Past winners of the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award

The first player to win the award was Lionel Messi after inspiring Barcelona to both the UEFA Champions League and La Liga triumph.

READ MORE: Van Dijk beats Messi & Ronaldo to win UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award

The most successful player in the annals of the award is Cristiano Ronaldo who wo it in 2013-14, 2015-16 and 2016-17.

The UEFA Men's Player of the Year Award (previously known as the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award) is an association football award given to the footballer playing for a football club in Europe that is considered the best in the previous season of both club and national team competition.

The award, created in 2011 by UEFA in partnership with European Sports Media (ESM) group, was initially aimed at reviving the European Footballer of the Year Award (Ballon d'Or), which was merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year Award in 2010 to become the FIFA Ballon d'Or.

It also replaced the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year award.

Below are the full winners of past winners:

UEFA Best Player in Europe Award

Year Name Club/Nation

2010–11             Lionel Messi      Barcelona/Argentina

2011–12             Andrés Iniesta   Barcelona/Spain

2012–13             Franck Ribéry   Bayern Munich/France

2013–14             Cristiano Ronaldo           Real Madrid/Portugal

2014–15             Lionel Messi      Barcelona/Argentina

2015–16             Cristiano Ronaldo           Real Madrid/ Portugal

UEFA Men's Player of the Year Award

2016–17             Cristiano Ronaldo           Real Madrid/ Portugal

2017–18             Luka Modrić      Real Madrid/ Croatia

2018–19             Virgil van Dijk    Liverpool/ Netherlands