented across multiple categories, with Alireza Beiranvand in the Best Player of the Year Asia category, Hossein Tayyebi and Saeed Ahmad Abbasi in the AFC Futsal Player of the Year category, and Marzieh Jafari in the Asian Women’s Coach of the Year category. The same list also placed the Iran Football Federation in the AFC President’s Award for Youth Football (Gold), while the sources highlighted that the federation was not nominated in the Best Federation of 2026 category. The sources described the Best Asian Player working outside the continent category as contested by Aiyase Oueda from Japan, Kang In-lee from South Korea, and Hwang In-beom, and they framed the absence of Iranian players in that category as repeated for the second year in a row.
The AFC Awards nomination framing also described the women’s coaching race as including Ma Jiaozhou and Park Yun-Jeong alongside Marziyeh Jafari, with the sources tying Jafari’s prior win to 2025. The sources further described the AFC Awards as honoring elite players across 19 award categories in Bangkok on November 19, with the ceremony led by the AFC Player of the Year.