Olunga leads race for Qatar Stars League MVP

Michael Olunga

Al Duhail's Michael Olunga (left) celebrates his goal with a teammate during their Qatar Stars League match against Umm Salal at Grand Hamad Stadium on March 2, 2022.

Photo credit: Pool

What you need to know:

  • Olunga topped the indicative list issued on Thursday by the QSL for the best player of the season.

Kenya's captain Michael Olunga could be named the Qatar Football Association (QFA) Player of Year for 2021-2022 Qatar Stars League (QSL).

Olunga topped the indicative list issued on Thursday by the QSL for the best player of the season.

The QFA website says the 27-year-old centre-forward collected 85.1 points in the indicative list, slightly ahead of Akram Afif (Al Sadd) who collected 84.7 points, while the Spanish midfielder Santi Cazorla (Al Sadd) came third with 82 points.

The Board of Trustees of QFA Awards has announced the start of voting process for the nomination of best awards for the 2021-2022 season QNB Stars League (Best Under-23 Player, Best Coach and Best Player).

Qatar Tribune reports that the process of sending voting forms, in addition to the indicative lists (statistics), to the parties participating in the voting, namely: QNB Stars League team coaches, Qatar national team coach, Qatar Olympic team coach, club team managers, national team manager, media representatives, Representative of QFA, Representative of QSL, president and board members of the QFA Awards Board of Trustees, Aspire, Qatar Olympic Committee, Qatar Players Association, Old Players Committee and Sponsors, has begun.

The Associations Board of Trustees confirmed that the last date for receiving the forms is on March 24, after which the final sorting process will take place, and the names nominated for the best prizes will be approved, provided that the winners will be announced later.

Olunga’s Portuguese coach Luis Castro topped the indicative list for the best coach of the season, followed by Spaniards Marques Lopez (Al Wakrah) and Javi Gracia (Al Sadd).

Hammam Al Amin (Al Gharafa) topped the indicative list for the best under-23 player, collecting 73.2 points, while Hashem Ali (Al Rayyan) came second with 68.2 points, and Saif Al Din Fadlallah (Al Gharafa) came third with 68.1 points.

Mansour Moftah Award for the top scorer will go to Olunga with (24 goals). The winners for the the Football for All Award and the award for the best referee will be announced in conjunction with the announcement of the results of the final awards.

If the 2021 Asian Champions League top scorer Olunga bags the QSL Player of the Year award, then it will be the second time he is doing so in Asia after emerging the top scorer and player of the year in Japan’s top-tier league in 2020 when he scored 28 goals and guided newly-promoted Kashiwa Reysol to a seventh-place finish.