China's Sun Wen has become the first women to be nominated for the the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Annual Awards.

As captain of the Chinese women's team which was beaten in a penalty shoot-out against the hosts the United States in the women 's World Cup final last year, Sun truly sparkled and this earned her the right to be nominated for the prestigious award, Kuala Lumpur-based AFC said in a statement Monday.

Sun, the best player at the Women's World Cup and winner of the "Golden Shoe" for being the top scorer in the tournament, joins Iran's Ali Daei, Masahi Nakayama of Japan, Hwang Sun Hong of South Korea, Kuwait's Bashar Abdullah and Hidetoshi Nakata in the list of nominees for the AFC Annual Awards '99, to be held in Beirut, Lebanon on April 6, it said.

The Chinese women's World Cup team also received nominations for the Asian Team of the Year and the Asian Women's Team of the Year awards, it said.

Also winning a nomination is China's women's World Cup coach Ma Yunan.