UEFA Team of the Year: 20 Liga players on 50-man shortlist

Voting opened on Tuesday to select the Uefa Team of the Year from a 50-player shortlist made up of five goalkeepers, 15 defenders, 15 midfielders and 15 forwards.

The list is compiled by reporters and correspondents at Fifa.com and based on a player’s performances for club and country during Uefa tournaments in the calendar year.

Real Madrid, who won the Champions League in 2016-17 to successfully defend their title, have a total of 11 nominees on the list and are followed by Barcelona (5), Juventus (5), Atlético Madrid (4) and Manchester United (4). Of the 50 players nominated 18 feature for the first time and there are 20 nationalities represented.

Liga sides feature heavily on list

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Real Madrid (11): Keylor Navas, Dani Carvajal, Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Toni Kroos, Casemiro, Luka Modric, Marco Asensio, Isco, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema.

Barcelona (5): Gerard Piqué, Andrés Iniesta, Leo Messi, Luis Suárez, Neymar (now at PSG).

Atletico Madrid (4): Jan Oblak, Diego Godín, Saúl Ñíguez, Antoine Griezmann.

Sergio Ramos won the individual vote last year with 488,908 votes and was selected in 75 percent of the teams picked by fans overall. In recognition of this achievement, Ramos presented a 100,000-euro cheque in the name of Uefa to the International Red Cross.

As a fan-based vote the team of the year is not officially endorsed by the European governing body but it has become increasingly popular among fans, with seven million taking part last year. 

Complete list of 50 nominees for the Uefa Team of the Year

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Keepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), David de Gea (Manchester United), Keylor Navas (Real Madrid), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Jan Oblak (Atlético Madrid).

Defenders: Dani Alves (Juventus/PSG), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Milan), Dani Carvajal (Real Madrid), Giorgio Chellini (Juventus), Kamil Glik (Monaco), Diego Godín (Atlético Madrid), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Marcelo (Real Madrid), Benjamin Mendy (Monaco/Manchester City), Thomas Meunier (PSG), Gerard Piqué (Barcelona), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Alex Sandro (Juventus), Davinson Sánchez (Ajax/Tottenham), Antonio Valencia (Manchester United).

Midfielders: Dele Alli (Tottenham), Marco Asensio (Real Madrid), Casemiro (Real Madrid), Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City), Christian Eriksen (Tottenham), Fabinho (Monaco), Eden Hazard (Chelsea), Andrés Iniesta (Barcelona), Isco (Real Madrid), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Manchester United), Luka Modric (Real Madrid), Miralem Pjanic (Juventus), Paul Pogba (Manchester United), Saúl Ñíguez (Atlético Madrid).

Forwards: Sergio Agüero (Manchester City), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Edinson Cavani (PSG), Paulo Dybala (Juventus), Radamel Falcao (Monaco), Antoine Griezmann (Atlético Madrid), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich), Kylian Mbappé (Monaco/PSG), Dries Mertens (Napoli), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Neymar (Barcelona/PSG), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Luis Suárez (Barcelona).