Messi, Ronaldo Miss Out As UEFA Releases Top Three Contenders For Player Of The Year Award
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s dominance in the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year Award have again suffered another hitch as Chelsea’s Jorginho, Ngolo Kante and Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne have made it to the last three.
In 2020, the duo lost out as Bayern Munich forward Robert Lewandowski, Kevin De Bruyne and Manuel Neuer (Bayern) were the first, second and third respectively.
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In the fresh list, UEFA said the three shortlisted players were selected by a jury composed of 24 coaches of the national teams which participated in this summer’s UEFA EURO 2020, together with 80 coaches of the clubs which played in the group stages of the 2020/21 UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.
Fifty-five journalists from each of UEFA’s 55 member associations, selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) group, were also part of the jury.
According to the football body, the award winners would be announced at the 2021/22 UEFA Champions’ League group stage draw ceremony.
The ceremony is expected to take place on Thursday 26 August at the Haliç Congress Center in Istanbul, Turkey.
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UEFA also said it will “honour the coaches who have had the biggest impact over the previous season with the UEFA Men’s Coach of the Year and UEFA Women’s Coach of the Year Awards.”
The coaches who made it to the final three were Josep Guardiola (Spain – Manchester City FC), Roberto Mancini (Italy – Italian men’s national team) and Thomas Tuchel (Germany – Chelsea FC).
In the women category, Barcelona FC dominated the list with Jennifer HERMOSO (Spain – FC Barcelona), Lieke MARTENS (Netherlands – FC Barcelona) and Alexia Putellas (Spain – FC Barcelona) making the list.
The three female coach finalists were Lluís Cortes (Spain – FC Barcelona), Peter Gerhardsson (Sweden – Swedish women’s national team) and Emma Hayes (England – Chelsea FC Women).
