Buffon, Messi, Ronaldo in UEFA's best player short list

Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Argentine forward Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona) and Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) made the cut for the short list of three candidates for the Best Player in Europe Award, UEFA announced on Tuesday.

The three nominees were chosen in a vote held by the 80 coaches of the teams that participated in the group stage of the Champions League and the Europa League as well as 55 sports journalists from each of the member associations of UEFA, reports Efe news agency.

Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own players.

The extended nominees list also included, ranked by the number of votes: Luka Modric (R. Madrid), Toni Kroos (R. Madrid), Paulo Dybala (Juventus), Sergio Ramos (R. Madrid), Kylian Mbappe (Monaco), Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Manchester United).

The winner is set to be announced during the draw for the group stage of the Champions League, to be held in Monaco on Aug 24.

To choose the short list candidates for the Best Women's Player in Europe, the coaches of the 16 teams participating in women's Euro 2017 and the eight quarterfinalist teams of the women's Champions League also cast their votes.

The women players who have got the most votes were Denmark's Pernille Harder (VfL Wolfsburg and Linkopings FC), Germany's Dzsenifer Marozsan (Olympique Lyon) and the Netherlands' Lieke Martens (FC Rosengard and Barcelona).

--IANS

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