Could this be the year of Luka Modrić?
The Croatian midfielder and captain of the Croatia national team was named the best player of the 2018 World Cup, was in the running for the most beautiful goal of the tournament, and besides taking Croatia to the silver in Russia, helped Real Madrid take their third consecutive title as European champion.
It’s no surprise, then, that UEFA has added Modrić to the shortlist for the prestigious award of best midfielder in the 2017/18 Champions League season, reports Goal.hr on August 9, 2018.
“These accolades were introduced last year to recognise the season’s best player in each position in Europe’s premier club competition. This year’s winners will be named – along with the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year and UEFA Women’s Player of the Year – during the UEFA Champions League group stage draw in Monaco on Thursday 30 August,” reports UEFA.
The players are nominated based on the votes of the coaches of the 32 clubs who participated in the competition last season, as well as 55 journalists from 55 UEFA member states. Coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own club, and participants had to rank their top three candidates, with five points for first, three points for second, and one point for third.
Modrić has thus become one of the three final candidates in the competition for midfielders, with his competitors being Real Madrid teammate Toni Kroos and Manchester City’s Kevin de Bruyne.
In the fight for the best goalkeeper is Alisson Becker from Roma (now Liverpool), Gianluigi Buffon from Juventus (now PSG), and Keylor Navas from Real Madrid. For defense, Marcelo, Ramos and Varane are nominated, all three of whom play for Real Madrid, while the best attackers are Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid, now Juventus).
UEFA also announced the candidates for this year’s Europa League, which includes Dmitry Payet of Marseille, and Diego Godin and Antoine Griezmann of Atletico Madrid.
The winners will be awarded on August 30th during the Champions League and the Europa League group stage draw.
