Ronaldo and Barça's three frontmen.

Messi, Neymar, Suárez and Cristiano Ronaldo are four of the ten players shortlisted for UEFA's 2014/15 Best Player in Europe award.Strangely though, there are no Spaniards in the final ten-man shortlist. The initial 35-man list of candidates had included Barça's Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández (now playing in Qatar), Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos and Juventus's Álvaro Morata.

The shortlist for the Best Player in Europe was compiled from the votes of journalists from all 54 of UEFA's national federations, who each sent in a list of five players.

UEFA has announced that the jury will vote for the winner during the draw for the group stages of the European Champions League, scheduled to take place in Monaco on 28th August.The most recent winners of the award are: Lionel Messi (2011), Andrés Iniesta (2012), Franck Ribéry (2013) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2014).

The candidates for the 2014/15 season are: Gianluigi Buffon (ITA/Juventus), Eden Hazard (BEL/Chelsea FC), Lionel Messi (ARG/FC Barcelona), Neymar (BRA/FC Barcelona), Paul Pogba (FRA/Juventus), Andrea Pirlo (ITA/Juventus), Cristiano Ronaldo (POR/Real Madrid CF), Luis Suárez (URU/FC Barcelona), Carlos Tévez (ARG/Juventus) and Arturo Vidal (CHI/Juventus).

From Marca.

I will rectify just one thing, '' strangely nno spaniard in the top ten '', its not really strange, Marca is a little biased here

Lionel Messi wins

@angryfan if this truly takes into account all of the 2014-15 season I highly doubt that. I would imagine much of Barca's top three have cancelled each other out, same with Juve.

Ronaldo has put up more stats, and Messi seems to have dropped on the field into a deeper role, which means he has more defensive responsibility (which as a defence minded guy, I love to see) but it doesn't reflect in his offensive stats, such as goal and assists, something these awards live on.

I would be very surprised if Ronaldo did not win.

This award should undoubtedly go to Messi. He has had a significantly larger influence on the game dropping back which cannot be represented by stats. Ronaldo has had improved stats because he has done the opposite of Messi: move further up the pitch. CR7's influence on the game has waned due to his heavily goal-minded approach now due to his past injuries, and there is a fine line now between Messi as the best player in the world and Ronaldo as second-best. Once again, I believe that Messi should take this award without any contest.

Pirlo being there does not seem right. I would replace him with Alexis, who has had a stellar campaign. I would also perhaps remove Hazard and add Cesc (or maybe Matic), who were also fantastic. I believe that aside from his nice dribbling skills, Hazard has not had the output or the influence on the game required to be hyped so much. A talented lad, no doubt, but I would like to see more from him in the coming years. So maybe it's harsh that I say Cesc or Matic deserves a place instead of him, but I just quite simply believe that Matic and Cesc were more important players at Chelsea.

:|

If I'm not wrong, Messi will become the first ever player to win this award twice, am I right?

@Dynastian, you're using logic. Awards do not.

@SunFlash

Ahh, but you see, BPIE is the one award in football that does use logic.

2011: Messi
2012: Iniest
2013: Ribery
2014: Ronaldo

As you can see, the award went to the rightful player each season. I cannot refute any of these winners. Messi did not win in 2012 for scoring more goals. Neither did Ronaldo in 2013. Instead, it went to the rightful winners, Iniesta and Ribery, who do not have statistics anywhere near those of Messi/Ronaldo. I have high hopes for this award, which was created to counter the "FIFA Ballon d'Or" bullsh*t in 2010.

Yep the difference is that this is based on journalists experts votes, while BO its up to players and coaches to vote.

@D: "I believe that aside from his nice dribbling skills, Hazard has not had the output or the influence on the game required to be hyped so much."

Are you insane? Hazard is the main reason why Chelsea can call theirselves Champions of England. He was easily the most consistent player in our squad (JT deserves a shout, too) and when everyone else played mediocre, he was the only one of our whole midfield + attack to take over responsibility and create something magical. He doesn't score that many goals, sure, but apparently people still haven't realized that he isn't a goalscorer, but a creator. Do I get annoyed if he passes instead of shooting when he's in a better position to score a goal himself? Yes, sometimes, but that is Hazards way of playing, he's a team player. I can see why he gets misjudged by people who don't watch a lot of Chelsea's games, but I can't stress his importance for the team often enough. Of course, Matic is the glue that holds all parts of the team together (which obviously makes him one of the vital players of Chelsea), but Hazard's importance can't be matched by anyone else in the squad.

