Mehdi Taremi, Heung-Min Son, Takumi Minamino, Maksim Shatskikh: Who are Asia's top UEFA Champions League performers?

Saturday, December 20, 2025

Which Asian players have the most appearances and goals in Europe's leading club competition?

Heung-Min Son,Mehdi Taremi, Takumi Minamino and Minjae Kim ©Getty Images

Asian footballers were vanishingly rare in western Europe when Bum-Kun Cha joined Eintracht Frankfurt in 1979, but the Korean forward was a pace-setter, winning the UEFA Cup with the club in 1980. Following in his footsteps, the best Asian players now express themselves in UEFA's club competitions, the likes of Mehdi Taremi, Heung-Min Son and Takumi Minamino gaining significant exposure in the UEFA Champions League.

Last updated: 20 December 2025

Most appearances by Asian nationals in the UEFA Champions League (group stage/league phase to final)

Asian Champions League stars

55: Heung-Min Son (KOR – Leverkusen, Tottenham)
54: Ji-Sung Park (KOR – PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United)
45: Maksim Shatskikh (UZB – Dynamo Kyiv)
44: Mehdi Taremi (IRI – Porto, Inter, Olympiacos)
36: Minjae Kim (KOR – Napoli, Bayern)
33: Shinji Kagawa (JPN – Dortmund, Manchester United)
30: Kang-in Lee (KOR – Valencia, Paris)
29: Takumi Minamino (JPN – Salzburg, Liverpool, Monaco)
29: Atsuto Uchida (JPN – Schalke)
26: Vladimir Maminov (UZB – Lokomotiv Moskva)

Top-scoring Asian nationals in the UEFA Champions League (group stage/league phase to final)

Uzbekistan's Maksim Shatskikh in action for Dynamo Kyiv in 2002Getty Images

19: Heung-Min Son (KOR – Leverkusen, Tottenham)
12: Mehdi Taremi (IRI – Porto, Inter, Olympiacos)
11: Maksim Shatskikh (UZB – Dynamo Kyiv)
6: Sardar Azmoun (IRI – Rostov, Zenit, Leverkusen)
6: Takumi Minamino (JPN – Salzburg, Liverpool, Monaco)
4: Shinji Kagawa (JPN – Dortmund, Manchester United)
4: Daizen Maeda (JPN – Celtic)
4: Ji-Sung Park (KOR – PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United)
3: Ali Daei (IRI – Bayern München, Hertha Berlin)
3: Kyogo Furuhashi (JPN – Celtic)
3: Keisuke Honda (JPN – CSKA Moskva)
3: Hee-Chan Hwang (KOR – Salzburg, Leipzig)
3: Daichi Kamada (JPN – Frankfurt, Lazio)

Most appearances by Asian nationals in UEFA club competition*

Vladimir Maminov made 76 UEFA competition appearances©Getty Images

90: Heung-Min Son (KOR – Leverkusen, Tottenham)
76: Vladimir Maminov (UZB – Lokomotiv Moskva)
75: Maksim Shatskikh (UZB – Dynamo Kyiv, Arsenal Kyiv)
70: Ji-Sung Park (KOR – PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United)
68: Takumi Minamino (JPN – Salzburg, Liverpool, Monaco)
56: Shinji Kagawa (JPN – Dortmund, Manchester United, PAOK)
55: Makoto Hasebe (JPN – Wolfsburg, Frankfurt)
51: Daichi Kamada (JPN – Frankfurt, Lazio, Crystal Palace)
50: Sardar Azmoun (IRI – Rubin, Rostov, Zenit, Leverkusen, Roma)
50: Yukinari Sugawara (JPN – AZ Alkmaar)

