UEFA nominees for Men's Player of the Year 22/23: De Bruyne, Haaland & Messi

UEFA Nominees for Men's Player of the Year 22/23: De Bruyne, Haaland & Messi

UEFA has today announced the names of the top three nominees for the 2022/23 UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award. The award winner will be announced at the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League group stage draw ceremony, which will take place on Thursday 31 August at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.

On the same occasion, UEFA will also honour the coach who had the biggest impact during the 2022/23 season with the UEFA Men’s Coach of the Year award.

UEFA Men’s Player of the Year

For the men’s player award, an initial shortlist of players was selected by the UEFA technical study group based on their performance during the 2022/23 season at both club and national team level. The top three nominees were then voted for by a jury composed of the coaches of the clubs which played in the group stages of the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League, together with the coaches of the men’s senior national teams of UEFA’s member associations. A group of journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) were also part of the jury.

Coaches and journalists were asked to select their top three players from the shortlist by allocating them five points, three points and one point respectively. The final result was based on the total number of votes cast by the coaches and journalists. The coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own team.

The three players who received the most points are, in alphabetical order:

Kevin DE BRUYNE (Belgium – Manchester City FC)

Erling HAALAND (Norway – Manchester City FC)

Lionel MESSI (Argentina – Paris Saint-Germain, now at Inter Miami CF)

Manchester City dominate the nominee pool for the UEFA player and manager awards with Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, and Pep Guardiola in the running for prestigious gongs.

Haaland and De Bruyne have been named alongside World Cup winner Lionel Messi in the players' category after a sensational year saw them win the Treble.

Haaland scored 52 goals in 53 games for City in a record-breaking first season in Manchester.

Meanwhile, De Bruyne topped the assists charts in the Premier League and Champions League, notching 16 and seven assist in each competition respectively.

Messi finally got his hands on a World Cup trophy, scoring two in a thrilling final against France as well as winning Ligue 1 with PSG after finding his form in Paris.