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The draws for the UEFA Champions League group stage would take place at the Grimaldi form in Monaco France. It will also be the venue where the 2018 UEFA club awards would be decided, with the trio of Mo Salah, Luka Modric and Cristiano Ronaldo all vying for the top honour of being crowned the UEFA Men's Player of the Year.
The award is the most prestigious on the night and has understandably generated interest among fans, with all three men being deserved winners.
Mo Salah had one of the most extraordinary debut seasons in footballing history, as his 44 goals helped guide Liverpool to a Champions League runner-up spot and a 4th place finish in the league. He also won the Premier League Golden Boot with 32 goals, breaking a long-standing record for most goals in a 38-game season in the process, which previously stood at 31. Salah's performance fittingly saw him named as both the PFA and PWA Player of the Year.
Luka Modric was exceptional as always. For so long the silent controller of Real Madrid's midfield, the 32-year-old has been one of the most important components of Real Madrid's recent successes, displaying a high level of consistency in controlling the tempo of games from midfield since his 2012 transfer from Tottenham. Although he has largely not gotten the credits his immense talents deserve as Ronaldo hugged most of the headlines.
His performances came to the fore at the last World Cup, where he was the star of the show as unfancied Croatia went all the way to the final where they bowed to eventual winners France in a 4-2 loss. Modric skippered his country through it all, providing inspiration on and off the field, and his efforts were duly rewarded as he was named the Golden Ball winner as the player of the tournament.
Ronaldo had another exceptional season in Real Madrid's colors on the continent despite relatively underperforming in La Liga. His 15 goals (including a spectacular overhead kick in the 3-0 quarter-final victory over Juventus which was voted as the UEFA Goal of the season), won him the UCL Golden Boot for the sixth consecutive season, and he also set a record of being the first man in history to score in 11 consecutive Champions League matches.
He starred in the World Cup for Portugal, with his highlight performance coming in his nation's opening day 3-3 draw with 2010 champions Spain, where Ronaldo scored a hat-trick to draw level with Ferenc Puskas on 84 international goals, and a header four days later in a 1-0 victory over Morocco made him the highest scoring European on the international scene, and second highest of all time, only behind Iran's Ali Daei.
Ronaldo is in the forerunning to win the award for the third consecutive season, and fourth time overall. However, some fans and pundits believe that Ronaldo does not deserve to win the award.
There is never one side to a story, and every pro also has its cons. Therefore, despite there being compelling reasons why Ronaldo should be named UEFA Men's Player of the Year, there are also reasons against it. Here are three justifications for Ronaldo not being named UEFA Men's Player of the Year.
#3 The bookmakers say he is not the favourite
Contrary to public opinion, Ronaldo is not the favourite to win the award, at least in the eyes of the bookmakers, who have installed World Cup Golden Ball winner Luka Modric as the overwhelming favourite to win the award ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Mo Salah.
Luka Modric is priced at 11/10 by renowned bookmakers Betfair, while former teammate and Champions League record goalscorer Cristiano Ronaldo is in second place with odds of 6/4. Liverpool star Mo Salah who became both the first African and first Premier League player to be nominated for the award after his record-breaking 44-goal debut season is third most likely to win the award, with punters having odds of 9/2 to stake on.
Although bookmakers' favourites sometimes fail to reflect the outcome of football matches, more often than not they are usually spot on when it comes to individual awarding, as Ronaldo himself knows, having been favourite each time he won his awards.
The bookmakers believe that Ronaldo is not the favourite to win the award, so the smart money would be on betting against Ronaldo scooping the award for the third consecutive season.
#2 He failed to turn up at the big stages last season
It is well-known fact that Ronaldo is a man for the big occasion. Almost half of his Champions League goals have come in the knockout rounds, and he significantly dwarfs Messi's records in the latter stages of the tournament.
With 4 goals scored in Champions League finals, he is the record holder for most final goals in the Champions League era (1992 till date), as his uncanny knack for delivering on the grandest stages has seen Real Madrid win a plethora of titles.
However, last season he uncharacteristically did not turn up on the big stage. Given, he had a memorable quarter-final appearance against Juventus, where his four goals over both legs helped Real Madrid eliminate his current employers, but he put in no-shows over both legs in the semi-final against Bayern Munich, as Karim Benzema helped see Real Madrid through.
He also went AWOL in the final against Liverpool, with Gareth Bale being the talk of the match as his stunning overhead kick goal reminded everyone of his immense qualities, which led Ronaldo to childishly drop a transfer hint during Real Madrid's trophy celebration in a bid to deflect all the attention and press headlines back to him. He was rightly berated for pulling such a stunt by Sergio Ramos, but Ronaldo's aim had been achieved, as questions of whether he would stay or leave Real Madrid overshadowed the fact that he had failed to influence proceedings during the final.
In contrast, Mohammed Salah was the tormentor-in-chief during Liverpool's semi-final victory over his former club, particularly in the first leg at Anfield, where Salah was unplayable, as Liverpool ran riot in a 5-2 victory, with the Egyptian contributing two goals and registering two assists.
Much of Ronaldo's greatness has come about due to his knack for stepping up to the plate when it really matters, and with his failure to do so last season, he should step aside for someone else to take the spotlight.
#1 He was outperformed in other competitions
Despite winning the Champions League Golden Boot for the sixth straight season, Ronaldo relatively underperformed in the league with Real Madrid, scoring 26 league goals (his joint-lowest league return since his arrival at Real Madrid in 2009).
He had a slow start to his league campaign last season. A suspension picked up for shoving the referee during Real's Spanish Super Cup victory over Barcelona coupled with injury problems meant the usually potent Ronaldo was just on one La Liga goal by mid-November.
Desperation set in, and Ronaldo began to fire shots at will, most times to ridiculous outcomes. After 12 matches, he had scored just four league goals from a continent high of 55 shots.
In his defence though, his form in the league improved and he began 2018 with the best start to any calendar year in his career and rallied back to end the season with a respectable 26 goals, only behind eternal rival Lionel Messi, which was inconceivable halfway into the season.
In contrast, Mo Salah had a phenomenal campaign on both the domestic scene and the continent, scoring 32 goals for Liverpool in the Premier League which broke the long-standing record of most goals in a 38-game season and won him the Golden Boot as well as the PFA and PWA Player of the Season awards.
He also starred in the Champions League, contributing 10 goals and 5 assists in Liverpool's unlikely march to the final of the Champions League where an unfortunate injury early on robbed him of the chance to influence proceedings.
At the World Cup, Ronaldo started off his campaign with a splendid hat-trick for Portugal against Spain and scored the winner in a narrow 1-0 victory over Morocco to help his nation qualify for the second round. However, he was hapless, looking on as Edinson Cavani ran the show with a brace to condemn Portugal to a 2-1 loss and elimination in the round-of-16.
Luka Modric, on the other hand, had an exceptional performance at the Mundial in Russia and was named Player of the tournament.
Despite the overemphasis on Champions League performances throughout the history of the award, according to UEFA's official website, the Players are judged on their performances in all competitions – domestic, continental and international - by a jury of sports journalists representing each of the UEFA member national associations, and coaches of clubs in the previous season's UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League group stages.
According to the criteria, and factoring performances in all the competitions together, Ronaldo's rivals for the award performed better than him, and stands them in good stead to win the prize ahead of him.