Top-scoring Asian nationals in UEFA club competition*

Watch Heung-Min Son highlights

32: Heung-Min Son (KOR – Leverkusen, Tottenham)
23: Maksim Shatskikh (UZB – Dynamo Kyiv, Arsenal Kyiv)
15: Takumi Minamino (JPN – Salzburg, Liverpool, Monaco)
14: Daichi Kamada (JPN – Frankfurt, Lazio)
13: Sardar Azmoun (IRI – Rubin, Rostov, Zenit, Leverkusen, Roma)
13: Mehdi Taremi (IRI – Porto, Inter, Olympiacos)
11: Hee-Chan Hwang (KOR – Salzburg, Leipzig)
11: Shinji Kagawa (JPN – Dortmund, Manchester United)
10: Bum-Kun Cha (KOR – Frankfurt, Leverkusen)
9: Alireza Jahanbakhsh (IRI - AZ Alkmaar, Feyenoord)

Notable firsts

Bum-Kun Cha with the UEFA Cup in 1988©Getty Images

First Asian player to feature in/win a UEFA club competition final
Bum-Kun Cha (KOR, Mönchengladbach 3-3agg Eintracht Frankfurt, Frankfurt win on away goals, 1979/80 UEFA Cup)

First Asian player to feature in a European Champion Clubs' Cup/UEFA Champions League final
Ji-Sung Park (KOR, Barcelona 3-1 Manchester United, 2010/11)

Nation-by-nation: Most appearances by Asian players in UEFA club competition*

China's Wu Lei in action for EspanyolGetty Images

Afghanistan – 8: Agim Meto (Besa, Flamurtari, Laç)
Bahrain – 11: Abdulla Yusuf Helal (Slavia Praha, Liberec)
Bangladesh – NONE
Bhutan – NONE
Brunei – NONE
Cambodia – NONE
PR China – 13: Wu Lei (Espanyol)
Chinese Taipei – NONE
East Timor – NONE
India – 1= Reg Pickett (Ipswich Town), Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (Stabæk)
Indonesia – 1: Yulianto Kurniawan (Luzern)
Iran – 50: Sardar Azmoun (Rubin, Rostov, Zenit, Leverkusen, Roma)
Iraq – 16: Brwa Nouri (Åtvidaberg, Östersund)
Japan – 68: Takumi Minamino (Salzburg, Liverpool, Monaco)
Jordan – 25: Musa Al-Taamari (APOEL)
Korea DPR – 10: Kwang-Ryong Pak (Basel, Vaduz)
Korea Republic – 90: Heung-Min Son (Leverkusen, Tottenham)
Kuwait – NONE

Kyrgyzstan's Gulzhigit Alykulov warms up with Neman GrodnoNurPhoto via Getty Images

Kyrgyzstan – 19: Gulzhigit Alykulov (Kairat Almaty, Neman Grodno)
Laos – NONE
Lebanon – 15: Bassel Jradi (Nordsjælland, Strømsgodset, Hajduk Split, Apollon Limassol)
Malaysia – NONE
Maldives – NONE
Mongolia – NONE
Myanmar – NONE
Nepal – NONE
Northern Mariana Islands – NONE
Oman – 6: Ali Al-Habsi (Lyn, Bolton Wanderers)
Pakistan – NONE
Philippines – NONE
Qatar – 2: Hussein Yasser (Braga)

Roma's Saud Abdulhamid; the first Saudi Arabian to play (and score) in UEFA club competitionAS Roma via Getty Images

Saudi Arabia – 4: Saud Abdulhamid (Roma)
Singapore – 2: Fandi Ahmad (Groningen)
Sri Lanka – NONE
Syria – 4: Ammar Ramadan (DAC Dunajská Streda)
Tajikistan – 14: Parvizdzhon Umarbaev (Lokomotiv Plovdiv, CSKA-Sofia)
Thailand – NONE
Turkmenistan – 14= Nazar Bayramov (Karvan Evlakh, Neftçi), Ruslan Mingazov (Skonto, Jablonec, Slavia Praha)
United Arab Emirates – 1: Hamid Al Kamali (Valletta)
Uzbekistan – 76: Vladimir Maminov (Lokomotiv Moskva)
Vietnam – NONE
Yemen – NONE

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*UEFA club competitions means European Champion Clubs' Cup/UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, European/South American Cup, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, UEFA Super Cup and UEFA Intertoto Cup