The UEFA Men's Player of the Year Award (previously known as the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award) is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

award given to the footballer playing for a men's

football club In association football, a football club (or association football club, alternatively soccer club) is a sports club that acts as an entity through which association football teams organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as ...

in Europe that is considered the best in the previous season of both club and national team competition. The award, created in 2011 by

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

in partnership with European Sports Media (ESM) group, was initially aimed at reviving the European Footballer of the Year Award (

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual association football, football award presented by French magazine ''France Football'' since 1956 Ballon d'Or, 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season. Conceived ...

), which was merged with the

FIFA World Player of the Year The FIFA World Player of the Year was an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, between 1991 and 2015 at the FIFA World Player Gala. Coaches and captains of international teams and media representative ...

Award in 2010 to become the

FIFA Ballon d'Or The FIFA Ballon d'Or ("Golden Ball") was an annual association football award presented to the world's best men's player from 2010 to 2015. Awarded jointly by FIFA and ''France Football'', the prize was a merger of the FIFA World Player of the Y ...

. It also replaced the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year award.

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Saudi Pr ...

has won the award the most time with 3 awards and is the only player to win it twice in a row. Female players are awarded the UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award, introduced in 2013. UEFA partnered with Groupe Amaury to co-organise the

awards from 2024. The partnership means UEFA's awards for the best player and best coach will cease to exist. But UEFA will continue to present the President's Award as well as prizes for the best player in each of their competitions.

Criteria

According to UEFA, the award "recognise the best player playing for a football club within the territory of a UEFA member association during the previous season." Players are judged by their performances in all competitions, domestic and international, and at club and national team levels throughout the season.

Voting

At the beginning, the award's voting format was a return to the old Ballon d'Or, which was decided purely by journalists. In the first round of voting, 53 sports journalists representing each of the UEFA national associations provided a list of their three best-ranked players from one to three, with the first player receiving five points, the second three points and the third one point. The three players with the most points overall were shortlisted. The jury comprised renowned sports journalists representing each of UEFA's national associations, from RTV Albania to the Daily Post in Wales via members of European Sports Media, with whom UEFA collaborated on this award. The final vote, also by the journalists, then took place live via electronic voting during the presentation ceremony. In 2017, however, UEFA added 80 coaches, from the clubs that participated in the group stages of that year's UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, to its jury. The amount of journalists selected by European Sports Media was also increased to 55, representing each of UEFA's member associations. In 2020/21 UEFA National Team Coaches were added to the jury In 2022/23 the Coaches from the UEFA Conference League Group stages were added to the jury

Award history

Criteria

Voting

Award history

Winners

Finalists

2010–11

2011–12

2012–13

2013–14

2014–15

2015–16

2016–17

2017–18

2018–19

2019–20

2020–21

2021–22

2022–23

By player

See also

References

External links