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UEFA announced on Thursday the top-3 shortlist for 2018/19 Player of the Year Award that included Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk. The winner will be named along with the UEFA Women's Player of the Year and UEFA Champions League positional award winners in Monaco on Thursday 29th August.
Lionel Messi had a successful season at an individual level as he was the top goal scorer of both LaLiga and Champions League. He scored a total of 51 goals and provided 19 assists across all competitions in 50 appearances. However, Barcelona weren't able to register a successful season as they secured only the league title and exited the Champions League after failing to defend a three-goal first-leg lead against Liverpool in the semi-final.
Virgil van Dijk was the backbone of the Liverpool defense throughout the 2018/19 season as the Merseyside club won their 6th Champions League title and finished the league campaign in the second place just a point shy of champions Manchester City. He was also named PFA Player of the year.
Cristiano Ronaldo went after new challenges in 2018 and joined Italian giants Juventus for a transfer fee of €100 million. The 34-year-old forward had an unimpressive first season with The Old Lady as he scored 28 goals and provided 10 assists in 43 appearances. Juventus were only able to win the Serie A title and exited both the Champions League and Coppa Italia at the quarter-final stage.
The top-3 shortlist hasn't been well received by many as they believe that other more deserving players should've made the cut. We shall now take a look at 3 players who could have been included in the top-3 shortlist for UEFA Player of the Year.
#3 Sadio Mane (Liverpool)
Sadio Mane was in fine form during the 2018/19 season as he scored 26 goals in 50 appearances. He was a vital member of the Liverpool squad that went on to win the Champions League title as he featured in all of Liverpool's European fixtures and found the net on 4 occasions.
Mane was usually deployed on the left-wing by Jurgen Klopp and used to initiate attacking moves from the flank. The 27-year-old winger played possessional football and used to find spaces in the attacking third successfully.
Mane also featured for Senegal in the Africa Cup of Nations held in Egypt and led his side to the final where they lost to Algeria. He found the net on 3 occasions during the tournament and played a pivotal role in the Senegalese team.
#2 Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
Mohamed Salah entered the 2018/19 season in great form as he was the top goalscorer in the Premier League in the previous season with 32 goals. He became the all-time top goalscorer in a 38-game Premier League campaign in the 2017/18 season.
During the 2018/19 season, he featured in every Premier League game for The Reds and scored 22 goals in the league campaign to once again become the league's top goalscorer along with teammate Mane and Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
He played 12 Champions League matches and registered five goals during the season including a goal in the final against Tottenham. In total, he scored 27 goals throughout the season across all competitions in 52 appearances.
#1 Alisson Becker (Liverpool)
The exclusion of Liverpool goalkeeper, Alisson Becker from the top-3 shortlist shocked many as he had a spectacular season at the Merseyside club. He was signed by the club in July 2018 from AS Roma for a fee of £66.8 million that made him the most expensive goalkeeper of all time.
He featured in all 38 games and kept 21 clean sheets for the Reds during the 2018/19 Premier League season and was adjudged the best goalkeeper of the league. In the Champions League, he played all 13 games for Liverpool and kept 6 clean sheets. He was also included in the Champions League squad of the season along with Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
He went on to play a pivotal role for Brazil in their Copa America triumph where he made 6 appearances and conceded only one goal throughout the tournament. He was yet again included in the team of the tournament and won the Best goalkeeper award for his impressive performances.
