Neither Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo nor Mbappé nor Lewandowski nor Neymar nor Haaland nor Kane … The trio of candidates for the UEFA Men's Player of the Year award have several common denominators. The three of them will finish the year with 30 years; all three are midfielders and brilliantly represent the new football trend in which physique and energy make the difference collective of the teams; All three play for Champions League clubs and none of them responds to the profile of a great star that usually monopolizes this kind of awards. Rather, they are closer to the classic team player who puts group before individuality.
The three candidates have been chosen by specialists in the field. For jury made up of 24 of the coaches whose teams participated in the Eurocup held this summer, the 80 club coaches who were in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League and the 2020-21 UEFA Europa League, as well as 55 journalists representing each of the 55 UEFA member associations.
Under the protection of the titles obtained with their respective teams and selection last season, Jorginho, Kanté and De Bruyne, have earned their respective nominations for their individual contribution. Key pieces in the collective operation, they shone by themselves, each one with a different but complementary role.
The brazilian Jorge Luiz Frello (Santa Catarina, Brazil, 29 years old), known as 'il professore' or 'Radio Jorginho' Due to his habit of constantly talking to his teammates during matches, he has spent his entire career in Italian football and with the Champions double with Chelsea and the European Championship with Italy, he seems to be a favorite for the title of best player. Well balanced midfielder for construction and recovery, at Chelsea he shares the width of the pitch with Kanté or Kovacic and has even played with the two together. Always him in the central position. In Italy it covers more field. Specialist in set-piece actions … and penalties, although in the final of the Eurocup his failed in the final round.
N'Golo Kanté (Paris, 30 years old) world champion with France in Russia 2018 presents the Champions won with Chelsea as the main banner of a season in which it has reached its maximum footballing expression and in which it has shown hidden offensive virtues. Both in his team and in the national team he has expanded his area of influence and has reached the attack with more freedom. It is no longer just the ball retriever in defensive situations, but it has shown that it also knows what to do with the ball when it is in its possession.
Kevin de Bruyne (Ghent, Belgium, 30 years old) He also has a past at Chelsea (2013-14) but it was at Manchester City at the hands of Pep Guardiola where he reached his greatest footballing splendor. Last season he won his third Premier, but an injury made him go unnoticed at the European Championship where he was called to be the epicenter of the Belgian game. A true all-rounder. In recent years he has gone through all the positions of the center of the field and the forward. Able to play as an organizing midfielder and false center forward, his ability to adapt to circumstances makes him a very complete player. More offensive, of course, than his rivals in the nomination.
Del Bosque: “I have come to think that the most balanced team would be made up of ten midfielders”
“I have sometimes come to think that the most balanced and balanced team would be the one made up of ten midfielders. They are the most complete footballers in their mentality. Generous and used to working for the team: they know how to defend, they know how to attack and to be attentive to all the circumstances of the game. They may be a little further from the goal and a specialist is always needed, but good midfielders go a long way and it has been proven throughout history. Of course, the three candidates this year meet those innate conditions of the middle or midfielder, as we want to call it, both technically and physically. ” Vicente del Bosque that he cannot forget that in his days as a player (1966-84) he watched football from the periscope of a midfielder with exquisite technique.
Since 2011, when UEFA staged this award to enhance its annual competitions, only two midfielders managed to break the hegemony of the forwards: Iniesta (2012) and Modric (2018). Virgil Van Dijk, Liverpool's Dutch central defender, also had his merit, who won it in 2019. The rest of the prizes were shared by Cristiano Ronaldo three times, Messi, two and Ribery and Lewandowski.
The Ballon d'Or, in force since 1956 and which only stopped being delivered in 2020 due to COVID, is undoubtedly the 'king' of individual awards on the football planet and a good reference to observe that ex officio, pure midfielders and hard, like Kanté and Jorginho, have had little recognition over time. Only two, the Czech Josef Masopust (1962) and the Croatian Luka Modric (2018) won the trophy. Among the long list of honorees are even more defenses: Beckenbauer, Sammer, both Liberos, and Cannavaro, central.
In the case of the Belgian De Bruyne, due to his strong technical condition, and the position he occupies in the field, he could be included in the family of the great historical '10' that did win the award, such as Luis Suárez (1960), Gianni Rivera (1969), Michel Platini (1983,84 and 85), Matthäus (1990), Roberto Baggio (1993), Zinedine Zidane (1998), Nedved (2003) and Kaká (2007).