Oceania Footballer of the Year

The Oceania Footballer of the Year award is presented each year to the best football (soccer) player from the Oceania region, as chosen by a panel of football journalists. The award was dominated by Australian players until that nation became part of the Asian Football Confederation, and is now similarly dominated by New Zealand players. New Zealand's Wynton Rufer is tied with Harry Kewell for the most titles with three awards each, whilst New Caledonia's Christian Karembeu, New Zealand's Shane Smeltz and Ryan Nelsen and Australia's Robbie Slater have each won the award twice.

Winners edit

Year Player Team
1988   Frank Farina   Club Brugge
1989   Wynton Rufer   Grasshopper
1990   Wynton Rufer   Werder Bremen
1991   Robbie Slater   Lens
1992   Wynton Rufer   Werder Bremen
1993   Robbie Slater   Lens
1994   Aurelio Vidmar   Standard Liège
1995   Christian Karembeu[1]   Sampdoria
1996   Paul Okon   Lazio
1997   Mark Bosnich   Aston Villa
1998   Christian Karembeu[1]   Real Madrid
1999   Harry Kewell   Leeds United
2000   Mark Viduka   Leeds United
2001   Harry Kewell   Leeds United
2002   Brett Emerton   Feyenoord
2003   Harry Kewell   Liverpool
2004   Tim Cahill   Everton
2005   Marama Vahirua   Nice
2006   Ryan Nelsen   Blackburn Rovers
2007   Shane Smeltz   Wellington Phoenix
2008   Shane Smeltz   Wellington Phoenix
2009   Ivan Vicelich   Auckland City
2010   Ryan Nelsen   Blackburn Rovers
2011   Bertrand Kaï   Hienghène Sport
2012   Marco Rojas   Melbourne Victory
2015   Ryan Thomas   PEC Zwolle

Winners by country edit

Tally Country
12   Australia
10   New Zealand
3   New Caledonia
1   Tahiti

Other Oceania Awards edit

Wynton Rufer was voted as the Oceania Footballer of the Century.

Mark Bosnich was voted Oceania Goalkeeper of the Century.

References edit

  1. ^ a b Karembeu was born in New Caledonia, although he represented France at international level

External links edit