Tottenham Hotspur's Son Heung-min on Jan. 24 was named the Best International Player of 2020 by the Asian Football Confederation. The photo shows the striker on Feb. 2 last year at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London celebrating after scoring his team's second goal in a 2-0 win over Manchester City. (Yonhap News)

By Oh Hyun Woo and Lee Jihae

Tottenham Hotspur striker Son Heung-min has earned his fourth award for Best International Player from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), adding to his wins in 2015, 2017 and 2019.

The AFC on Jan. 24 announced on its homepage the results of voting for the award "Asia's Choice – Best International Player of 2020." Son earned 25.03 points to lead the male player category.

The award honors the best Asian male player on a non-AFC affiliate team based on his performances last year for his club and national teams. Sixty percent of the votes are cast by soccer fans and 40% by a panel of experts.

Son edged out runner-up Mehdi Taremi of Iran (FC Porto) by 5.69 points.

The AFC said Son had a "superb calendar year" in which he scored 22 goals "and developed an exceptional partnership with England's Harry Kane."

It added that his other accolades include the EPL's Player of the Month in October last year, Tottenham's Player of the Year for 2019-20 and the Korea Football Association's top player honor for last year.

Fellow compatriot Lee Kang-in (Valencia CF), another candidate for the AFC award, placed seventh. 

The Asian Football Confederation on Jan. 24 named Son Heung-min the Best International Player of 2020. (Screen capture from AFC's official homepage)

hyunwoo54@korea.kr