Barcelona’s captain Lionel Messi has won the Forward of the Season award for the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League campaign.

The 32-year-old Argentinian had another dazzling season in Europe’s top club competition, finishing as the UEFA Champions League’s 12-goal top scorer even though Barcelona were eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual winners Liverpool.

According to UEFA, Messi was chosen by a jury comprising coaches of the 32 clubs in the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League group stage, together with 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) group, representing each of UEFA’s member associations. Coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own teams.

Jury members chose their top three players per position, with the first receiving five points, the second three and the third one. The player who received the most points in each category was named the winner.

Forward of the Season top ten

1 Lionel Messi (Barcelona) – 285 points
2 Sadio Mané (Liverpool) – 109 points
3 Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) – 91 points
4 Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) – 83 points
5 Dušan Tadić (Ajax) – 35 points
6 Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) – 15 points
7 Robert Lewandowski (Bayern) – 10 points
8= Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) – 9 points
8= Harry Kane (Tottenham) – 9 points
10 Leroy Sané (Manchester City) – 6 points

 

Other Award Winners

UEFA Men’s Player of the Year: Virgil van Dijk
UEFA Women’s Player of the Year: Lucy Bronze
Goalkeeper of the Season: Alisson Becker
Defender of the Season: Virgil van Dijk
Midfielder of the Season: Frenkie de Jong