Messi, Haaland compete for UEFA Best Player award

UEFA has set up a panel for them to vote from a list of many players with good achievements at club and national team in the 2022-2023 season. The council includes coaches of clubs participating in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League group stages from 2023-2024, coaches of UEFA national teams and 55 journalists. Each coach and journalist selects three players from the list, receiving five points, three points and one point in order.

Messi, Haaland and De Bruyne received the highest scores, so they entered the Top 3, but UEFA has not announced the specific scores of these three stars. They will announce the winners at the Champions League group draw in Monaco on August 31.

UEFA award awarded from the 2010-2011 season, to Messi. Cristiano Ronaldo holds the record of winning the award three times, 2014, 2016 and 2017, while Messi has won the award twice in 2011 and 2015. In the last three seasons, midfielder Kevin de Bruyne has finished second, respectively, behind Robert Lewandowski, Jorginho and Karim Benzema. And Haaland appeared in the Top 3 for the first time.

In the 2022-2023 season, De Bruyne and Haaland contributed greatly to helping Man City win the treble, while Messi helped PSG to win Ligue 1 and especially with Argentina to win the World Cup. Therefore, Messi is also the best candidate for the award for the 2022-2023 season.

UEFA also announced the Top 3 nominations for the best male coach of the year on August 17, including Pep Guardiola, Luciano Spalletti and Simone Inzaghi. This award is even more predictable because it is almost certain that Guardiola will win it. Coach Lionel Scaloni helped Argentina win the World Cup, but he was not on the list because he was not part of UEFA. The criteria of the tournament are players or coaches on the payroll of a UEFA team or club.