The UEFA Player Of the Year award recognises the best players, irrespective of nationality, playing for a club within the territory of a UEFA member association during the past season. Players are judged on their performances in all competitions – domestic, continental and international. 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 30th August 2018.
The three-man shortlist for this year are,
Luka Modrić (Real Madrid and Croatia)
A UEFA Champions League winner, a FIFA World Cup runner-up and recipient of the FIFA Golden Ball.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Juventus and Portugal)
A UEFA Champions League winner for a record fifth time and UEFA Champions League top scorer for the sixth campaign running.
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool and Egypt)
A UEFA Champions League runner-up and a multiple record breaker in his first term at Liverpool.
The shortlist of three players was selected by a jury comprising the 80 coaches of the clubs that participated in the group stages of the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League (32) and UEFA Europa League (48), along with 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) group, representing 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.
The women’s award will go to either Pernille Harder (Denmark and Wolfsburg), Ada Hegerberg (Norway and Lyon) or Amandine Henry (France and Lyon).
Goalkeeper of the Season: Alisson Becker, Gianluigi Buffon, Keylor Navas
Defender of the Season: Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Raphaël Varane
Midfielder of the Season: Kevin De Bruyne, Toni Kroos, Luka Modrić
Forward of the Season: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Mohamed Salah
Women’s Player of the Year: Pernille Harder, Ada Hegerberg, Amandine Henry
Europa League Player of the Season: Diego Godín, Antoine Griezmann, Dimitri Payet
