Buffon, Messi and Ronaldo on Player of the Year shortlist | August 15, 2017 - ICYMI: UCL positional awards shortlists Gianluigi Buffon, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are the three shortlisted players for the 2016/17 UEFA Men's Player of the Year award. The award, which was created in 2011, will be presented at the Champions League group stage draw on Aug. 24, with Real Madrid star Ronaldo the favourite to win it for the third time in four years after his outstanding performances helped Los Blancos to become the first club to retain the trophy.
Ronaldo scored five goals in the quarterfinal victory over Bayern Munich, with a hat trick in the second leg at the Bernabéu. He scored another treble in the first leg of the semi against Atlético Madrid, and two goals in the final success over Juventus. ➝ season summary and best moments
Messi scored 54 goals for his club but Barcelona only had the Spanish Super Cup and the Copa del Rey to show for their efforts. ➝ season summary and best moments
Buffon would be a popular choice, but the 39-year-old would have been better positioned had Juventus beaten Madrid in the Champions League final. Juventus did complete the Italian Double. ➝ season summary and best moments
The shortlist was selected using votes collected from the 80 coaches of teams that were in the group stage of either the Champions League or Europa League and 55 journalists put forward by the European Sports Media (ESM) group. The votes will also determine the winner from the three final candidates.
The rest of the top 10 from votes cast was: 4-Luka Modrić (Real Madrid), 5-Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), 6-Paulo Dybala (Juventus), 7-Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), 8-Kylian Mbappe (Monaco), 9-Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich), 10-Zlatan Ibrahimović (Manchester United).