The J.League awarded Ayumu Seko of Cerezo Osaka the Best Young Player award for the 2020 season.
The 20-year-old defender, who had previously received the Levain Cup’s New Hero award, becomes the fourth player in history to land two accolades in the same year.
Seko helped Cerezo to a fourth place finish in the league this season with 27 appearances. He has also been called up to Japan U23 squad for a training camp from 22 to 26 December, and is expected to play a key role in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
The Best Young Player award is presented to players under the age of 21 who has played at least 17 J1 games in a season. Recent winners are Takuma Asano (Sanfrecce Hiroshima, 2015), Yosuke Ideguchi (Gamba Osaka, 2016), Yuta Nakayama (Kashiwa Reysol, 2017), Hiroki Abe (Kashima Antlers, 2018) and Ao Tanaka (Kawasaki Frontale, 2019). The last Cerezo player to have received the award was Takumi Minamino back in 2013.
CoolJapan Soccer 