Breaking: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Virgil van Dijk to win UEFA Player of the Year award

Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk have been nominated for the 2018/19 UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award.

UEFA Player of the Year award is for players in Europe, irrespective of nationality who have been judged in regard to their performances over the whole season in all competitions – both domestically and internationally – (at either club, or national team level).

The winner will be named – along with the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year and UEFA Champions League positional award winners – during the group stage draw in Monaco on Thursday 29 August while the UEFA Europa League Player of the Season will be announced the following day.

The shortlist of the above three players was selected by a jury comprising of the 80 coaches of the clubs that participated in the group stages of the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League (32) and UEFA Europa League (48), along with 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) group, one from each of UEFA’s member associations.

Jury members chose their top three players, with the first receiving five points, the second three and the third one. Coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own team.

Here is the three-man shortlist:

Lionel Messi (Barcelona and Argentina)
The top goalscorer in the UEFA Champions League and the European Golden Shoe winner picked up his tenth Liga title. 

Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus and Portugal)
The UEFA Nations League winner and top goalscorer at the finals also scooped his first Serie A title. 

Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool and Netherlands)
The final man of the match for the UEFA Champions League winners also reached the UEFA Nations League showpiece

Here are the rest top ten and their points:

4. Alisson Becker (Liverpool & Brazil) – 57 points

5. Sadio Mané (Liverpool & Senegal) – 51 points

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6. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool & Egypt) – 49 points

7. Eden Hazard (Chelsea/Real Madrid & Belgium) – 38 points

8. Matthijs de Ligt (Ajax/Juventus & Netherlands) – 27 points

9. Frenkie de Jong (Ajax/Barcelona & Netherlands) – 27 points

10. Raheem Sterling (Manchester City & England) – 12 points

The other award shortlists:

Goalkeeper of the Season: Alisson Becker, Hugo Lloris, Marc-André ter Stegen

Defender of the Season: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Matthijs de Ligt, Virgil van Dijk

Midfielder of the Season: Frenkie de Jong, Christian Eriksen, Jordan Henderson

Forward of the Season: Sadio Mané, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo

Women’s Player of the Year: Lucy Bronze, Ada Hegerberg, Amandine Henry

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Europa League Player of the Season: Olivier Giroud, Eden Hazard, Luka Jović