Oceania Footballer of the Year

Oceania Footballer of the Year
Presented byOceania Football Confederation
First awarded1988 (1988)
Last awarded2015 (2015)
Most awardsNew Zealand Wynton Rufer
Australia Harry Kewell
(3 awards)

The Oceania Footballer of the Year award was 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. After this, it was 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

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

Winners by country

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

Other Oceania Awards

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

Mark Bosnich was voted Oceania Goalkeeper of the Century.

References

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