Who were the best asian players in the last 20 years?!

[AllStarMomo]

After reading the discussion about if Son or Azmoun is better. I was thinking which players were overall the best players in Asia in the last 20 years? Ofc Iranian and also other nations!
Make a TOP10 list so we can see

[Nokhodi]

My parameters are at least 3 good club seasons in Europe. In no particular order. If we counted international matches I would throw Ali Daei in as well.
Mehdi Mahdavikia
Park Ji Sung
Javad Nekounam
Hideotoshi Nakata
Song Heung-Min
Shinji Kagawa
Yuto Nagatomo
Keisuke Honda
Alireza Jahanbakhsh
Gotuku Sakai

[shahabGAOL]

Khordad Azizi & Ali Daei, Mehdi Mahdavikia, Karim Bagheri, Hashmain, Sardar Azmoun and not to forget Ali Karimi

[Javeed]

Ali Al-Habsi (the Omani goalkeeper) has spent most of his career in the Premier League/Championship... definitely deserves to be in the conversation.

[PersianLegion]

There is no doubt that three names stand alone

Ali Karimi, Nakata and Park Ji Sung

[Arian182]

Its tough to say because there is a lot up for debate.
Korea: Son and Ji Sung Park stand out near the top
Japan: Nakamura, kagawa, honda, nakata, okazaki
Iran: Mehdi Mahdavikia, Nekounam, Hashemian, Ali karimi, Ali daei (stricly for his international record). Azmoun to be seen. Iran has a knack for making very techinically gifted players, but not as much tactically. EDIT- this doesn't hold true for all, but I feel we would have more players in the top leagues if this were true.
Oman: Ali Al habsi
Australia: Arguably had the most skilled players in the early half of the 2000's. Viduka, Kewell, Bosnic, Cahill, Lazaridis, Jedinak
Saudi Arabia: lmao

[ehsan singapore]

Its tough to say because there is a lot up for debate.
Korea: Son and Ji Sung Park stand out near the top
Japan: Nakamura, kagawa, honda, nakata, okazaki
Iran: Mehdi Mahdavikia, Nekounam, Hashemian, Ali karimi, Ali daei (stricly for his international record). Azmoun to be seen. Iran has a knack for making very techinically gifted players, but not as much tactically. EDIT- this doesn't hold true for all, but I feel we would have more players in the top leagues if this were true.
Oman: Ali Al habsi
Australia: Arguably had the most skilled players in the early half of the 2000's. Viduka, Kewell, Bosnic, Cahill, Lazaridis, Jedinak
Saudi Arabia: lmao

saudi : thier camels

[PersianLegion]

saudi : thier camels

Saudis had few good players but not necessarily best Asian players. They had Majed Abdullah, Sami Jaber, Saeed Al Owairan, and Muhamad Aduaya. All were from late 80s or 90s.

[maniei]

Goal:
-Al Habsi

Defense:
-Nakazawa
-Hosseini

Midfield:
-Bagheri
-Nekounam
-Karimi
-Mahdavikia
-Andranik
-Park
-Son
-Nakamura
-Nakata
-Cahill

Attack:
-Daei
-Azizi
-Ahn
-Honda

[Persian-Pride87]

Ali Daei is number 1! I don't think his international goal scoring record will ever be broken. I can't even imagine how many more he would have to his name had he not started his TM career so late.

[Ata]

Only Ali Karimi, even when he dont play he is better than the players who are playing

[_Navid_]

Park Ji Sung
Hideotoshi Nakata
Shinji Kagawa
Song Heung-Min
Mehdi Mahdavikia
Nakamura
Javad Nekounam
Ali Daei
Ali Karimi
Keisuke Honda

[BusiG]

when it comes to talent....Ali Karimi was untouchable....maybe one of the best ever to play the game of soccer......But ill pick Mahdavikia.

[Rooyintan]

Taking into account both quality performance in clubs and national team level. My top 10 list [selecting for various countries to be fair, in no particular order] would be as follow:

1. Mehdi Mahdavikia (Iran)
2. Ali Daei (Iran)
3. Hidetoshi Nakata (Japan)
4. Tim Cahill (Australia)
5. Harry Kewell (Australia)
6. Ali Al Habsi (Oman)
7. Park Ji-Sung (Korea)
8. Javad Nekounam (Iran)
9. Keisuke Honda (Japan)
10. Mark Schwarzer (Australia)

Others I really wished to put on the list of top 10 but couldn't:
Iran: Vahid Hashemian, Jalal Hosseini, Ali Karimi, Khodadad Azizi, Sardar Azmoun, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Ahmad Reza Abedzadeh
Uzbekistan: Mirjalol Qosimov, Odil Ahmedov, Maksim Shatskikh, Server Djeparov
Japan: Shunsuke Nakamura, Shinji Okazaki, Naohiro Takahara, Eiji Kawashima, Yasuhito Endō, Shinji Ono
Australia: John Aloisi
Iraq: Emad Ridha Mohammed, Younis Mahmoud, Hawar Mulla Mohammed, Nashat Akram
Korea: Lee Dong-gook, Hong Myung-bo, Lee Woon-Jae, Ahn Jung-hwan

[GoIran]

All time top 5 European league winners (I included only players with at least one appearance)

Iran
Ali Daei
1998/99 Bundesliga (Bayern) - 23 games (12 starts) / 6 goals / 0 assists

Vahid Hashemian
2004/05 Bundesliga (Bayern) - 9 games (3 starts) / 0 goals / 0 assists

Ali Karimi
2005/06 Bundesliga (Bayern) - 20 games (11 starts) / 2 goals / 3 assists

Ashkan Dejagah
2008/09 Budesliga (Wolfsburg) - 27 games (13 starts) / 3 goals / 3 assists

Australia
Robbie Slater
1994/95 Premier League (Blackburn) - 18 games (12 starts) / 0 goals / 0 assists

Mark Bosnich
1999/00 Premier League (Manchester U) - 21 games (21 starts) / 0 goals / 0 assists

Mitchell Langerak
2010/11 Bundesliga (Dortmund) - 1 game (1 start) / 0 goals / 0 assists
2011/12 Bundesliga (Dortmund) - 2 games (2 starts) / 0 goals / 0 assists

Japan
Yasuhiko Okudera
1977/78 Bundesliga (Koln) - 20 games (16 starts) / 4 goals / 0 assists

Hidetoshi Nakata
2000/01 Serie A (Roma) - 15 games (5 starts) / 2 goals / 1 assist

Makoto Hasebe
2008/09 Bundesliga (Wolfsburg) - 25 games (18 starts) / 0 goals / 3 assists

Shinji Kagawa
2010/11 Bundesliga (Dortmund) - 18 games (17 starts) / 8 goals / 1 assist
2011/12 Bundesliga (Dortmund) - 31 games (27 starts) / 13 goals / 12 assists
2012/13 Premier League (Manchester U) - 20 games (17 starts) / 6 goals / 4 assists

Shinji Okazaki
2015/16 Premier League (Leicester) - 34 games (30 starts) / 5 goals / 2 assists

South Korea
Park Ji-Sung
2006/07 Premier League (Manchester U) - 16 games (8 starts) / 5 goals / 3 assists
2007/08 Premier League (Manchester U) - 13 games (8 starts) / 1 goal / 3 assist
2008/09 Premier League (Manchester U) - 25 games (21 starts) / 2 goals / 3 assists