The 2016 Best Footballer in Asia, given to the best football player in Asia as judged by a panel of 38 sports journalists, was awarded to Shinji Okazaki on 26 December 2016.

Voting

The prize witnessed the first significant enlargement of the panel of jurors since its birth. There were 38 jurors in the panel. 33 jurors were from different AFC nations/regions including Afghanistan, Australia, Bahrain, Cambodia, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Korea Republic, Kuwait, Lebanon, Macao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, United Arabic Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Five jurors were invited from non-AFC media outlets.^[1]

Rules

Each juror selects 5 best footballers and awards them 5, 4, 3, 2 points and 1 point respectively from their first choice to the fifth choice. The trophy of the Best Footballer in Asia is awarded to the player with the highest total of points.^[2]

Ranking

Rank	Name	Club(s)	Points
1	Shinji Okazaki	Leicester City	126
2	Omar Abdulrahman	Al-Ain	123
3	Son Heung-min	Tottenham Hotspur	109
4	Sardar Azmoun	Rostov	46
5	Leonardo	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	34
6	Genki Haraguchi	Hertha BSC	30
7	Hammadi Ahmad	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	16
8	Paulinho	Guangzhou Evergrande	15
9	Adriano	FC Seoul	13
10	Wu Lei	Shanghai SIPG	11
11	Koo Ja-cheol	FC Augsburg	10
12	Hiroshi Kiyotake	Hannover 96 Sevilla	7
13	Lee Jae-sung	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	6
14	Romarinho	El Jaish	5
15	Tom Rogic	Celtic	5
	Chanathip Songkrasin	Muangthong United
17	Ahmed Khalil	Al-Ahli	4
18	Aaron Mooy	Melbourne City Huddersfield Town	2
19	Sardor Rashidov	El Jaish	2
20	Kwon Sun-Tae	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	1

References