Awards 2001

-- 04th January 2002 --

Foshimeynaa Maalan, Dharubaaruge

Club Valencia's hit man Ali-Shiham (Huraa Ayya) was awarded with two of the most prestigious awards a Maldivian soccer player would dream to accomplish. He had been voted Maldivian Footballer of the year 2001, his second in his career. Earlier he crowned this challenging award when he was as a Hurriyya player, the club of his home island of Male' Atoll Huraa, in 1999. With his irresistible form of netting goals this season he won the Haveeru's "Golden Boot" award too. He netted 24 goals, one against Cambodia in a World Cup qualifying Asia-group phase. The awards were given by Maldives leading newspaper "Haveeru" at a ceremony held Friday at Dharubaaruge coinciding with the newspaper's 23rd anniversary. The trophy for the footballer with a financial award of MRF 15000/- was presented to Ayya by (FAM) General Secretary Ibrahim Ismail. "Golden Boot" was handed to Ayya by the current Maldivian National team's head coach Joseph Jankech from Slovakia. Ali-Shiham was adjudged as the Man-of-tournament in both Cup Winners' Cup and President of Maldives Invitation Soccer (POMIS) Cup in 2001. He won the title for 2001 by 437 points from a panel of judges that included sports journalists, commentators, managers and Maldives top coaches.