Five Liverpool players have been named on the shortlist for the annual Champions League positional awards, which reflect the best player in their respective position for the previous campaign.
As European champions, the Reds’ Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Jordan Henderson and Sadio Mane are on the list, but Mo Salah, who netted in the final in Madrid, misses out to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The shortlist was put together using a voting system. Each coach from the 32 clubs to make the group stages last year had a vote, and a journalist from every UEFA member association also gets one as well – in England, that’s The Times’ chief football writer Henry Winter.
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The full list of nominees is below:
Goalkeepers: Alisson Becker, Hugo Lloris, Marc-Andre ter Stegen
Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Matthijs de Ligt, Virgil van Dijk
Midfielders: Frenkie de Jong, Christian Eriksen, Jordan Henderson
Forwards: Sadio Mane, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo
A winner from each category will be announced before the group stage draw for this season’s competition, which takes place on Thursday, August 29.
At least a couple of the Reds men on the list should have a good chance. Van Dijk and Alisson will be the favourites in their categories, while Mane had a superb season as well.