Karim Benzema is the frontrunner for the UEFA award
The goalscoring heroics of Actual Madrid’s French marksman Karim Benzema have positioned the 34-year-old in pole place to assert the UEFA Participant of the Yr award after the shortlist was revealed on Friday.
Benzema tops the checklist after serving to fireplace Actual Madrid to their 14th Champions League crown, together with his 15 objectives within the competitors sufficient to make sure that he was the competitors’s high goalscorer within the 2021-22 marketing campaign.
General, Benzema claimed a powerful 44 objectives in simply 46 appearances throughout all competitions for Carlo Ancelotti’s facet in what’s a purple patch of kind late into the striker’s profession.
He’s joined within the high three, which was chosen primarily based upon rankings factors allotted by UEFA’s technical examine group, by the Belgian duo of (and his Actual Madrid teammate) Thibaut Courtois and Manchester Metropolis playmaker Kevin de Bruyne.
Along with Benzema, Courtois was essential to Actual Madrid’s Champions League win along with their newest La Liga crown, whereas De Bruyne was the heartbeat of a Manchester Metropolis crew which pipped Liverpool to the English Premier League title final season.
Actual Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti is nominated for the lads’s coach of the yr award, alongside Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp and Manchester Metropolis’s Pep Guardiola.
The total checklist of the highest 15 gamers can seen on UEFA’s web site, and options Robert Lewandowski, now of Barcelona, and Actual Madrid’s Luka Modric within the high 5.
The checklist options 4 present Liverpool gamers – Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Fabinho, in addition to Sadio Mane, who lately departed Anfield to maneuver to Bayern Munich.
Notable absentees within the checklist embrace Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in what will be seen as an indication that the 2 best gamers of their technology now have their finest days behind them.
Final yr’s winner was Chelsea’s Italian midfield Jorginho, who was rewarded for his efforts in claiming Chelsea’s Champions League title and serving to Italy to win Euro 2020 in London.
The winner will likely be revealed throughout the Champions League group stage draw on August 25.
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