Chronicle Editor
Cape Town — UEFA.com yesterday revealed fans’ 2019 Team of the Year that includes seven players making their first appearance after over two million votes were cast.
Uefa Team of the Year:
Goalkeeper of the Season: Alisson Becker (Liverpool)
A Uefa Champions League winner in his first campaign at Anfield, the Brazilian was named Goalkeeper of the Season for the 2018/19 Uefa Champions League campaign and kept 21 clean sheets as the Reds finished Premier League runners-up.
Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool): The youngest player to start successive Champions League finals, he was named in the official 2018/19 Squad of the Season and, domestically, set a Premier League record for most assists by a defender in a campaign (12).
Matthijs de Ligt (Ajax/Juventus): A star in defence as Ajax won a domestic double and reached the Champions League semi-finals, scoring a last-eight winner against Juventus — who he want on to join last summer — to cement his place in the 2018/19 Squad of the Season.
Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool): The Uefa Men’s Player of the Year and Champions League Defender of the Season was man of the match in the final, then finished runner-up for both the Best Fifa Men’s Player award and Ballon d’Or.
Andy Robertson (Liverpool): Robertson made the 2018/19 Squad of the Season, provided 13 assists in all competitions last term and scored his first Champions League goal in October.
Frenkie de Jong (Ajax/Barcelona): Named Champions League Midfielder of the Season, he won the Dutch double and was named the Eredivisie Player of the Season before a high-profile move from Ajax to Barcelona.
Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City): Another selected in the 2018/19 Champions League Squad of the Season, the midfielder won a domestic treble with Manchester City and inspired Belgium to become the first team to qualify for Uefa Euro 2020.
Lionel Messi (Barcelona): The 2018/19 Champions League Forward of the Season, 12-goal top scorer and first player to score in 15 successive seasons in the competition, Messi racked up a half-century of goals for the ninth time in the last ten years.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus): Another stellar 12 months for the evergreen Ronaldo, who added maiden Serie A and Uefa Nations League titles to his already bulging trophy cabinet. Aged 34 but still talismanic for both club and country.
Robert Lewandowski (Bayern): The second-highest scorer in the 2018/19 Champions League topped the charts in the Bundesliga (22) and German Cup (7) — both won by Bayern — before becoming the first man to score in the opening 11 games of a Bundesliga campaign. Top scored in this season’s Champions League group stage with ten goals.
Sadio Mané (Liverpool): The 2018/19 Champions League Squad of the Season member was also the Premier League’s joint top scorer – he has since reached 100 appearances and brought up 50 league goals for Liverpool. Named 2019 African Player of the Year. — AFP.
Online Reporter