UEFA has announced the top three nominees for the 2022/23 Men’s Player of the Year award. The award will be presented at the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League group stage draw ceremony on Thursday, August 31, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.
The nominees are:
- Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium, Manchester City)
- Erling Haaland (Norway, Manchester City)
- Lionel Messi (Argentina, Inter Miami CF)
The initial shortlist of players was selected by the UEFA technical study group based on their performance during the 2022/23 season at both club and national team level. The top three nominees were then voted for by a jury composed of the coaches of the clubs which played in the group stages of the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League, together with the coaches of the men’s national teams of UEFA’s member associations. A group of journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) were also part of the jury.
Coaches and journalists were asked to select their top three players from the shortlist by allocating them five points, three points and one point respectively. The final result was based on the total number of votes cast by the coaches and journalists. The coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own team.
The other players who received votes were:
- İlkay Gündoğan (Germany, Barcelona) – 129 points
- Rodri (Spain, Manchester City) – 110 points
- Kylian Mbappé (France, Paris) – 82 points
- Luka Modrić (Croatia, Real Madrid) – 33 points
- Marcelo Brozović (Croatia, Al Nassr) – 20 points
- Declan Rice (England, Arsenal) – 14 points
- Alexis Mac Allister (Argentina, Liverpool) – 12 points
- Jesús Navas (Spain, Sevilla) – 6 points
The UEFA Women’s Player and Coach of the Year award nominees will be announced next week.
The 2022/23 UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award is one of the most prestigious individual awards in world football. The previous winner was Karim Benzema, who won the award for the second time in his career.
The winner of the award will be presented with a trophy and a €1 million prize.
