SEOUL, Jan 2 — South Korean footballer Kim Min Jae clinches 2023’s top male football player title on Tuesday, earning his first annual honour and snapping a four-year winning streak by Tottenham Hotspur star, Son Heung Min.

The Korea Football Association (KFA) announced that Kim won the Male Player of the Year Award after earning 137 points in a vote by football journalists and members of the KFA’s technical development committee and national team committee, reported Yonhap news agency.

The Bayern Munich defender, also a runner-up to Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung Min in 2021 and 2022, signed for Bayern Munich in the summer after a wildly successful one-year stint with Napoli in Italy.

In May, Kim helped Napoli win their first Serie A title in 33 years, and Kim was later named the best defender in the top Italian league.

With Kim manning the backline, Bayern are in second place in the Bundesliga this season with 38 points, four back of Bayer Leverkusen but with one match in hand at 15. Bayern have conceded the second-fewest goals in Germany with 15.

Kim now aged 27, is the first defender to be named the KFA’s top male player since Kim Young Gwon in 2015. — Bernama/Yonhap