Lionel Messi and two Manchester City stars will battle it out for last season’s UEFA Player of the Season award. Mbappé is not even in the top five

UEFA on Thursday afternoon announced the shortlist for last season’s best player award. In addition, we learned how the stars who didn’t make the final three fared in the voting.

A year ago, the best footballer of the season under UEFA was French striker Karim Benzema, who led Real Madrid to victory in the Champions League. He also dominated the Ballon d’Or poll and became the best footballer on the planet.

This year, two Manchester City stars and the Argentine world champion will battle it out for the award. Specifically, Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and the legendary Lionel Messi, who is currently on a rampage overseas with Inter Miami.

Both Haaland and De Bruyne have had a fantastic season. Both have helped their team to treble, winning the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup. Haaland tore up the goalscoring records in the Premier League, De Bruyne was one of his court passers.

Messi, on the club scene, could only celebrate winning the French Ligue 1, however, he was sovereignly PSG’s best player last season, far behind even teammates Kylian Mbappé and Neymar.

Messi notched 21 goals and 20 assists in 41 competitive games last season. Haaland got to 52 goals and 9 assists in 53 games, while De Bruyne played 49 games, scoring 10 goals and adding 31 assists.

For Messi, this year is probably the last time he can win a prestigious individual award for his performances. For Haaland, for a change, this is the first year in which he can begin an era in which he will dominate.

It is worth noting then that Haaland’s rival Kylian Mbappé did not make the top five in the voting, coming in sixth with 82 points. On the other hand, in the top five we find Ilkay Gündogan (Manchester City) with 129 points and Rodri (Manchester City) with 110 points.

The top ten is made up of Luka Modric (Real Madrid), Marcelo Brozovic (Inter Milan), Declan Rice (West Ham, now Arsenal) and Alexis Mac Allister (Brighton, now Liverpool). The eleventh player to receive votes was surprisingly Jesús Navas (Sevilla).

Source: UEFA