Ki Sung-yueng of Celtic FC in Scotland and Ji So-yun of Kobe INAC in Japan were named Korea’s soccer players of the year on Tuesday.

In a vote by 20 football journalists and eight technical officials at the Korea Football Association, Ki earned 67.5 points to edge out Lee Dong-gook, the reigning MVP in the domestic K-League, who earned 65 points, for the men’s award.

Votes from journalists and KFA officials combined to select the top players.

Ki, 22, has long been a fixture in the midfield for South Korea and helped the country to a third-place finish at the Asian Cup tournament in January. He has scored six goals so far this year for Celtic in the ongoing Scottish Premier League season.

In the women’s vote, Ji picked up 101.5 points for an easy win over Cha Yeon-hee, who had 36.5 points playing for the Women’s K-League champion, Goyang Daegyo.

Ji, 20, helped her Japanese club to the league championship, putting up eight goals and six helpers in her debut season. This is her second consecutive player of the year honor.

The KFA’s player of the year honors were revived last year for the first time since 1983, when K-League was launched and began awarding annual MVP awards. 

(Yonhap News)