TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Reigning AFC Player of the Year Nasser Al Shamrani mixes controversy with clinical finishing like no other in Asian soccer.
On Wednesday he made the most of the Court of Arbitration for Sport's decision to temporarily stay his eight-match ban for spitting and head butting an opponent to score the opener in Al Hilal's 2-0 win over Iranians Foolad in the AFC Champions League.
His diving header was his 26th in the tournament, which took him clear of former South Korean international Lee Dong-gook in the Champions League all-time scorer charts.
His feat, though, was marked with little fanfare by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), who celebrated Lee pulling level last month with a profile of the Jeonbuk striker, but remain clearly irked by the Saudi's failure to accept their punishment.
The ban, six for clearly spitting at Western Sydney Wanderers Matthew Spiranovic and two for head-butting, were the minimum Al Shamrani could have received after the incident following the 1-0 aggregate defeat in the November final.
The AFC attempted to delay the announcement of the verdict as they presented Al Shamrani with their player of the year award weeks later following his 10 goals in the Champions League but a Yemen official leaked the news.
Al Shamrani bristled at the awards ceremony when asked if he felt remorse about the incident and claimed it was a normal reaction to being provoked by the Sydney defender, who was not charged.
An appeal to the AFC failed but the regional body allowed him to compete in the Asian Cup with his country in January after only restricting the ban to Champions Leaguematches.
A return to Australia in January was always likely to end in more controversy, however.
He was seen in a altercation with a fan prior to the 4-1 loss in a warm-up match in Geelong and was ruled out of the 16-team tournament without featuring citing anabdominal injury.
He returned this year with six goals in domestic action as he lodged an appeal against his AFC ban to CAS, who deemed last month he was eligible to play in the Champions League before the verdict on April 21.
Foolad were the unfortunate next opponents and the 31-year-old showed all his prowess in skippering the side to a 2-0 success after his 46th minute opener broke the Iranian's spirit.
Foolad's last 16 hopes look all but over as they trail Al Hilal and Qatar's Al Sadd by four points with only two games to go in Group C.
Al Shamrani celebrated the goal by lifting his shirt to reveal a drawn message of someone making a call which he replicated with his hand but escaped punishment from the referee.
He will be hoping for similar leniency from CAS.
