Asian football confederation (AFC) in a statement said Ali Daei goals in the European champions' league for Hertha Berlin against Chelsea and AC Milan are unrivalled in the history of Asian footballers.

"His exploits in those two matches amongst others, generated unrivalled positive publicity for the Asian games", AFC added.

Ali Daei joins Masashi Nakayama of Japan, Hwang Sun Hong of South Korea, Kuwait's Bashar Abdullah, Hidetoshi Nakata of Japan and woman top player, Sun Wen of China in the list of nominees for the AFC annual awards '99 ceremony in Beirut, Lebanon on April 6.

The names of the winners of awards in the various categories will be announced on the night of ceremony. The AFC selection committee for the awards night is headed by Tengku Abdullah Ibni Sultan Ahmad Shah of malaysia. Tengku Abdullah is a president of the football association of Malaysia.

For the first time since its inception in 1994, the AFC annual awards will see a woman contesting the right to be named Asian best player of the year.

Sun Wen, the best player at the women's world cup in the united last year and winner of the "golden shoe" for being the top scorer in that tournament earned her the right to be nominated for the award.

"As captain of the Chinese women's team which was beaten in a penalty shoot-out at the hands of the host in the world cup final, sun wen truly sparkled and this earned her the right to be nominated for the prestigious award," the AFC statement said.

Nakata is aiming for hattrick in beirut after having bagged the Asian player of the year award in 1997 and 1998. He has established himself as one of the finest midfielders in Italy's serie a and as Roma paid Perugia 17 million us dollars in January for his services.

Masashi Nakayama who plays for Jubilo Iwata in the J-league had a good run in two AFC competition - the Asian club championship and the Asian super cup. In the Asian club championship final he scored the winning goal in jubilo iwata's 2-1 win over Iran's esteghlal. then, in the super cup, he was named the overall mvp against al-ittihad where he scored the only goal on the first leg.

Hwang Sun Hong of Cerezo Osaka club finished 1999 as the J-league's top scorer with 23 goals in the 30 game season. His efforts helped cerezo finished a highly creditable fifth place in both stages of the championship.

Bashar Abdullah, a young striker who is already established in Kuwait's national team was a key figure in his country's successful olympic campaign. He formed a vital strike partnership with farj laheeb, scoring goals against Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

While sun wen has been nominated for the Asian player of the year award, the China world cup team has received nominations for the Asian team of the year and the Asian women's team of the year awards.

Joining China in the nominations for the Asian team of the year are the Kuwait olympic side who recovered from a defeat against Saudi Arabia to win the most competitive of the final round groups to clinch a sydney berth, the Japan under-20's team who against all expectations reached the final of the fifa world youth championship and the uzbekistan national side.

Uzbekistan knocked out the 1996 Asian cup finalists the united Arab emirates from the Asian cup competition to win a place in the final round in lebanon this October. Uzbekistan finished 1999 unbeaten and were third on fifa's biggest movers list, climbing eleven places on the world ranking over the year.

Afc said China and taiwan are the two nominees for the Asian women's team of the year award. Taiwan finished runner-up to China in the Asian women's championship and surprised even themselves in the process. This earned chinese Taipei the right to be nominated.

The nominees for the motorola Asian coach of the year award are the late Mahmood rakhimov of the uzbekistan national side, Japan's jubilo iwata coach, takeshi kuwahara, radjko avramovic who led Kuwait team to victory in the olympic qualifying round and phillippe troussier who was coach of the Japanese under-20 team in the world youth championships in Nigeria. Also winning a nomination is China's women's world cup coach ma yunam.

Phillippe troussiers's team and the Qatar under-17 side which made the quarter-finals of the fifa under-17 world youth championship in new zealand are the contenders for the Asian youth team of the year award.

Japan's shinji ono who captained his team to a place in the world youth under-20 final at Nigeria is amongst three players nominated for the clarion youth player of the year award. The others are Qatar's waleed hamzah, winner of the fifa silver shoe award for being the second highest scorer at the world under-17 tournament and team-mate bilal rahman who also a played key role in his team's good run in new zealand.

Four other awards will also be presented on April 6. These are the Asian referee of the year, the Asian assistant referee of the year and the fair play team of the year and the football writer of the year.