We all love to rank things, right? Here, we list the top 10 football teams in Asia according to the Opta Power Rankings.
Want to know who the best teams in the world are? Opta Analyst has you covered.
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to nearly 13,500 domestic men’s football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
These Opta Power Rankings are updated daily and currently rank teams from 183 different countries and 413 unique domestic leagues, providing a truly global rating system in men’s football.
We wanted to look at the rankings continent by continent, though. So, here is the list of the top-10 ranked football clubs in Asia.
Click below for a full explanation on how the Opta Power Rankings are calculated.Opta Power Rankings Explained
10. Johor Darul Ta’Zim | Rating: 79.5 | Global Ranking: 253
The reigning Malaysian Super League champions are a dominant force in their country, with the 2024-25 title their 11th in a row. This season saw them drop just two points on the way to the title, winning 23 of their 24 league games (D1 L0).
They performed well in the AFC Champions League group stage, defeated in just one of their seven matches before losing out to Thailand’s Buriram United in the round of 16 over two legs.
They are the top-ranked Malaysian side in the Opta Power Rankings, and by quite some distance. Ranked 253rd at the time of writing, they are the only team from Malaysia inside the top 1,000 places – and are 878 places above second-placed Selangor.
9. Vissel Kobe | Rating: 80.9 | Global Ranking: 198
Vissel Kobe are the reigning J1 League champions, with their 2024 title coming a year after their first ever top-flight title in Japan in 2023.
The 2025 campaign hasn’t gone so well: they are in sixth place with a 10-point gap to leaders Kashima Antlers.
A disappointing exit in the last 16 of the 2024-25 AFC Champions League to South Korean side Gwangju means that they only currently rank as the ninth best Asian men’s club side in the Opta Power Rankings.
8. Shabab Al Ahli | Rating: 80.9 | Global Ranking: 192
Shabab Al Ahli won the UAE Pro League by 12 points in 2024-25, helping them become the leading side from the UAE in the Opta Power Rankings, and the eighth-highest club side in Asian football overall.
In their 2024-25 title-winning season, they lost just once but were unable to rise higher in the rankings following a poor AFC Champions League campaign which saw them knocked out in the qualification play-off round to Qatari side Al-Gharafa SC. They’ll hope to progress much deeper in the competition in 2025-26.
7. Kawasaki Frontale | Rating: 81.2 | Global Ranking: 181
After four J1 League titles in five years between 2017 and 2021, Kawasaki Frontale were the team to beat in Japan. However, a second-place finish in 2022 has been followed by back-to-back eighth-place finishes in the competition, and the 2025 season isn’t going much better.
At the time of writing, Kawasaki Frontale are seventh after 18 games of the 2025 campaign and look set to miss out on qualification for the AFC Champions League once again.
6. Sanfreece Hiroshima | Rating: 81.2 | Global Ranking: 180
Sanfreece Hiroshima were runners-up in last season’s J1 League, losing out on the title by four points to Vissel Kobe. That second-place finish means that they have ended each of the last three seasons inside the top three of the Japanese top flight.
While their title challenge this season has faltered slightly – they are currently fifth, eight points off leaders Kashima Antlers – they are well-placed to challenge for AFC Champions League qualification.
They reached the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League last season before an unfortunate elimination to Lion City Sailors of Singapore. After winning the first leg 6-1, they were deemed to have fielded an ineligible player, and their opponents were given a 3-0 victory.
5. Kashima Antlers | Rating: 81.7 | Global Ranking: 156
Kashima Antlers lead the 2025 J1 League by six points and have a game in hand on their rivals as they look to secure their first Japanese top-flight league title since 2016.
Overall, Kashima are Japan’s most successful club side since the introduction of professional football in the country in 1993, winning a record eight J1 League titles and the J.League Cup six times – also more than any other club.
Kashima are one of only two clubs to have competed in Japan’s professional top-flight football every year since its inception, alongside Yokohama F. Marinos.
4. Al Ahli | Rating: 82.5 | Global Ranking: 134
Al Ahli secured their first AFC Champions League title in 2024-25 following a 2-0 victory over Kawasaki Frontale. That victory was most welcome for the club following what was a rather disappointing Saudi Pro League campaign.
They could only finish fifth in the Saudi league last season, two places lower than in the previous season, and 16 points off league winners Al Ittihad.
3. Al Ittihad | Rating: 82.7 | Global Ranking: 128
Al Ittihad powered to their 10th Saudi Pro League title in 2024-25, storming past Al Hilal in the second half of the season to win the league by eight points. Much of their success came thanks to the goals of captain Karim Benzema, who scored 21 times in the competition.
They also secured the Saudi Kings Cup with a 3-1 victory over Al Qadsiah in the final, and only lost three of their 39 competitive matches across all competitions in 2024-25, winning 30 of them.
Al Ittihad have two AFC Champions League titles to their name, having won them in consecutive years in 2004 and 2005.
2. Al Nassr | Rating: 83.5 | Global Ranking: 106
Thanks to the draw of Cristiano Ronaldo, Al Nassr have become arguably the world’s best-known Asian football club. The Portuguese legend joined them in 2023 but has only won one title at the club – the 2023 Arab Club Championship. Ronaldo finished the 2024-25 season as the top scorer in the Saudi top flight with 25 goals.
The 2024-25 campaign was eventually a season of disappointment overall, though, as they came close to securing titles but ended trophyless. They finished third in the Saudi Pro League, were the runners-up in the Saudi Super Cup and were knocked out in the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League by Japanese side Kawasaki Frontale.
1. Al Hilal | Rating: 85.3 | Global Ranking: 76
Al Hilal are currently the highest-ranked club in Asian football according to the Opta Power Rankings, and the only team from the AFC confederation inside the overall top 100.
Although the Saudi Super Cup was their only honour in 2024-25, they came close to winning multiple trophies – finishing second in the Saudi League, losing in the Saudi Kings Cup quarter-finals and reaching the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League.
Al Hilal were the very first winners of the Saudi Premier League when it came into existence in the 1976–77 season, and have won 19 overall, nearly twice as many as any other team in the competition’s history. They have also racked up four Asian Club Championship/AFC Champions League titles – more than any other team – and last won it in 2021.
Now the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup awaits, giving Al Hilal the opportunity to move further up the rankings and challenge themselves against some of the best sides in world football.
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Opta Power Rankings: The Top 10 Football Teams in Asia Opta Analyst.
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