Breaking: Revealed! Reasons why Lionel Messi may win the 2018/2019 UEFA Player of the Year award

Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk have been nominated for the 2018/19 UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award.

The UEFA Player of the Year award is for players in Europe, irrespective of nationality who have been judged in regard to their performances over the whole season in all competitions – both domestically and internationally – (at either club, or national team level).

The winner will be named – along with the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year and UEFA Champions League positional award winners – during the group stage draw in Monaco on Thursday 29 August while the UEFA Europa League Player of the Season will be announced the following day.

Meanwhile, National Dailyfindings have seen Lionel Messi as a possible winner of the Player of the Year award for men ahead of the last two nominees in Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk. This is however considering Messi’s pivotal role in guiding Barcelona to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League where they suffered a semi-final dramatic elimination by Liverpool who were the eventual winners of the trophy.

The remarkable achievements of the Barcelona talisman in the UEFA Champions League cannot go unnoticed especially after he emerged as the highest goal scorer and European Golden Shoe winner for the season under review namely, 2018/2019.

More so, Messi’s exploits in his Barcelona’s achievements domestically cannot be overemphasized especially after he guided his club to their tenth la liga title while also emerging as the highest goal scorer in la liga in 2018/2019 season.

Although, the Argentine achievement unlike his counterpart in Cristiano Ronaldo who won the UEFA Nations League with Portugal may not be outstanding internationally considering their unsuccessful shot at 2019 Copa America, but his heroic act at the club level is unmatched.

Here are the rest top ten and their points:

4. Alisson Becker (Liverpool & Brazil) – 57 points

5. Sadio Mané (Liverpool & Senegal) – 51 points

6. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool & Egypt) – 49 points

7. Eden Hazard (Chelsea/Real Madrid & Belgium) – 38 points

8. Matthijs de Ligt (Ajax/Juventus & Netherlands) – 27 points

9. Frenkie de Jong (Ajax/Barcelona & Netherlands) – 27 points

10. Raheem Sterling (Manchester City & England) – 12 points

The other award shortlists:

Goalkeeper of the Season: Alisson Becker, Hugo Lloris, Marc-André ter Stegen

Defender of the Season: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Matthijs de Ligt, Virgil van Dijk

Midfielder of the Season: Frenkie de Jong, Christian Eriksen, Jordan Henderson

Forward of the Season: Sadio Mané, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo

Women’s Player of the Year: Lucy Bronze, Ada Hegerberg, Amandine Henry

Europa League Player of the Season: Olivier Giroud, Eden Hazard, Luka Jović