One of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk, who each excelled for their respective clubs last season, will be announced as the 2018/19 Uefa Men's Player of the Year award on Thursday night. Here are the 10 previous winners of the prestigious accolade.
Click through the gallery above to see the previous 10 winners of the UEFA Men's Player of Year award!
The award is bestowed on a European-based footballer who is considered the best in the previous season in both club and international competitions. It was formerly known as the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award, which in turn replaced the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year award after the 2010/11 campaign.
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Messi and Ronaldo are the two players who have won the award the most times, with the Argentine forward's tally of three bettered only by his Portuguese rivals' four titles. In the past 10 seasons, the pair have won the award six times between them, although they were beaten to the prestigious trophy last time out.
Instead, it was Ronaldo's former Real Madrid teammate Luka Modric who walked away with the award after the 2017/18 campaign. The midfield maestro took top honours after delivering stellar performances in Los Blancos' fourth Uefa Champions League triumph in five years and starred in Croatia's run to the 2018 Fifa World Cup final.
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This year's third candidate, Van Dijk, is hoping to win the award for the first time, which would also see him become the first Liverpool player to do so since Steven Gerrard in 2005 – you can view the 10 most recent winners by scrolling through the gallery above!
Who do you think should be crowned as the best player in Europe? Let us have your thoughts by commenting in the section below.
