Iniesta, Messi, and CR7 are vying for the "Best Player in Europe" award.
The superstars are highly focused on the new season, but there's one event they can't miss on August 30th in Monaco: the UEFA European Player of the Year Gala.
Iniesta, Messi, Ronaldo
According to leaked information from Marca, the final shortlist will be a race between Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, and Cristiano Ronaldo. This means that glory will not go to players who have performed exceptionally well in the past season, such as Didier Drogba, Iker Casillas, or Andrea Pirlo…
This will be the second time UEFA has awarded the European Player of the Year award. Last year, the competition between Messi and Ronaldo ended with the Argentinian star emerging victorious. This year, Marca predicts that the most prestigious title will still be difficult to escape the grasp of these two players, even though Iniesta was recently voted the best player at EURO 2012.
In the 2011/12 season, Ronaldo scored 46 goals to help Real Madrid win the La Liga title, including the decisive goal that secured a crucial victory away at Barcelona. He also played impressively at EURO 2012, scoring 3 goals and leading Portugal to the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Messi displayed an even more incredible goal-scoring form. He set a new European goalscoring record with 73 goals across all competitions, including 50 in La Liga and 14 in the Champions League. Despite this, his Barcelona team was less successful, winning only the Copa del Rey.
It is highly likely that the UEFA European Player of the Year award will influence the prestigious FIFA Ballon d'Or award presented at the end of the year. As proof, a year ago, Messi, Ronaldo, and Xavi Hernandez reached the final round of UEFA's voting, and by the end of the year, these three players had won the Ballon d'Or, Silver Ball, and Bronze Ball respectively from FIFA.
It is known that the UEFA award is not restricted by nationality but is only given to players currently playing in European national leagues. Before the shortlist was narrowed down to 3, the positions from 4th to 10th were Pirlo, Xavi, Casillas, Drogba, Petr Cech, Radamel Falcao and Mesut Oezil.
Reportedly, in the initial list of 32 candidates, Real Madrid had the largest contingent with 7 representatives: Xabi Alonso, Casillas, Fabio Coentrao, Pepe, Oezil, Sergio Ramos, and Ronaldo. Barcelona only had 4: Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, and Cesc Fabregas. Other notable names included Fernando Torres, Sergio Aguero, David Silva, and Luka Modric.
The winner of this year's European Player of the Year award will be chosen by a vote of 53 journalists from UEFA member countries. The voting will take place live at a gala dinner in Monaco on August 30th, before the UEFA Super Cup match between Chelsea and Atletico Madrid.
According to Bongdaplus - National Team
