Four Barca players nominated for UEFA Club Football Awards
Víctor Valdés, Gerard Piqué, Xavi Hernández and Lionel Messi are FC Barcelona’s nominees among the 12 players shortlisted for UEFA Club Football Awards for the 2009-10 season, according to UEFA’s website. The four players have been nominated in their respective positional categories (Best goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, and forward), and one of the 12 will be awarded the overall prize of UEFA Club Footballer of the Year.
The UEFA Club Football Awards will be presented during the UEFA Champions League group stage draw in Monaco on Thursday 26 August, with three players apiece in contention for the best goalkeeper, best defender, best midfielder and best forward awards.
The nominations are decided by the coaches of the 16 teams that reached the knockout stage of the 2009-10 UEFA Champions League. Each coach has the opportunity of voting for the individual positional prizes as well as to name their choice for UEFA Club Footballer of the Year 2010.
One of the following 12 players in line for a positional award will be presented with the main item of silverware during the awards ceremony at the Grimaldi Forum, which begins at 17:45CET next Thursday.
At last year’s ceremony, Xavi was awarded best midfielder and Lionel Messi was named best forward and UEFA Club Footballer of the Year following their contributions to FC Barcelona’s treble winning season.
The list of nominees for 2010 is as follows:
• UEFA Best Goalkeeper of the Year
Júlio César (FC Internazionale Milano)
Hugo Lloris (Olympique Lyonnais)
Víctor Valdés (FC Barcelona)
• UEFA Best Defender of the Year
Lúcio (FC Internazionale Milano)
Maicon (FC Internazionale Milano)
Gerard Piqué (FC Barcelona)
• UEFA Best Midfielder of the Year
Xavi Hernández (FC Barcelona)
Arjen Robben (FC Bayern München)
Wesley Sneijder (FC Internazionale Milano)
• UEFA Best Forward of the Year
Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona)
Diego Milito (FC Internazionale Milano)
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United FC)
Unfortunately I think its gonna be a clean sweep for Inter this time.. However, it is a huge achievement that we are represented in all four categories despite not reaching the final.. Goes to show that the team had a great season..
Inter sweeps all except maybe goalkeeper cuz of Hugo Loris.
maybe would have, except for an injury plagued season
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Yeah an Inter sweep most likely
This season:
messi>milito
Xavi ~ = Sneijder
Pique was a beast.
From an unbiased standpoint, it should be Cesar, pique, xavi, messi; but since xavi and pique are underrated and inter won the cl, i think it'll be cesar, maicon, sniejder, messi
I thought VV had a better season than Cesar. Cesar was not at the top of his game… still very good, but he has lost a step. I think Sneijder should be given credit for his season ahead of Xavi. Xavi was great of course, but Sneijder did more with a less talented team. Messi and Pique were tops of their respective groups I believe.
I don't think it will happen but I would like to see Pique win best defender. Maybe the fact he scored that goal against inter will help somewhat, hopefully
didn't know arjen robben was a midfielder.
and how can they compare a rightback to 2 central defenders,I prefer a starting 11.
lol… probably did that to accomodate rooney… for whatever reason
I think Messi will win the best forward because I was the highest goal scorer and maybe the rest for Inter.
I second that thought, unfortunately
Messi was the top scorer and 4 goals against arsenal shows that he was best.
Cesar (superb goalkeeper)
Lucio (Pique had a great season, but Lucio won the tournament)
Sneijder (but Xavi had a better season, but Sneijder is overhyped by the media)
Messi (Milito was great but nothing compared to Messi)
lucio & snejder deserves to win…and so does messi….
What I dont understand is why team performance has so much relevance when it comes to individual performance trophies… No one had a problem when Forlan won the Golden Ball for the WC (myself included, i thought he deserved it) but everyone (the internation football community) has a problem with Messi winning the best player… because he didnt win anything??? … well hellooo… we did win probably the most difficult la liga in history.. and were only worse of than Inter in one game at the san siro where we still made the semi finals of that tournament…
I think its just hatred towards Barca…
But I guess when youre the best you have to live with that…
Great point. It's not the "Most Team Trophies Award." The recent Goal.com player rankings made me sick. Sneijder #1 over Messi? He had 10 goals versus Messi's 47. Everyone went nuts when C-Ronaldo scored 42 goals a few years back. Messi hit 47. That's incredible. He deserves every award under the sun.
couldnt agree more… i wonder how many coaches would prefer sneijder to messi.
That Goal.com shit was pissing me off too! Sneijder is good, but even Xavi and Iniesta are better. And we even don't talk about Messi.
Just his 4 goals against Arsenal should offer him all individual trophies this year! Especially this one!
Ohh I'm so happy for Pique
And Valdes of course 
Xavi and Messi expected. But still congrats to all of them.
This year Inter won over us. But whatever we are still close
Which would be a shame. Sneijder isn't even close to Messi's level.
player of the year will be won by someone who won the world cup. You should keep a track of things.
Not exactly someone who won the world cup….Sneijder reached 2 finals this year…being a new comer at Inter he did awesome….plus let's not forget he scored 2 goals against Brazil and was probably the person responsible for leading Holland to the finals. I like Messi but Sneijder deserves an individual trophy this year. Be thankful Madrid sold him
:D
What I don't understand is how Rooney has been nominated but Ivica Olic hasn't. Without Ivica, Bayern would never have reached the final in the first place. As for the players nominated from Barca, realistically the only player I can see winning is Messi which is a shame because VV, Pique and Xavi all had a great campaign. I believe it will go like this. GK: Julio Cesar, Def: Lucio, Mid: Schneider, Fwd: Messi or Milito I really can't choose between these two.
