AFC Asian Cup records and statistics

This is a list of records and statistics of the AFC Asian Cup.

General statistics by tournament

Source:

Year

Host

Winners

Winning coach

Top scorer

Best player award

1956

Hong Kong, China|1955fb|KOR|1949

Debut of national teams

As of 2024, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Laos, Macau, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Brunei, Timor-Leste and Mongolia are yet to make their debut in the contest.

Overall team records

In this ranking 3 points are awarded for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss. As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws. Teams are ranked by total points, then by goal difference, then by goals scored.

Rank	Team
1		15	74	45	20	9	143	55	+88	155
2		15	73	38	19	16	117	74	+43	133
3		10	53	33	12	8	104	52	+52	111
4		11	52	23	15	14	74	50	+24	84
5		13	59	23	15	21	88	66	+22	84
6		11	46	19	12	15	66	52	+14	69
7		10	42	18	7	17	54	52	+2	61
8		11	48	16	13	19	47	64	−17	61
9		10	42	15	10	17	47	51	−4	55
10		8	33	15	7	11	49	50	−1	52
11		5	26	15	5	6	49	17	+32	50
12		5	22	10	7	5	30	18	+12	37
13		7	25	8	5	12	19	30	−11	29
14		4	13	9	0	4	28	15	+13	27
15		7	27	7	6	14	33	44	−11	27
16		8	28	3	11	14	22	54	−32	20
17		5	16	3	5	8	12	20	−8	14
18		5	18	3	2	13	15	40	−25	11
19		5	16	3	2	11	13	38	−25	11
20		5	16	3	1	12	12	33	−21	10
21		5	18	2	3	13	21	43	−22	9
22		1	4	2	1	1	5	4	+1	7
23		4	12	1	4	7	10	28	−18	7
24		3	9	1	3	5	8	17	−9	6
25		3	10	1	3	6	7	21	−14	6
26		1	5	1	2	2	3	4	−1	5
27		2	7	1	2	4	5	12	−7	5
28		1	4	1	1	2	3	4	−1	4
29		1	5	1	1	3	8	10	−2	4
30		2	7	1	1	5	7	12	−5	4
31		4	13	0	3	10	10	30	−20	3
32		2	6	0	1	5	7	16	−9	1
33		1	3	0	0	3	1	7	−6	0
34		1	2	0	0	2	0	9	−9	0
35		1	3	0	0	3	0	10	−10	0
36		1	4	0	0	4	2	17	−15	0

Vietnam consist of South Vietnam.

Teams reaching the top four

The first four editions only had four or five teams and played in one single group. Since 1972, the final tournament has introduced the knockout stage. Since 2019, no third place play-off has been played.
Since 2023, losing semi-finalists are ranked by the AFC based on goal difference in the semi-finals.
Bold text denotes team was host country.

Team	Champions	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place	Semi-finalist	Top 4 total
	4	1		1		6
	3	3				6
	3		5	1	1	10
	2	4	4		1	11
	2					2
	1	2	1			4
	1	1	1	1		4
	1	1				2
	1			2		3
		2	2	2		6
		1	1	1	1	4
		1				1
		1				1
		1				1
			1	1		2
			1	1		2
			1			1
				2		2
				1		1
				1		1
				1		1
				1		1

Comprehensive team results by tournament

;Legend

– Champions
– Runners-up
– Third place
– Fourth place
– Semi-finals
QF – Quarter-finals
R16 – Round of 16
GS – Group stage
Q – Qualified for upcoming tournament
— Qualified but withdrew / Disqualified after qualification
— Did not qualify
— Did not enter / Withdrew from the Asian Cup
— Hosts

For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament are shown.

Results of host nations

Year	Host nation	Finish
1956		Third place
1960		Champions
1964		Champions
1968		Champions
1972		Third place
1976		Champions
1980		Champions
1984		Group stage
1988		Group stage
1992		Champions
1996		Runners-up
2000		Group stage
2004		Runners-up
2007		Group stage
2007		Group stage
2007		Group stage
2007		Quarter-finals
2011		Quarter-finals
2015		Champions
2019		Semi-finals
2023		Champions
2027		TBD

Results of defending finalists

! Year
! Defending champions
! Finish
! Defending runners-up
! Finish

Other records

Only three teams have won the tournament in their debut appearances:
* South Korea
* Iran
* Saudi Arabia
Iran hold the record for the most games played, with 74.
Only Iran have won three consecutive AFC Asian Cup.

Individual records

Most Valuable Player

Source:

Year	Player
1956	rowspan=3
1960	-
1964	-
1968	Ba Pu
1972	Ebrahim Ashtiani
1976	Ali Parvin
1980
1984	Jia Xiuquan
1988	Kim Joo-sung
1992	Kazuyoshi Miura
1996	Khodadad Azizi
2000	Hiroshi Nanami
2004	Shunsuke Nakamura
2007	Younis Mahmoud
2011	Keisuke Honda
2015	Massimo Luongo
2019	Almoez Ali
2023	Akram Afif

Overall top goalscorers

Players in bold are still active at international level.

