No one has lifted Asia’s top individual prize three times in its history. Al-Dawsari has 10 days to change that, and he is trying from social media.

The Al-Hilal forward has been sharing images of himself holding his 2022 and 2025 trophies and clips from his previous acceptance speeches. There has not been a single caption directly claiming the 2026 award. Goal has described the approach as a quiet lobbying campaign borrowed from Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal’s push for the Ballon d’Or.

That campaigning did not pay off at the London Palladium on 26 October, when Harry Kane won the Ballon d’Or ahead of Mbappé and Yamal after a 73-goal season for Bayern Munich and England.

Al-Dawsari’s on-pitch case is 11 goals and 10 assists across 36 club matches spanning last season and the current campaign, together with a King’s Cup winner’s medal at Al-Hilal. He is already the only Saudi player to have won the AFC award twice, and only the fourth player anywhere to lift it in two separate seasons.

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Al-Buraikan’s final winner is the counter-claim

His closest challenger wears Saudi colours too. Firas Al-Buraikan came off the bench to score the only goal of the AFC Champions League Elite final in Jeddah on 25 April, lashing home in the 96th minute after Franck Kessié brought down a Riyad Mahrez cross at the back post. The strike handed 10-man Al-Ahli back-to-back continental titles.

The third nominee is Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand, handed a second nomination seven years after his first. The 34-year-old Tractor stopper made seven saves to hold Belgium to a goalless draw at the 2026 World Cup and was named player of the match, though Iran went out in the group stage.

Bangkok ceremony on 19 November

The ceremony is the 30th edition of the AFC Awards and the first to return to Bangkok since 2017. It takes place at the Aksra Theatre King Power on 19 November.

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