Footballers Kodai Tanaka and Ilhan Fandi take home top men’s awards at FAS Awards Night 2022

Albirex Niigata Singapore FC’s Kodai Tanaka and Tanjong Pagar United FC’s Manami Fukuzawa bagged the biggest prizes at the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) Awards Night 2022 in Orchard Hotel on Tuesday (Nov 8).

Making 28 appearances on the field, Albirex Niigata FC’s forward Tanaka won them their fifth AIA Singapore Premier League (SPL) title by scoring 33 goals and making 10 assists, which earned him the AIA Player of the Year award.

The Deloitte Player of the Year award was secured by striker Fukuzawa, who helped Tanjong Pagar United FC score eight goals and allowed them to achieve third place at the Deloitte Women’s Premier League (WPL).

Named the AIA Young Player of the Year after scoring 17 goals, midfielder Ilhan Fandi also landed the Select Goal of the Year prize with one of his impressive overhead kicks.

Both Ilhan and Tanaka were named in the AIA SPL Team of the Year, along with SPL Top Scorer winner Boris Kopitović and SPL Golden Glove award winner Zaiful Nizam.

Izzati Rosni and Beatrice Tan, both members of the Lion City Sailors FC, also won the WPL Top Scorer and WPL Golden Glove awards respectively, with Izzati also taking home the WPL Goal of the Year award.

Tanjong Pagar FC’s goalkeeper Haziqah Haszman also saw herself winning the Young Player of the Year award, having kept four clean sheets in a breakout season where she made a senior international debut.

With the return of other domestic competitions, the Singapore Football Leagues (SFL) 1 presented the Player of the Year and Top Scorer award to Singapore Khalsa Association’s Fariz Faizal, while SFL 2’s Jungfrau Punggol FC defender Sadik Said claimed the Player of the Year award.

Albirex Niigata’s coach Kazuaki Yoshinaga picked up his third POLAR Mineral Water Coach of the Year award, joining Vorawan Chitavanich and Richard Bok as the coaches with the most wins in this category.

The Coach of the Year title was also awarded to Singapore Khalsa Association’s Sukhvinder Singh for SFL 1, Jungfrau Punggol FC’s Ahmad Salihin for SFL 2, and Lion City Sailors FC’s Yeong Sheau Shyan, who guided the team through an unbeaten season.

The SPL referees were also given recognition, with Ahmad A’Qashah and Ronnie Koh Min Kiat being named SELECT Referee of the Year and Assistant Referee of the Year respectively.

A total of 14 FAS Recognition awards were given out to recipients including Singapore football’s international player Hassan Sunny, and retired Lions Baihakki Khaizan and Hafiz Sujad.

Having recognised the importance of the media generating awareness of local football, SoccerKakis’ Jared Gallagher, who also plays as a midfielder for SPL club Young Lions, was awarded Story of the Year by FAS, while Junpiter Futbol’s Chua Boon Ping won the Photo of the Year.