Friday, August 18, 2023 – 6:43 PM
ABU DHABI, 18 August / WAM / Weeks after they won the historic treble with Manchester City at the end of last season’s activities, Norwegian striker Erling Haaland and fellow Belgian playmaker Kevin De Bruyne face a new challenge, and of a special kind, during the upcoming competition for the UEFA Awards. Football “UEFA” last season.
Yesterday, Thursday, UEFA announced the selection of Haaland and De Bruyne in the final list of candidates to compete for the Best Player in Europe award last season, and the two players in the list are competing with the veteran Argentine star Lionel Messi, who recently transferred to Inter Miami.
Haaland and De Bruyne are armed with the numbers that each of them achieved on his way to winning the historic treble “The League, the FA Cup and the European Champions League”, in the face of the historic achievement of Messi, and his winning the 2022 World Cup with his country and ascending to the world throne for the first time since 1986.
UEFA announces the winners of its prizes for the last season during its ceremony scheduled for the end of this month, which witnesses the draw ceremony for the first round, “group stage” of the European Champions League for the new season.
In the next few days, UEFA will reveal the final list of candidates for the Best Player in Europe award for last season, as well as the final list of nominations for the Best Women’s Football Coach / Coach award.
In addition to the three players who reached the final list to compete for the best player award, the preliminary list, which included 11 players, witnessed two other players who were crowned with Manchester City in the historic treble last season, but they did not join the final list, namely the German Ilkay Gundogan, who joined This summer for Barcelona, Spain, and Rodri.
The two players ranked fourth and fifth, with 129 points and 110 points, respectively, ahead of Frenchman Kylian Mbappe, “82 points,” the Paris Saint-Germain striker, who reached the 2022 World Cup final with his country.
Last season was Haaland’s first with Manchester City, after moving to him from Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2022, but the player achieved many records at the level of goals, most notably scoring 36 goals in one season in the English Premier League.
Haaland also topped the list of top scorers in the European Champions League last season, with 12 goals, 4 goals ahead of his closest competitor, the Egyptian Mohamed Salah, Liverpool striker.
Haaland, 23, became the youngest and fastest player to reach the 35-goal barrier in the history of his Champions League participation.
At the same time, De Bruyne crowned his eighth season in the “City” ranks with the historic treble, noting that he ended his participation with the team in the English Premier League last season topping the list of the most goal-making players with 16 assists, which is the third time that he topped this list in the eight seasons, He also issued the same list at the level of the Champions League, making 7 goals for his teammates.
But the numbers and contributions of the Manchester City duo with their team last season will face strong and formidable competition with the long-awaited World Cup title for the Argentine national team, and Messi achieved it with the team to complete his football achievements after a career full of titles and records at the club level.
And while Messi was crowned last season with his former team, Paris Saint-Germain, the French League title for the second season in a row, Messi’s chances of competing for the UEFA award will depend primarily on achieving the World Cup with the Argentine national team, especially since he played a prominent role in the return of the world title to his country after an absence. It lasted 36 years.
Messi scored 7 goals during the World Cup to finish second in the list of top scorers in the tournament, and he also won the Golden Ball award for the best player in this version of the World Cup.
In addition to this, Messi reached the barrier of 100 international goals last March, becoming only the third player in history to reach this barrier at the level of international goals, to become Messi a candidate again to win the award for best player in Europe last season.
Awad Mukhtar / Ahmed Zahran / Abdel Nasser Moneim
2023-08-18 14:44:36
#Haalands #goals #Bruynes #skill #challenge #Messis #achievement #race #UEFA #awards
