Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuwait City: AFC Futsal Player of the Year 2011 Mohammed Keshavarz, the skipper of newly crowned AFC Club Futsal Championship winners Sanaye Giti Pasand, has been given the tournament's Abdullah Al Dabal MVP award.
After a series of outstanding performances in the continental futsal club championship, the 30-year old got his second biggest individual honour in Asian futsal.
“This is very special, last year I was Asian Futsal Player of the Year last year but my team Shahid Mansouri failed to win the title but this time around, the award is special because we, as a team, won the tournament,” a visibly ecstatic Keshavarz (in picture, right) told www.the-afc.com.
“These awards prompts me to do better and continue to play this beautiful game of futsal.”
Keshavarz has a unique record of playing in all three AFC Futsal Club championship with three different clubs and two of them ended up with the titles.
He managed a single goal against Nagoya Oceans in the semi-final but his towering presence at the pitch means Giti Pasand only conceded five goals with an impressive average of one goal per match in the competition.
He helped Foolad Mahan Sepahan win the first ever title of the competition in 2010 while his next side Shahid Mansouri lost to Japan’s Nagoya Oceans in the 2011 final.
“This campaign is better than those previous ones as the level of competitions is getting much tougher these days and I ended up with the winners with an individual title which is an icing on the cake,” he added.
Likewise, both leading scorers before the final, Ahmad Esmaeilpour and Dilshod Irsaliev, failed to score in the final meaning Giti Pasand’s marksman Esmaeilpour walked away with the topscorer award with nine goals in five matches.