Rank	Player	Country	Years	Goals
1	Ali Daei		1996, 2000, 2004	14
2	Almoez Ali		2019, 2023	11
3	Lee Dong-gook		2000, 2004, 2007	10
4	Naohiro Takahara		2000, 2007	9
4	Ali Mabkhout		2015, 2019, 2023	9
4	Akram Afif		2019, 2023	9
7	Jasem Al-Huwaidi		1996, 2000	8
7	Younis Mahmoud		2004, 2007, 2011, 2015	8
7	Sardar Azmoun		2015, 2019, 2023	8
10	Hossein Kalani		1968, 1972	7
10	Faisal Al-Dakhil		1976, 1980, 1984	7
10	Behtash Fariba		1980	7
10	Choi Soon-ho		1980	7
10	Son Heung-min		2011, 2015, 2019, 2023	7
15	Yasser Al-Qahtani		2004, 2007, 2011	6
15	Alexander Geynrikh		2004, 2007, 2011	6
15	Tim Cahill		2007, 2011, 2015	6
15	Ahmed Khalil		2011, 2015, 2019	6
15	Aymen Hussein		2019, 2023	6
15	Mehdi Taremi		2019, 2023	6
22	Woo Sang-kwon		1956, 1960	5
22	Nahum Stelmach		1956, 1960, 1964	5
22	Ali Jabbari		1968, 1972	5
22	Chung Hae-won		1980, 1988	5
22	Hwang Sun-hong		1988, 1996	5
22	Akinori Nishizawa		2000	5
22	Shao Jiayi		2000, 2004, 2007	5
22	Ali Karimi		2000, 2004, 2007	5
22	A'ala Hubail		2004, 2007	5
22	Ismail Abdullatif		2007, 2011, 2015	5
22	Koo Ja-cheol		2011, 2015, 2019	5
22	Hassan Al-Haydos		2011, 2015, 2019, 2023	5

Top goalscorers in one tournament

Players in bold are still active at international level.

Goals	Player	Representing	Year	Ref.
9	Almoez Ali		2019
8	Ali Daei		1996
8	Akram Afif		2023
7	Behtash Fariba		1980
7	Choi Soon-ho		1980
6	Lee Dong-gook		2000
6	Aymen Hussein		2023
5	Hossein Kalani		1972
5	Ali Karimi		2004
5	A'ala Hubail		2004
5	Koo Ja-cheol		2011
5	Ali Mabkhout		2015

Most tournament appearances

The table lists the players who have appeared in four or more different tournaments.

Tournaments	Player	Years
5	Ignatiy Nesterov	2004, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019
4	Adnan Al-Talyani	1984, 1988, 1992, 1996
4	Li Ming	1992, 1996, 2000, 2004
4	Mehdi Mahdavikia	1996, 2000, 2004, 2007
4	Kim Yong-dae	2000, 2004, 2007, 2011
4	Javad Nekounam	2004, 2007, 2011, 2015
4	Younis Mahmoud	2004, 2007, 2011, 2015
4	Yasuhito Endō	2004, 2007, 2011, 2015
4	Saud Kariri	2004, 2007, 2011, 2015
4	Bilal Mohammed	2004, 2007, 2011, 2015
4	Server Djeparov	2004, 2007, 2011, 2015
4	Timur Kapadze	2004, 2007, 2011, 2015
4	Zheng Zhi	2004, 2007, 2015, 2019
4	Ahmed Kano	2004, 2007, 2015, 2019
4	Amer Shafi	2004, 2011, 2015, 2019
4	Ismail Matar	2004, 2007, 2011, 2019
4	Marat Bikmaev	2004, 2007, 2011, 2019
4	Masoud Shojaei	2007, 2011, 2015, 2019
4	Waleed Abdullah	2007, 2011, 2015, 2019
4	Anzur Ismailov	2007, 2011, 2015, 2019
4	Zhang Linpeng	2011, 2015, 2019, 2023
4	Ehsan Hajsafi	2011, 2015, 2019, 2023
4	Karim Ansarifard	2011, 2015, 2019, 2023
4	Son Heung-min	2011, 2015, 2019, 2023
4	Hassan Al-Haydos	2011, 2015, 2019, 2023
4	Saad Al-Sheeb	2011, 2015, 2019, 2023

Younis Mahmoud is the only player in the history of the tournament to score a goal in four separate tournaments.
Source:

Fastest goals scored from kick-off

Only three goals in the history of the tournament have been scored in the first minute of their respective games.

Ali Mabkhout at the 2015 edition in 14 seconds
Fathi Kameel at the 1976 edition in 20 seconds
Xie Yuxin at the 1992 edition in 20 seconds

Source:

Match records

Highest attendance

The highest ever attendance officially recorded was of 112,000 during the 1976 AFC Asian Cup final between Iran and Kuwait.

Awards

Fair play award

First awarded in 1984

Year	Winner
1984
1988	Not awarded
1992	Not awarded
1996
2000
2004
2007
2011
2015
2019
2023