Shunsuke Nakamura
Since 2005, this award gives a qualification to nominees who attend the awards ceremony, so the rule caused much controversy about excluding players who could not attend the ceremony by playing for European clubs. Among them, Park Ji-sung and Shunsuke Nakamura were nominated for Ballon d'Or. The AFC is awarding the Asian International Player of the Year award to reduce the controversy since 2012, but AFC awards were still having problems that the process and criteria of selection were obscure, and a Chinese sports newspaper "Titan Sports" made the Best Footballer in Asia award inspired by Ballon d'Or in 2013.