UEFA Men's Player of the Year: List of all winners

Published at :October 26, 2022 at 6:28 PM

Modified at :December 13, 2023 at 1:01 PM

(Courtesy : UEFA )

It was previously called the Best Player in Europe Award

In this world of football, every player works hard with equal determination, motivation, and pride for their club or nation so that he/she can reach the epitome of the game and could finally give recognition to his/her name. But the hard work which a player is doing throughout his whole day and career certainly need to be channelized in a particular direction apart from making his presence aware in a national or a club team.

These sacrifices certainly need some sort of monetary awards or trophies to uplift their passion for the sport much higher. One of the trophies which have been a vital motivating agent for the footy stars of our world is the ‘UEFA Men’s Player of the Year Award’. The urge for the trophy is to such an extent that it gives a player an external boost to showcase in front of the world by contributing both to his club as well as to his nation.

UEFA Club Footballer of the Year

Finally, the award was replaced by UEFA Club Footballer of the Year which was awarded from 1998 to 2010. The last award was being awarded in 2010 as the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year was given to Diego Milito, who played for Argentina and Inter Milan as a center forward.

Later that year, in 2011 Lionel Messi became the first footballer who clinched that trophy and Cristiano Ronaldo is the only player who has bagged this title thrice. In 2017 a certain change of rules in the judging system for the trophy was introduced which included a total number of 80 coaches in the committee who had been in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League during the group stage round. This was made because the same voting system used to favor the same players who used to be nominated for the Ballon d’Or and thus an opportunity for further competitors used to decrease.

Finally, we now take a look at all the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year awardees

2010-2011: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
2011-2012: Andreas Iniesta (Barcelona)
2012-2013: Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich)
2013-2014: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
2014-2015: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
2015-2016: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)

2016-2017: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
2017-2018: Luka Modric (Real Madrid)
2018-2019: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
2019-2020: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
2020-2021: Jorginho (Chelsea)
2021-2022: Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)