Legendary Juventus shot stopper, Gianluigi Buffon, has been shortlisted as one of the three players nominated for this year’s UEFA Player of the Year award, the European governing body, UEFA, has announced.
The 39-year-old was shortlisted alongside the usual suspects, the impressive duo of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, who has won the said award twice and his rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, also a two-time winner, of Real Madrid.
Buffon was an important member of the Italian champions, who reached the final of the 2017 UEFA Champions league final, before falling 4-1 to eventual champions, Madrid in Cardiff.
The list was decided by a group that consisted of eighty managers of clubs that participated in the group stages of CL and Europa League, including 55 journalists.
European Champions, Real Madrid, had as many as four players in the top ten, including Ronaldo, while Juventus were represented by two players.
Others clubs who had representatives in the top ten are, Monaco, Bayern Munchen, Barcelona and Europa League champions, Manchester United, who all had one player each in the top ten.
Nevertheless, notably missing from the list released by UEFA are current most expensive player in the world, Neymar, who recently completed his record breaking 222million transfer to PSG from Barcelona, and ex-team mate, Luis Suarez, who scored 37 times last season in all competitions for the Catalans.
The winner of the award will be unveiled on August 24, in Monaco.