TL;DR
Without Hazard, no title.

You are wrong here. Matic and Fabregas is what won you the tittle. Hazard played his role but didn't put the performance to say he
"carried" Chelsea to the tittle.

Both Messi and Cristiano had fantastic seasons, but Messi was doing much bigger role in Barcelona then Ronaldo in Real. He carried whole team. I think he was slightly better too.

Well I just got burned lol. Your logic defeats me.

"admits defeat"

@Juan

Once again, I reiterate my belief that Cesc and Matic are the main reasons why Chelsea won the title. You had Mourinho, Hazard, and Terry back in 2013/14, but were unable to win the title. But adding Cesc and Matic into the lineup drastically changed how you played, and matter of fact, created a huge gap between 1st and 2nd place in the EPL. For me, Cesc and Matic are the most important Chelsea players, followed by Hazard at 2nd and then Terry at 3rd.

@Dynastian
"Pirlo being there does not seem right. I would replace him with Alexis, who has had a stellar campaign. I would also perhaps remove Hazard and add Cesc (or maybe Matic), who were also fantastic."

this list is related to European football, that's why there are 5 Juventus players on it. in fact Hazard is totally out of place in there, same for Fabregas and Matic in case they would have been picked for the list. as for Sanchez, he may have had a stellar campaign, in EPL tho', not in Europe. Pirlo being in there is fair enough imo, at his age almost conquering another CL? he deserves the spot just because of that.

@Shpalman

Official definition of Best Player In Europe Award.

"Players are judged by their performances in all competitions, domestic and international, and at club and national team levels throughout the season."

By this regard, Alexis has been stellar with Arsenal, carried them for the majority of the season, won the FA Cup, and won the Copa America. He has a strong case for being in the Top 10 in Europe. Pirlo, once again, does not deserve to be there. He did not 'conquer' anything. Pirlo isn't as good as he used to be, and it's really that simple. Hazard outperformed Pirlo last season.

^ fair enough, so then replace Hazard with Sanchez. problem solved.

edit: regarding Pirlo, you can clearly see that CL had a huge weight, otherwise i doubt there would be 5 Juventus players in a 10 men list. also, why remove Pirlo and not Pogba for example, because he's more flashy than the bearded Maestro?
i'd remove Pogba at that point, not Pirlo.

@Shpalman

I was of the same mind. Pogba does not deserve to be there either. Perhaps a player like James, who has been outstanding all season long, or Matic/Cesc would be great there too.

^ Pogba is being overrated. or better, if he keeps being the humble Pogba of some time ago, then he could flourish into an absolute beast of a player. physically strong yet technically sound. but if he loses his mind into arrogance, like he showed a bit lately, then he's going to stop developing with the right mentality, and flop big time not living up to the hype he rightfully earned a while back.
edit: and for the sake of this context, yes, he's totally out of place in this short list.

^ Thats exactly what im thinking, i actually prefer Turan joining Barça, he costs half of Pogba price, he is more experienced, hard working, delivering consistent performences for years now, finished product...
Pogba is worth that much because its a promise of a future big player, he should understand that he didnt reached that level yet, he should keep progressing if he wants to be one of the best.

@D: We've had Matic too since January 2014 and he walked right into the starting line up, but that didn't make us winning the Premier League title, right? I agree with you on the fact that the additon of Cesc changed our playing style, but the second half of his season was utterly disappointing. Matic and Hazard's level decreased as well since the start of the new year, but definitely not in the same dimension as Fabregas'. If you watched Chelsea's games, you would've noticed that Hazard carried our attack and was basically involved in every goal.

I'm sure you don't think that Suarez/Raktic are the main reason for Barcelona's treble winning season, too. Messi was a Barcelona player last year as well, but that didn't stop Atletico from winning the title, did it? However, they've won it this year, but the main reason why they did, was neither Suarez nor Rakitic (although they obviously played a significant part in that), but Messi. That's the same scenario.