After every season, UEFA gives out a litany of awards honoring the best performers. Honors like the goalkeeper of the season, forward of the season and coach of the season are handed out to the elite men’s and women’s players/coaches. The UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award turns the most heads as it is essentially a less glorified Ballon d’Or award.
The 80 coaches who took part in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League along with 55 top journalists are given the mantle of responsibility to vote for their top three players. Their first choice receives five points, second receives three and third-best pick receives one point.
After all of the votes are tallied together the three players with the highest number of points become the nominees for their respective award. For the first time in over 10 years, neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo qualified for a top-three spot for the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year short list.
De Bruyne, Lewandowski or Neuer for UEFA Men's Player of the Year?
Who is your Women's Player of the Year?
Men's Coach of the Year?
Women's Coach of the Year?See the nominees:
— UEFA (@UEFA) September 23, 2020
UEFA revealed that Messi and Neymar just missed out as they tied for fourth in voting. Meanwhile, Ronaldo didn’t even come close. He finished in 10th behind Joshua Kimmich, Thiago Alcántara, Kylian Mbappé and Thomas Müller. Tough break for the Juventus star. I guess that’s what happens when an Italian champion can’t get past the Round of 16.
If Robert Lewandowski doesn’t win the award then the entire country of Poland will riot. His absurd tally of 15 goals in 10 Champions League matches was one of the most incredible runs of scoring. He also did unspeakable things to opponents in the Bundesliga with 34 goals in 31 appearances. The Polish protagonist was simply unstoppable and is the most deserving of the award.
Other notable nominees are Lucy Bronze, Pernille Harder and Wendie Renard for the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year. The three finalists for Men’s Coach of the Year are Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool), Hansi Flick (Bayern Munich) and Julian Nagelsmann (RB Leipzig). The Women’s Coach of the Year finalists are Lluis Cortes (Barcelona), Stephan Lerch (Wolfsburg) and Jean-Luc Vasseur (Lyon).
UEFA will announce the winners on Oct. 1 during the Champions League group-stage draw.
