For the first time in 10 years, Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo have been excluded from the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award.
Both footballers had stood out as the best players of their generation for well over a decade, Ronaldo, who currently plays for Juventus has picked up the accolade on three occasions and has a total of nine nominations, while Barcelona superstar, Messi had won it two times and made the final shortlist in six of the last 10 seasons
Kevin De Bruyne and Robert Lewandowski are set to battle it out for the individual prize.
The UEFA Men’s Player of the Year Award is an association football award given to the footballer playing for a football club in Europe that is considered the best in the previous season of both club and national team competition.