Asia is not a continent that immediately comes to mind when you think about football leagues. It just doesn’t appear like they play ball over there, right? Wrong! The universality of the beautiful game applies to Asia too, and there are a number of competitive leagues there too!
Countries in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) region have some competitive leagues that have produced some of the world’s best footballers across generations. The J-League (Japan), Korean League, Singapore League, and Indonesian league are part of more than 40 countr
ies that have leagues in Asia. Australia too falls within the AFC region and is regarded as one of the strongest leagues in Asia.
Exceptions
There are a number of countries that are in Asia but do not actually fall within AFC’s jurisdiction. Turkey, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Armenia, Israel, and Kazakhstan are members of the Uefa confederation.
Asian leagues have been the incubation hub for great players like Park Ji Sung, Keisuke Honda, Tim Cahill, Son Heung Min, Shinji Okazaki, Shinji Kagawa, Mark Schwarzer, and Shunsuke Nakamura. These players have gone ahead to rule the grass in some of the biggest leagues and clubs across Europe.