The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on Tuesday launched a vote to predict who will deliver an excellent performance at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Of the six candidates, Chinese striker Wei Shihao leads with a huge advantage.

The six players are: Wei Shihao from China, Nguyen Quang Hai from Vietnam, Hwang Ui-jo from South Korea, Kim Yu-song from the DPRK, Mohamed Al Shamsi from UAE and Ikromjon Alibaev from Uzbekistan.

The AFC picked the six players based on their performances at the 2018 Asian Games and made comments on everyone. "The 23-year-old from Anhui scored in each of China's four games in Indonesia, continuing on from a fine individual campaign at the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship in January. Having broken into the senior national team at the end of 2017, Wei continues to go from strength to strength and can be expected to be in Marcello Lippi's reckoning for UAE 2019," read the comment for Wei.

By 18:33, Thursday (Beijing time), Wei Shihao led all six players by receiving 88 percent of the votes.

Although the opinion of him in China is mixed, Wei has impressed the Asian soccer world with his great skill in the games. He is also the only member of China's U23 team that joined the latest national squad in Qatar.

Team China will play warm-up games with Qatar and Bahrain. Considering the similarity in climate between Qatar and the UAE, it can be said that Team China has entered the "Asian Cup time". The tournament will begin from January 5 to February 1, 2019. China is in Group C with South Korea, the Philippines and Kyrgyzstan.

(Top picture: Wei Shihao shoots in the game between China and the UAE at the 2018 Asian Games. /VCG Photo)