Newly-crowned European champions Bayern Munich dominate the shortlist for UEFA’s 2019-20 Champions League positional awards, with seven players making the cut following their title triumph in Lisbon.
Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski, who finished as the competition’s top scorer with 15 goals, will compete for the forwards’ award with Neymar and Kylian Mbappe of Paris St Germain, who lost last month’s final 1-0.
Bayern’s Manuel Neuer, who kept six clean sheets, was on the goalkeepers’ shortlist alongside PSG’s Keylor Navas and Atletico Madrid’s Jan Oblak.
David Alaba, Alphonso Davies and Joshua Kimmich completed a Bayern sweep as the nominees for the best defender award, while team mates Thiago Alcantara and Thomas Mueller were joined by Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne on the midfielders’ shortlist.
For the first time this year, UEFA will honour the best goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and forward from the women’s Champions League.
Five players who helped Olympique Lyonnais win their fifth consecutive title last season — Sarah Bouhaddi, Lucy Bronze, Wendie Renard, Dzsenifer Marozsan and Delphine Cascarino — have made the cut.
The selections were made by a jury composed of the club coaches who participated in the competition and journalists chosen by the European Sports Media group. Coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own teams.
Jury members have picked their top three players for each position, with the top pick receiving five points, the second-place three and the third spot one. The player with the most points in each category will be named the winner.
The awards will be presented during the 2020-21 Champions League men’s group stage draw on Oct. 1.
