Messi, Neymar, Suárez and Cristiano Ronaldo are four of the ten players shortlisted for UEFA’s 2014/15 Best Player in Europe award. Strangely though, there are no Spaniards in the final ten-man shortlist. The initial 35-man list of candidates had included Barça’s Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández (now playing in Qatar), Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos and Juventus’s Álvaro Morata.
The shortlist for the Best Player in Europe was compiled from the votes of journalists from all 54 of UEFA’s national federations, who each sent in a list of five players.
UEFA has announced that the jury will vote for the winner during the draw for the group stages of the European Champions League, scheduled to take place in Monaco on 28th August.
The most recent winners of the award are: Lionel Messi (2011), Andrés Iniesta (2012), Franck Ribéry (2013) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2014).
The candidates for the 2014/15 season are: Gianluigi Buffon (ITA/Juventus), Eden Hazard (BEL/Chelsea FC), Lionel Messi (ARG/FC Barcelona), Neymar (BRA/FC Barcelona), Paul Pogba (FRA/Juventus), Andrea Pirlo (ITA/Juventus), Cristiano Ronaldo (POR/Real Madrid CF), Luis Suárez (URU/FC Barcelona), Carlos Tévez (ARG/Juventus) and Arturo Vidal (CHI/Juventus).
