Premier League, Bundesliga players dominate UEFA Team of the Year nominations

EUROPEAN football governing body UEFA has named 50 candidates for its fans’ Team of the Year votes.

In this list of players announced on Tuesday, the English Premier League and the German Bundesliga have more representatives than other leagues, with 15 players each.

Some of the most prominent nominees include European champions Bayern Munich trio Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller and Manuel Neuer; Paris Saint-Germain forwards Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, as well as Liverpool quartet Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Allison Becker.

Cristiano Ronaldo, the player with the most appearances in the fans’ Team of the Year, is once again nominated.

Ronaldo has appeared 14 times while playing for Manchester United, Real Madrid and his current club Juventus.

Barcelona star Lionel Messi, who has made 11 appearances in the selection, is also nominated, along with eight-time nominee Sergio Ramos of Real Madrid.

Chelsea’s Brazilian centre-back Thiago Silva (who left Paris for Chelsea in the summer) is the oldest nominee on the list.

Some of the other nominees include Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak, Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes, Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold, Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane, Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku and Bayern Munich’s David Alaba.

According to UEFA, the nominees are proposed by the UEFA editorial team before being validated by the Technical Observer panel on the basis of their performances in UEFA competitions and domestic competitions within UEFA member associations from January to December 2020.

Football fans are to vote for their favourite 11 players out of the 50 nominees to form the fans’ UEFA Team of the Year.