Real Madrid and European soccer are an ever-lasting story of dominance in the last decade.
Apart from winning five out of the last eight UEFA Champions Leagues and asserting their royalty with a 14th title last season, los Blancos have now become the only club to have three different players win UEFA Men’s Player of The Year.
Real Madrid is the 1st & only club to have three different UEFA Player of the Year winners;
Cristiano Ronaldo
Luka Modric
Karim Benzema#UEFAawards|#ChampionsLeague| #UCL pic.twitter.com/MmLN3f5L6Q— #ChampionsLeague (@alimo_philip) August 25, 2022
Talk about Galacticos.
Every Real Madrid UEFA Player of The Year
Karim Benzema (2021-22)
Karim Benzema is the most recent player to be given the award.
Benzema was named UEFA Men’s Player of The Year for the 2021-22 season on Thursday’s award gala event in Istanbul.
¡@Benzema, premio al Jugador del Año de la UEFA!
Félicitations, Karim !#UEFAawards | #UCLdraw pic.twitter.com/Ch9esRvIMj— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadrid) August 25, 2022
The Frenchman scored 44 goals and provided 15 assists in 46 games, winning the Spanish Super Cup, LaLiga and Champions League along the way.
Can he double up on the award after the 2022-23 season?
Luka Modrić (2017-18)
Luka Modrić was given the award after a phenomenal season with Real Madrid and a historic run with Croatia in the 2018 World Cup.
With Real Madrid, the Croatian won the Spanish Super Cup, Club World Cup and was a big part in Real Madrid’s Champions League three-peat.
Champions League winner
World Cup Golden Ball
World Cup Finalist
UEFA Player of the Year
FIFA Player of the YearWhat a season for Luka Modrić. pic.twitter.com/m2wBM7j4Z9— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) September 24, 2018
The World Cup, though, was what really set the player’s year apart from the others.
The legendary midfielder guided Croatia to its first World Cup final, scoring two goals and providing one assist along the way.
:
After 10 years of Messi-Ronaldo dominance, Luka Modric broke the cycle.He won a third straight Champions League with Real Madrid and the World Cup Golden Ball as Croatia reached the 2018 final ✨
(via @FIFAWorldCup)pic.twitter.com/e58cCQqcZD
— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 29, 2021
At 37 years old, Luka finished fifth in this year’s UEFA POTY voting list.
Cristiano Ronaldo (2013-14, 2015-16, 2016-17)
Cristiano Ronaldo was the first player to ever win the award whilst playing at Real Madrid.
After not winning the award after five years at the club, the Portuguese was named Player of The Year in three of his next four seasons, becoming the player with the most awards in history (he was also UEFA Club Footballer Of The Year with Manchester United in 2008)
Cristiano Ronaldo with all of his UEFA Player of the Year awards.
He has won it 4 times (a record).20082014⚪️2016⚪️2017⚪️ pic.twitter.com/S6KG051JSz
— The CR7 Timeline. (@TimelineCR7) August 26, 2022
Ronaldo won the Champions League in every one of the seasons — being top scorer in all of the tournaments — and won the Euros in 2016.
In 2016, Cristiano Ronaldo finished the year with more trophies (4) than games lost (3). INSANE! pic.twitter.com/iARsVObTJF
— The CR7 Timeline. (@TimelineCR7) August 20, 2022
A Ballon d’Or to cap off his legendary season?
All the players (before Benzema) who won the UEFA award in this list, were awarded with the Ballon d’Or the same year
Will this be this case with Benzema?
1️⃣ day, 1️⃣ nominee
Today, Karim Benzema #ballondor pic.twitter.com/i9WpjtkUaS— Ballon d'Or #ballondor (@francefootball) August 24, 2022
