Inter wing back, Yuto Nagatomo, has been awarded 2013 International Asian Footballer Of The Year, holding off stiff competition from the likes of Bayer Leverkusen's Son Heung-Min and CSKA Moskva's Keisuke Honda.
Surprisingly, 27 year old has become only the second Japanese player to win the award, after Shinji Kagawa scooped up the award in 2012. Speaking after receiving the award, Nagatomo stated:
"It's an honour to receive such a fantastic award. I'll keep working hard to show the wolrd that Asian football is continuing to inprove."
The appointment of Walter Mazzarri and his subsequent use of a three man defence has helped the Japanese international greatly. Due to his new more attacking role, Nagatomo has enjoyed a strong start to his fourth season with Inter Milan, scoring a career best 3 league goals, and helping Inter to climb fourth in the Serie A table.
The other big winners of the night included FC Seoul's coach, Choi Yong-soo, who guided his team to their fifth K League title, and Chinese captain, Zheng Zhi, won the award for best player currently plying his trade within the continent of Asia. At the award ceremony, Zheng Zhi expressed his delight at winning the much coveted prize:
"It is a very special thing to win this award at the age of 33. Honestly, I didn't think I could ever win this award again, after only being nominated last year. This success is down to my teammates, who without, none of this would have been possible."
