Barcelona and Juventus dominate Best Player in Europe nominations

The shortlist for this year’s Best Player in Europe is completely dominated by the two sides that met in the Champions League final last month with Barcelona and Juventus taking eight of the 10 places available.

All three members of Barca’s celebrated frontline – Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar – make the cut but it is the Italian club that features more prominently despite losing the game with Gianluigi Buffon, Paul Pogba, Andrea Pirlo, Carlos Tévez and Arturo Vidal included. The other two contenders for the award, which will be awarded on the day the group stages of the Champions League are drawn in late August, are Chelsea’s Eden Hazard and last year’s winner, Ronaldo.

The Real Madrid star is again one of the frontrunners for this year’s prize but faces renewed competition from a fit again and in-form Messi. Both stars seem all but certain to make the final shortlist of three which will be announced next month after another round of voting by journalists from across Europe. The Irish Times represents Ireland in the process.

Asked about the contenders, Uefa president said Messi and Ronaldo headed his own personal list, “of course” and he went on to hail the manner in which Barcelona, under Luis Enrique, had regained their European title.

“Barcelona won the Champions League final when Juventus thought that they could win the game,” he said. “They played like Italians at the end, and won by playing on the counter-attack. When Juventus started thinking they could win, they lost – because Barcelona have three fantastic players who can score when they want.”

The Frenchman put a brave face on the recent setbacks to Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations, insisting that the widespread improvement in club finances across the continent meant the rules have generally had their desired effect.

But he suggested that the battle to regulate the competition between clubs at the top end of the game will continue. “What will be important in the future is to limit the possibility to have the best players in one or two teams,” he said. “That is important for competition. If everybody is in one team, this is not so good, and (with) the Bosman rule, it was difficult at the beginning, but people know that now.

“I totally support the agenda saying that we need more home-grown players, because it is not possible to fight on nationality. However, we have meetings in September with Mr (Jean-Claude) Junker and the European Commission to work on this.

“It cannot be possible that the best teams should have all the best players, or competition itself is finished. At the moment, you have big clubs with a lot of money who can have everybody. We have to think about football in all of Europe – not only in two or three clubs.”

The former international, who declined to comment on the current situation at Fifa, also raised questions about the future of the European Under-21 Championship, won recently by Sweden, given the changes that have occurred in the way players are developed by clubs these days.

“There are some decisions to be taken in the future about what could happen with the competition, because it’s not a youth tournament when you are 21 years of age – and, by the time of the finals, players are 23 years old when they play. It’s an ‘in-between’ competition. Some players are 23 years of age – but I had won 20 caps for the French national team by the time that I was 23.

“What happened a long time ago was that the education of players was undertaken by the national associations – so we created competitions to develop the players. But back then, at 17 or 18, they had not been in a professional club at 12 or 13, as they are now.

“That means that the development of young players today is very different. Now, when they are 18, it’s almost as if they have been professional players for six years. When I was 18, I had just arrived in the professional league.

“That means that a big change has taken place – so, for me, these competitions such as the Under-21 (championship) are a little bit strange today. A long time ago, it was okay to use this sort of competition to develop the players, but, nowadays, players at 23 are developed, because they began working at Barcelona, or Chelsea or Bayern at the age of 12. It is an issue for reflection.”