Lionel Messi, Belgian Kevin De Bruyne and Norwegian Erling Haaland are UEFA football candidates for the 2022-23 season. The winner, who succeeds Frenchman Karim Benzema, will be announced on August 31 during the Champions League group stage drawing ceremony, which will take place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.

The final list known today is the result of the vote of a jury made up of the coaches of the clubs that took part in the group stage of last season’s European competitions, together with the coaches of the senior national teams for men and journalists.

Also in the vote were the German Ilkay Gündogan (Manchester City/FC Barcelona, ​​​​129 points), the Spaniards Rodri Hernández (Manchester City, 110) and Jesús Navas (Seville, 6), the Frenchman Kylian Mbappé (PSG, 82) , the Croatians Luka Modric (Real Madrid, 33) and Marcelo Brozovic (Inter/Al Nassr, 20), the Englishman Declan Rice (West Ham/Arsenal, 14) and the Argentinian Alexis MacAllister (Brighton/Liverpool, 12).

In European competitions, the Champions League was won by Manchester City on its debut, the Europa League by Sevilla for the seventh time in its history, and the Europa Conference League by West Ham, in a year that ended Argentina with the world title.

Guardiola in the company of Inzaghi and Spalletti

In addition to the nominees among the male players, UEFA also announced the finalist trio of coaches, an award that includes Pep Guardiola (Manchester City), Simone Inzaghi (Champions finalist with Inter) and Luciano Spalletti, who helped Napoli become Italian champions , 33 years later.

Only next week will the football organization announce the nominees for best player and best female coach next week and when it will still take place, with the final between England and Spain on Sunday, the Women’s World Cup.