Modric, Ronaldo and Salah on shortlist for UEFA’s player of the season prize
NYON: Champions League-winning team-mates Luka Modric and Cristiano Ronaldo are joined by Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah in the three–layer shortlist for European federation UEFA’s Player of the Year awards to be presented at the Champions League group draw in Monaco on August 30 writes KEIR RADNEDGE.
Modric and Ronaldo were team-mates with Real Madrid who beat Salah’s Liverpool in the Champions League final in Kiev. Ronaldo has since joined Juventus while Modric was voted best player at the World Cup finals in Russia in which he led Croatia to runners-up spot.
The shortlist was selected by a jury composed of 80 coaches of the clubs which participated in the group stages of last season’s Champions League and UEFA Europa League, together with 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) group, representing each of UEFA’s member associations.
The coaches and journalists were requested to select a shortlist of three players by allocating respectively five points, three points and one point to each of them. The final result was based on the total number of votes cast by the coaches and the journalists. The coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own team.
For the women’s award, the shortlist of three players was selected by a jury composed of the coaches of the 12 highest-ranked teams in the latest UEFA women’s national team rankings, together with the coaches of the eight clubs which participated in the quarter-finals of the 2017/18 UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Some 20 journalists specialised in women’s football and selected by the ESM group are also part of the jury.
Similarly to the men’s accolade, coaches and journalists were requested to select the shortlist of these three players:
Pernille Harder (Denmark, VfL Wolfsburg);
Ada Hegerberg (Norway, Olympique Lyonnais); and
Amandine Henry (France, Olympique Lyonnais).
The UEFA Player of the Year awards complement the four UEFA Champions League positional awards, which will crown the best Goalkeeper, Defender, Midfielder and Forward of the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League season, and which will also be presented during the Champions League group stage draw.
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