Mehdi Taremi, Heung-Min Son, Takumi Minamino, Maksim Shatskikh: Who are Asia's top UEFA Champions League performers?
venerdì 20 dicembre 2024
Intro articolo
Which Asian players have the most appearances and goals in Europe's leading club competition?
Contenuti top media
Corpo articolo
Asian footballers were vanishingly rare in western Europe when Bum-Kun Cha joined Eintracht Frankfurt in 1979, but the Korean forward was a pace-setter, winning the UEFA Cup with the club in 1980. Following in his footsteps, the best Asian players now express themselves in UEFA's club competitions, the likes of Mehdi Taremi, Heung-Min Son and Takumi Minamino gaining significant exposure in the UEFA Champions League.
Last updated: 20 December 2024
Most appearances by Asian nationals in the UEFA Champions League (group stage/league phase to final)
55: Heung-Min Son (KOR – Leverkusen, Tottenham)
54: Ji-Sung Park (KOR – PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United)
45: Maksim Shatskikh (UZB – Dynamo Kyiv)
33: Shinji Kagawa (JPN – Dortmund, Manchester United)
32: Mehdi Taremi (IRI – Porto, Inter)
29: Atsuto Uchida (JPN – Schalke)
26: Vladimir Maminov (UZB – Lokomotiv Moskva)
24: Minjae Kim (KOR – Napoli, Bayern)
23: Sardar Azmoun (IRI – Rostov, Zenit, Leverkusen)
23: Yuto Nagatomo (JPN – Inter, Galatasaray, Marseille)
20: Kang-in Lee (KOR – Valencia, Paris)
20: Takumi Minamino (JPN – Salzburg, Liverpool, Monaco)
Top-scoring Asian nationals in the UEFA Champions League (group stage/league phase to final)
19: Heung-Min Son (KOR – Leverkusen, Tottenham)
11: Maksim Shatskikh (UZB – Dynamo Kyiv)
11: Mehdi Taremi (IRI – Porto, Inter)
6: Sardar Azmoun (IRI – Rostov, Zenit, Leverkusen)
4: Shinji Kagawa (JPN – Dortmund, Manchester United)
4: Takumi Minamino (JPN – Salzburg, Liverpool, Monaco)
4: Ji-Sung Park (KOR – PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United)
3: Ali Daei (IRI – Bayern München, Hertha Berlin)
3: Kyogo Furuhashi (JPN – Celtic)
3: Keisuke Honda (JPN – CSKA Moskva)
3: Hee-Chan Hwang (KOR – Salzburg, Leipzig)
3: Daichi Kamada (JPN – Frankfurt, Lazio)
3: Daizen Maeda (JPN – Celtic)
Most appearances by Asian nationals in UEFA club competition*
84: Heung-Min Son (KOR – Leverkusen, Tottenham)
76: Vladimir Maminov (UZB – Lokomotiv Moskva)
75: Maksim Shatskikh (UZB – Dynamo Kyiv, Arsenal Kyiv)
70: Ji-Sung Park (KOR – PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United)
59: Takumi Minamino (JPN – Salzburg, Liverpool, Monaco)
56: Shinji Kagawa (JPN – Dortmund, Manchester United, PAOK)
55: Makoto Hasebe (JPN – Wolfsburg, Frankfurt)
50: Sardar Azmoun (IRI – Rubin, Rostov, Zenit, Leverkusen, Roma)
50: Yukinari Sugawara (JPN – AZ Alkmaar)
49: Oleg Pashinin (UZB – Lokomotiv Moskva)
Top-scoring Asian nationals in UEFA club competition*
30: Heung-Min Son (KOR – Leverkusen, Tottenham)
23: Maksim Shatskikh (UZB – Dynamo Kyiv, Arsenal Kyiv)
14: Daichi Kamada (JPN – Frankfurt, Lazio)
13: Sardar Azmoun (IRI – Rubin, Rostov, Zenit, Leverkusen, Roma)
13: Takumi Minamino (JPN – Salzburg, Liverpool, Monaco)
12: Mehdi Taremi (IRI – Porto, Inter)
11: Hee-Chan Hwang (KOR – Salzburg, Leipzig)
11: Shinji Kagawa (JPN – Dortmund, Manchester United)
10: Bum-Kun Cha (KOR – Frankfurt, Leverkusen)
9: Alireza Jahanbakhsh (IRI - AZ Alkmaar, Feyenoord)
Notable firsts
First Asian player to feature in/win a UEFA club competition final
Bum-Kun Cha (KOR, Mönchengladbach 3-3agg Eintracht Frankfurt, Frankfurt win on away goals, 1979/80 UEFA Cup)
First Asian player to feature in a European Champion Clubs' Cup/UEFA Champions League final
Ji-Sung Park (KOR, Barcelona 3-1 Manchester United, 2010/11)
Nation-by-nation: Most appearances by Asian players in UEFA club competition*
Afghanistan – 8: Agim Meto (Besa, Flamurtari, Laç)
Bahrain – 11: Abdulla Yusuf Helal (Slavia Praha, Liberec)
Bangladesh – NONE
Bhutan – NONE
Brunei – NONE
Cambodia – NONE
China – 13: Wu Lei (Espanyol)
Chinese Taipei – NONE
East Timor – NONE
India – 1= Reginald Pickett (Ipswich Town), Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (Stabæk)
Indonesia – 1: Yulianto Kurniawan (Luzern)
Iran – 50: Sardar Azmoun (Rubin, Rostov, Zenit, Leverkusen, Roma)
Iraq – 16: Brwa Nouri (Åtvidaberg, Östersund)
Japan – 59: Takumi Minamino (Salzburg, Liverpool, Monaco)
Jordan – 25: Musa Al-Taamari (APOEL)
Korea DPR – 10: Kwang-Ryong Pak (Basel, Vaduz)
Korea Republic – 84: Heung-Min Son (Leverkusen, Tottenham)
Kuwait – NONE
Kyrgyzstan – 19: Gulzhigit Alykulov (Kairat Almaty, Neman Grodno)
Laos – NONE
Lebanon – 15: Bassel Jradi (Nordsjælland, Strømsgodset, Hajduk Split, Apollon Limassol)
Malaysia – NONE
Maldives – NONE
Mongolia – NONE
Myanmar – NONE
Nepal – NONE
Northern Mariana Islands – NONE
Oman – 6: Ali Al-Habsi (Lyn, Bolton Wanderers)
Pakistan – NONE
Philippines – NONE
Qatar – 2: Hussein Yasser (Braga)
Saudi Arabia – 3: Saud Abdulhamid (Roma)
Singapore – 2: Fandi Ahmad (Groningen)
Sri Lanka – NONE
Syria – 4: Ammar Ramadan (DAC Dunajská Streda)
Tajikistan – 14: Parvizdzhon Umarbaev (Lokomotiv Plovdiv, CSKA-Sofia)
Thailand – NONE
Turkmenistan – 14= Nazar Bayramov (Karvan Evlakh, Neftçi), Ruslan Mingazov (Skonto, Jablonec, Slavia Praha)
United Arab Emirates – 1: Hamid Al Kamali (Valletta)
Uzbekistan – 76: Vladimir Maminov (Lokomotiv Moskva)
Vietnam – NONE
Yemen – NONE
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*UEFA club competitions means European Champion Clubs' Cup/UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, European/South American Cup, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, UEFA Super Cup and UEFA Intertoto Cup