Where Lionel Messi And Cristiano Ronaldo Finished In UEFA Men's Player Of The Year Award

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have missed out on the top three for the UEFA Men's Player of the Year Award, but both make it into the top five.

It wasn't a stand out year for either Messi or Ronaldo this season, even with the latter winning the Serie A title with Juventus again, and they haven't lived up to their usual high standards.

That's led to both missing out on the top three places in the UEFA Player of the Year award, which have been named as Robert Lewandowski, Manuel Neuer and Kevin de Bruyne.

Messi finished joint fourth in the award alongside former teammate Neymar. They're followed by Kylian Mbappe in sixth, Thomas Muller in seventh, Thiago Alcantara in eighth, Joshua Kimmich in ninth and Ronaldo making up the top 10.

How the rest of the top 10 looks. Image: PA Images

Players are voted by the managers of all the teams from the group stages of the Champions League and the Europa League, along with 55 journalists, one for each of UEFA's member associations.

Each person who votes picks their top three, with five points for first, three points for second and one point for third on their list.

Of course managers can't pick a player from their own team, presumably Hansi Flick would have had the hardest task of all if he were allowed.

It's no wonder Bayern feature so heavily on the list after their treble season. Image: PA Images

Ronaldo has been named UEFA's best player on three occasions previously with Messi picking up the award on two occasions.

The award replaced the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year which they won once each, meaning they haven't been quite as dominant as they have in the Ballon d'Or, which they've won 11 times in the past 12 years between them.

There's a good chance Lewandowski would have beaten the pair, and everyone else, to the world's best player award this year, after his heroics in Bayern's treble, but France Football decided to cancel the award this year.

The FIFA Best awards were also cancelled so the UEFA version of the Player of the Year is the most prestigious available for the Bayern forward.

Despite that Jamie Carragher recently revealed that he thinks Kevin de Bruyne is actually the third best player in the world behind Messi and Ronaldo.

Topics: Football News, Robert Lewandowski, Barcelona, Serie A, Lionel Messi, Ballon d'Or, Juventus, Kevin de Bruyne, Champions League, Manuel Neuer, Cristiano Ronaldo, La Liga

Ryan Sidle

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