UEFA has announced the top three finalists for its Player of the Year award for the 2021/22 season.
The three players shortlisted from an initial 15-member group include Manchester City’s Kevin de Bruyne and Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema and Thibaut Courtois.
The winner among them will be announced on August 25th with the UEFA men’s coach of the year and women’s player and coach of the year at the 2022-23 Champions League group stage draw in Istanbul.
Karim Benzema is the heavy favourite to take home the award after guiding Real Madrid to a record-extending 14th Champions League and La Liga titles where Courtois also played a significant role.
De Bruyne, meanwhile, helped guide Manchester City to another Premier League title, his 4th in seven seasons with the club.
The rest of the bracket looks like this:
4 Robert Lewandowski (Bayern, now Barcelona & Poland) – 54 points
5 Luka Modrić (Real Madrid & Croatia) – 52 points
6 Sadio Mané (Liverpool, now Bayern & Senegal) – 51 points
7 Mohamed Salah (Liverpool & Egypt) – 46 points
8 Kylian Mbappé (Paris & France) – 25 points
9 Vinícius Junior (Real Madrid & Brazil) – 21 points
10 Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool & Netherlands) – 19 points
11 Bernardo Silva (Manchester City & Portugal) – 7 points
12 Filip Kostić (Eintracht Frankfurt & Serbia) – 7 points
13 Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma & Italy) – 5 points
14 Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool & England) – 2 points
15 Fabinho (Liverpool & Brazil) – 1 point
Jorginho won the 2020/21 UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award after becoming only the tenth player to win a European Cup and a EURO in the same year.
Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti, City’s Pep Guardiola and Liverpool’s Juergen Klopp are the finalists for the Coach of the Year while the women’s top three will be unveiled next week.
