Shortlist for UEFA Best Players in Europe Award 2016
Posted on 18th July 2016
UEFA has announced the ten-player shortlist for the of voting for the 2015/16 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. This season marks the sixth addition of the award, won last season by Lionel Messi of Barcelona and Argentina.
The UEFA Best Player in Europe Award has previously been won by Lionel Messi a record two times (2011 & 2015), Andrés Iniesta (2012), Franck Ribéry (2013) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2014).
Due to the European Sports Media (ESM) group coming up with the initiative with UEFA, as in previous years, journalists from each of UEFA’s 54 member associations provided a list of their five best-ranked players ordered from one to five, with the first receiving five points, the second four and so on.
The ten-man shortlist of players with the most votes in alphabetical order is:
Gareth Bale (Real Madrid & Wales)
Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus & Italy)
Antoine Griezmann (Atlético Madrid & France)
Toni Kroos (Real Madrid & Germany)
Lionel Messi (Barcelona & Argentina)
Thomas Müller (Bayern München & Germany)
Manuel Neuer (Bayern München & Germany)
Pepe (Real Madrid & Portugal)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid & Portugal)
Luis Suárez (Barcelona & Uruguay)
In total, 37 players picked up votes including Wigan Atheltic’s Will Griggs despite playing in League One and not appearing for a single minute of Northern Ireland’s Euro 2016 campaign. Astonishingly the forward got more votes than Kevin de Bruyne and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and the same number as Paul Pogba.
Here is a full list of players that had at least one vote but missed out on the ten-man shortlist:
11 Riyad Mahrez (Leicester & Algeria)
12 Jamie Vardy (Leicester & England)
13 Dimitri Payet (West Ham & France)
14 Jérôme Boateng (Bayern München & Germany)
15 Arturo Vidal (Bayern München & Chile)
16 Luka Modrić (Real Madrid & Croatia)
17 N’Golo Kanté (Leicester & France)
18 Zlatan Ibrahimović (Paris Saint-Germain/Manchester United & Sweden)
19= Eden Hazard (Chelsea & Belgium)
19= Andrés Iniesta (Barcelona & Spain)
19= Neymar (Barcelona & Brazil)
19= Renato Sanches (Benfica/Bayern München & Portugal)
23 Robert Lewandowski (Bayern München & Poland)
24 Gonzalo Higuaín (Napoli & Argentina)
25= Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus & Italy)
25= Diego Godin (Atlético Madrid & Uruguay)
25= Will Grigg (Wigan & Northern Ireland)
25= Hugo Lloris (Tottenham & France)
25= Paul Pogba (Juventus & France)
30= Toby Alderweireld (Tottenham & Belgium)
30= Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund & Gabon)
30= Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City & Belgium)
30= Kevin Gameiro (Sevilla & France)
30= Grzegorz Krychowiak (Sevilla/Paris Saint-Germain & Poland)
30= Blaise Matuidi (Paris Saint-Germain & France)
30= Georges-Kévin N’Koudou (Marseille & France)
30= Jan Oblak (Atlético Madrid & Slovenia)
The journalists from each of UEFA’s 54 member associations will now cast their votes for the outright winner from the 10-man shortlist, which will be announced during the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League group stage draw in Monaco on 25 August.