I hate it but…
Cesar
Lucio
Sneijder
Messi:)
samuel should have been here instead of maicon.
i hope xavi and messi win teh forward and midfield award. julio cesar will most probably win teh GK award. As for defender it should be pique but lucio is going to win it.
It's pretty satisfying to see Victor Valdes getting recognised with a nomination, even if he probably won't win it. I consider this as yet another step up for him; just another bit of extra "title" to hopefully afford him further respect, aside from the numerous Zamoras he's already won – after all, Zamoras might be fantastic to win, but something people outside of Spain generally may not know, value, or care about.
Whereas a nomination amongst the top 3 of Europe's premier competition gets much more attention worldwide, and would hopefully further silent his doubters, of which there are many – especially those who don't follow our club or Liga as closely as a fan; those who poses as a general observer of football who tend to see Valdes as a weak-link of this team.
And it's nice because while our boys in the DF MF and FW categories were no-brainer-nominees for most casual observers, when it comes to who makes the GKs short-list alongside the only no-brainer nominee Julio Cesar, it may not have been as obvious.
I know it might have been a fairly easy choice for many of those knockout-stage team coaches to choose Victor, considering how far Barça progressed into the competition, but coaches still know great GKs when they see one, regardless of relative reputation. In other words, if this award was chosen by non-footballing professionals, it'd likely have turned into a popularity contest instead – where more reputable GKs like Petr Cech or Edvin van der Sar might've conceivably been voted in ahead of Victor… even though they'd performed less well. uefa.com fan polls or surveys are excellent initiatives to get football fans & lovers involved. But they're still a form of popularity contest. So well done to Victor, even if he doesn't take the cake! B)
Excellent comment!
WIll be an inter sweep with the exception of messi. even though piqué and xavi were superior imo, inter won the cl. valdés was great too, but i see césar winning for the same reason.
The old man Martin Palermo has ranted bad about Leo, seems like he is missing his daddy Diego ! More news on Sport.es
he and maradona were the reason we failed to win the wc.The drug addict does not want Messi to shine so he decided to play him out of position.As for old Palermo he misses3 penalties in one match so he had to retire from national team, only for maradona to call him back.
LOL Xavi at this picture is damn hot !!
Only Barca player with an individual honour this time around would be Messi.
Snejder for sure is the best midfield of UCL but i think leo messi will win againts milito and rooney ! In defence did you see inter againts barca ?? hahahaa they all play in defence so why don't they nominate eto;o for defender ?
lool
LOL..xD
LOL Etoo was the reason Pique scored. Mourinho told everyone to go back and defend hahaha
I don't mind inter taking all the awards if Xavi gets footballer of the year. He was the best this year, no doubts about that. Even at the UCL, Xavi was the best by far. The 2 games against arsenal are there to remember (i do hope that Xavi wannabe remembers them too).
It's different to control th football that a whole team plays like he does to make great passes like Sneijder does. Xavi is from a different category than Sneijder.
xavi was not best at even teh world cup. iniesta and villa deserve it more than xavi does.
against arsenal did you watch it? messi alone won teh match for us and teh tie.
just because the stupid one and his business partner robbed us does not make thier players good for any award
totally agree. Xavi for player of the year!
2 bad Iniesta had an injury season. Valdesssss!!!!
good for valdes to be nominated. defence has to go to inter as thats all they did. defence to them despite the great pique, attack to us, sneidjer will win as he was the media hype man last year as well as playing bloody well. xavi doenst et the headlines so wont get the trophies stupid but hey….
Messi all the way, the game against arsenal should be enough on its own.
Casillas > Valdes.
Saturday's game (among other things) proves it.
[youtube kurnKUsUh0M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kurnKUsUh0M youtube]
Agree that Casillas was in fact epic in this game….but what does that have to do with the topic?
the official nominations for GOALKEEPER of the year have just been announced and VALDES has been nominated above CASILLAS which I find little ridiculous.
(see capped words for all relevant connections to the topic)
Why would it be ridiculous when Iker was second best in la liga last season, let alone Champions League? He is a great keeper but last season is one for him to forget
The nomination is for goalkeeper OF THE YEAR. And Valdes had a better YEAR than Casillas. See capped words for relevance.
LMFAO!
See capped words for relevance to the previous point!
Sorry, I meant to reply to huh's post, not IBES' one.
sure, whatever you think. it just so happens that casillas has a really crappy defence in front of him and is forced to make tighter saves (and unfortunately more concessions).
did valdes become a better goalkeeper than him in throughout this year? NO- del bosque would have probably banked on him in the WC if he had- valdes just gets the glory for the unseen work of this defense. and consequently, LOOKS better.
fact remains- casillas was and is the better goalkeeper. this nomination is bogus.
if the match was against barca casillas would not have been able to catch a single shot let alone taking the match into penalties
ROFLOL Messi has put goals past Casillas for the past 3 years. But he's definitely the best goalkeeper of the decade.
congrats guys
im happy for you guys! hope you get all the awards
valdes deserves something this year too