Young and dangerous: Arif Aiman Hanapi (left) scored six goals with the national team.
PETALING JAYA: Young winger Arif Aiman Hanapi received a timely boost ahead of his Asian Cup Finals campaign for Malaysia when he made the top 40 rankings for top goal poachers for 2023.
Based on statistics released by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), the Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) player is ranked 19th with nine goals, sharing the position with Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes and Leicester’s Patson Daka.
Arif, who was also the winner of the Malaysian League Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for 2021 and 2022, scored three goals with JDT in international competitions and six goals with the national team.
Another Harimau Malaya player Darren Lok, who plays for Sabah, is in 38th position with eight goals.
The 32-year-old striker scored two goals with the national team in addition to netting six goals for Sabah in the AFC Cup.
Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku topped the list with 22 goals. Manchester City star Erling Haaland is in second place with 18 goals followed by Iranian Mehdi Taremi (14 goals) while Kylian Mbappe and Cristiano Ronaldo share fourth place with 13 goals.
Only 21, Arif is already establishing himself as one of the rising stars in the South-East Asian football scene.
Esteban Solari, who coached JDT to sweep all the major titles in Malaysian football last year before leaving, labelled the young player as a genius with his trickery on the right proving to be a devastating weapon for both the club and country.
“I believe he has all the tools to achieve greatness. He has the ability to grow as much as he wants.
“He has a great character, works hard, always wants to improve and has the desire to become a great player and is still improving,” said Solari recently.
Despite only making little more than 20 appearances for Malaysia since his debut in 2021 against Bahrain in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Arif is flourishing as a right winger and will be a vital cog in coach Kim Pan-gon’s plans to take the fight to the big guns in the Asian Cup in Doha starting on Jan 12.
Malaysia take on Jordan on Jan 15 and meet Bahrain five days later before wrapping up their tough group E campaign against 2002 World Cup semi-finalists South Korea on Jan 25.
Malaysia will have a friendly with Syria on Jan 8 before they embark on their Asian Cup campaign.
