UEFA-Shortlist-Best-Player

UEFA has announced the ten-player shortlist for the of voting for the 2015/16 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. This season marks the sixth addition of the award, won last season by Lionel Messi of Barcelona and Argentina.

The UEFA Best Player in Europe Award has previously been won by Lionel Messi a record two times (2011 & 2015), Andrés Iniesta (2012), Franck Ribéry (2013) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2014).

Due to the European Sports Media (ESM) group coming up with the initiative with UEFA, as in previous years, journalists from each of UEFA’s 54 member associations provided a list of their five best-ranked players ordered from one to five, with the first receiving five points, the second four and so on.

The ten-man shortlist of players with the most votes in alphabetical order is:

Gareth Bale (Real Madrid & Wales)
Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus & Italy)
Antoine Griezmann (Atlético Madrid & France)
Toni Kroos (Real Madrid & Germany)
Lionel Messi (Barcelona & Argentina)
Thomas Müller (Bayern München & Germany)
Manuel Neuer (Bayern München & Germany)
Pepe (Real Madrid & Portugal)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid & Portugal)
Luis Suárez (Barcelona & Uruguay)

In total, 37 players picked up votes including Wigan Atheltic’s Will Griggs despite playing in League One and not appearing for a single minute of Northern Ireland’s Euro 2016 campaign. Astonishingly the forward got more votes than Kevin de Bruyne and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and the same number as Paul Pogba.

Here is a full list of players that had at least one vote but missed out on the ten-man shortlist:

11 Riyad Mahrez (Leicester & Algeria)
12 Jamie Vardy (Leicester & England)
13 Dimitri Payet (West Ham & France)
14 Jérôme Boateng (Bayern München & Germany)
15 Arturo Vidal (Bayern München & Chile)
16 Luka Modrić (Real Madrid & Croatia)
17 N’Golo Kanté (Leicester & France)
18 Zlatan Ibrahimović (Paris Saint-Germain/Manchester United & Sweden)
19= Eden Hazard (Chelsea & Belgium)
19= Andrés Iniesta (Barcelona & Spain)
19= Neymar (Barcelona & Brazil)
19= Renato Sanches (Benfica/Bayern München & Portugal)
23 Robert Lewandowski (Bayern München & Poland)
24 Gonzalo Higuaín (Napoli & Argentina)
25= Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus & Italy)
25= Diego Godin (Atlético Madrid & Uruguay)
25= Will Grigg (Wigan & Northern Ireland)
25= Hugo Lloris (Tottenham & France)
25= Paul Pogba (Juventus & France)
30= Toby Alderweireld (Tottenham & Belgium)
30= Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund & Gabon)
30= Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City & Belgium)
30= Kevin Gameiro (Sevilla & France)
30= Grzegorz Krychowiak (Sevilla/Paris Saint-Germain & Poland)
30= Blaise Matuidi (Paris Saint-Germain & France)
30= Georges-Kévin N’Koudou (Marseille & France)
30= Jan Oblak (Atlético Madrid & Slovenia)

The journalists from each of UEFA’s 54 member associations will now cast their votes for the outright winner from the 10-man shortlist, which will be announced during the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League group stage draw in Monaco on 25 August.

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Golden-Shoe-2016

Barcelona’s Luis Suárez signed off with a hattrick against Granada to take his tally to 40 goals for the season. This meant that not only did he become the first player other than Ronaldo or Lionel Messi to finish as La Liga’s top scorer since 2009, but he also won the European Golden Shoe.

For the second time in his career, Luis Suárez will be presented with the European Golden Shoe, having previously shared the prize with Ronaldo in 2014. The Golden Shoe caps a fantastic season for the Uruguayan who has scored a total of 59 goals in 52 appearances.

Napoli’s Gonzalo Higuain ended the season with 36 goals to finish runner-up and in doing so broke Gunnar Nordahl’s 66-year record for most number of goals in a Serie A season.

Last seasons winner, Ronaldo, finished third with 35 goals.

Golden Shoe

Only the leading five countries in the UEFA rankings (England, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain) have two as their multiplayer. This is to emphasise the difference in performance level between clubs from those countries and those of other nations.

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El-Clasico-by-the-Numbers

Two of the biggest club’s in world football go head-to-head at the Camp Nou on Saturday evening, for the second El Clásico of the season.

Real Madrid are trailing behind their bitter rivals and need to win to stand any chance of clawing their way back into the title race. Ahead of what promises to be another thriller, we look at some Clásicos stats:

0 – Clásicos Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane has presided over compared with three for his Barcelona counterpart Luis Enrique – a 3-1 defeat at the Santiago Bernabéu & 2-1 win at Camp Nou last season and a 4-0 thumping over their bitter rivals last November.

75 – Messi, Suárez & Neymar have scored 75% of Barcelona’s goals this season compared to 73% for Madrid’s attacking trio.

389 – The number of goals Madrid have scored in official Clásicos, which is 11 more than Barcelona.

14 – The shirt number of former player and manager, Johan Cruyff, who shaped Barcelona and will be honored at the game.

6 – Real Madrid have only won 6 of the last 27 Clásicos that have been played since the start of the 2008/09 season.

499 – The number of career goals that Lionel Messi has scored and he could score his 500th during the game.

231 – The number of Clásico  played since the first once in the semi finals of the Copa del Rey in 1902.

10 – The number of points that Real Madrid are behind their fierce rivals.

68 – The 68th minute of the game is the time in which the most goals are scored – 17 in total.

52 – The number of goals scored from the penalty spot.

3780 – Gento is the player with the most minutes played in El Clásico with 3,780.

21 – Lionel Messi is the player with the most Clásico goals with 21.

13 – Lionel Messi is the player with the most Clásico assists with 13.

25 – There have been 259 different scorers.

500M – The estimated number of fans around the world who will watch El Clásico.

71 – Since 1929 Real Madrid have won 71 of their 171 La Liga encounters with Barcelona.

8 – The last 8 Ballon d’Ors have been won by Messi and Ronaldo with 5 and 3 respectively.

39 – Barcelona are hoping to extend their current 39 game unbeaten run.

550 – There have been 550 El Clásico goals in La Liga, which is an average of 3.2 per game.

2002 – There hasn’t been a 0-0 draw since November 2002.

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MSN-v-BBC

Real Madrid’s attacking trio of Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo (BBC) go head-to-head with Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar (MSN) in the second La Liga Clasico of the season.

Real Madrid will be out for revenge after losing 4-0 at the Santiago Bernabéu in November. The visitors attacking trio have some remarkable goal-scoring figures this season, but so have Barcelona’s.

Which of these Spanish giants attacking trios have the best statistics this season?

MSN-v-BBC-Stats

The last three La Liga Clasicos have finished Real Madrid 3-1 Barcelona, Barcelona 2-1 Real Madrid and Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona. 8 of the 11 goals have been scored by the BBC and MSN trios. Whichever strike-force performs the best on the day will likely seal victory for their team.

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