Last night saw the crème de la crème of football gather in Monaco for this season's UEFA Champions League draw. Amidst the ongoing draws where UEFA awards given to deserving players of the last concluded season across Europe in the Champions League. I’m not going to major on how the draw went which was quite interesting to clubs being paired in groups but will focus on the recipients of some of the awards last night.
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One of the award that caught my attention was the UEFA men’s award which is given to the best male performance in the competition. In recently times we have seen the award being dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo year in year out with few players bridging it rarely few times like Luka Modric of Real Madrid Last season.
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Last night award undoubtably was given to Dutch national and Liverpool centre defender Virgil van Dijk for his outstanding displayed in the competition last year. He kept 12 clean sheets, scored two goals and assisted two. van Djik went on to lead Netherland to Nations league finals where they lost to Portugal. In the premier league, he won the PFA player of the season along with Liverpool's player and Fans player of the season.
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The interesting aspect of it all is that he became the first defender to win the award since the it was first initiated in 1998/9 season which Ronaldo won at Inter. Players like Deco, Gerrard, Buffon, Beckham, Zidane, Ronaldinho, Milito, Iniesta, Ribery, Kaka, Messi, Ronaldo have lifted the award.
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In a world of football where fans are mainly after how much their team scored and who scored them has seen some good defenders in the past bypassed for prestigious award. Virgil van Djik’s honour is a landmark award that has open the floor game for every player in the pitch to be recognized for their performances. If the forwards keep scoring and defenders keep conceded, you will agree that the goals are of no use.
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Before his arrival from Southampton as the world most expensive defended at £75m, van Dijk was by performance not up to that amount but Klopp has to bring him to Anfield to solve his defensive problems. It was not a big deal as Barcelona had purchased Philippe Coutinho for £142m. Since his arrival, he has gone to prove the he was what Liverpool needed. His outstanding performance ensured that Liverpool went all through to lift the UEFA Champions League beating Barcelona in a historic comeback and Tottenham in the finals.
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The best Keeper award went to liver pools keeper and van Djik’s team mate Alisson Becker who kept 6 clean sheets and made 8 saves in final match against Tottenham in their 2-0 win.
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Barcelona Lionel Messi got the award for the best forward with his 12 goals in 10 games to beat Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane.
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The best midfielder award went to Frenkie de Jong who was outstanding with Ajax as they went on to eliminate two European giants Real Madrid and Juventus but lost to Tottenham on their way to the finals.
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