UEFA announced their top three nominees for 2015-16 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award today and they are Antoine Griezmann, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale. And yes, Lionel Messi didn’t make the final cut.
The winner of the UEFA Best Player Award will be announced on 25 August after a live vote along with the draw for the UEFA Champions League group stages. The nominees and winner for the award are decided by journalists from the 55 member-states of UEFA.
Ronaldo, Bale and Griezmann are worthy candidates for the award after their performances at the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Euro 2016. Cristiano Ronaldo won the Champions League with Real Madrid for the 11th time and scored 16 goals during the course of the tournament. He even led underdogs Portugal to the finals of Euro 2016 and inspired his team to their first ever win against favourites France.
Antoine Griezmann’s season followed the same arc as Ronaldo’s but had to settle for second best with his team each time. The Frenchman reached the Champions League final with Atletico Madrid but fell just short of a resilient Real Madrid. He had the disctinction of being awarded the Golden Boot for the European Championship but ultimately lost to an extra time goal to Portugal.
Gareth Bale has had an equally impressive season with a Champions League win with team mate Ronaldo. Wales’s bid for the European Championship with Bale as captain was inspiring and it earned them a spot in the semi-final which they lost to Portugal.
Messi beaten by Luis Suarez
With the announcement of these three names, one other very obvious name is missing. Not only did Lionel Messi miss out on the top three, he came in fifth behind Luis Suarez. Messi won the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award last year but he doesn’t seem to be good enough this time around. While did he have a very successful domestic season winning everything there was, he and Barcelona did not fare as well in Europe. And he was convicted of tax fraud.
Millions of Messi fans are likely to be outraged by this exclusion but credit must be given where it is due and the top three nominees deserve the recognition. The other nominees in the 10 man shortlist were:
4. Luis Suarez; 5. Lionel Messi; 6. Gianluigi Buffon; 7. Pepe; 8. Manuel Neuer; 9. Toni Kroos; 10. Thomas Muller
