Robert Lewandowski of Germany’s Bundesliga champions, Bayern Munich, has been named the UEFA men’s player of the year for 2019/20. The Bayern Munich forward was in the competition with Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne and Bayern teammate Manuel Neuer.
The 32 year old Polish international was announced as winner during the 2020/21 UEFA Champions League group stage draw ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland.
The top ten finalists for the award were:
1 Robert Lewandowski (Bayern) – 477 points
2 Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) – 90 points
3 Manuel Neuer (Bayern) – 66 points
4 Lionel Messi (Barcelona) — 53 points
= Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain) — 53 points
6 Thomas Müller (Bayern) — 41 points
7 Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain) — 39 points
8 Thiago Alcántara (Bayern) — 27 points
9 Joshua Kimmich (Bayern) — 26 points
10 Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) — 25 points
The Polish striker made a big contribution to Bayern’s 2019/20 distinguished season, scoring in every game en route to the club’s romp to the UEFA Champions League final in Lisbon. He had 34 goals in 31 Bundesliga matches and six in five German Cup games.
Lewandowski’s laurels so far include UEFA Champions League winner, Bundesliga winner, German Cup winner, UEFA Champions League top scorer, member of the UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season, Bundesliga Top Scorer, and Bundesliga Player of the Season.
The Polish ace has also 10 appearances, 15 goals and 6 assists in the UEFA Champions League and 31 appearances, 34 goals and 4 assists in the domestic German League.
Lewandowski was selected by a jury that comprises of 80 coaches of the clubs that participated in the group stages of the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League (32) and UEFA Europa League (48) along with 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) group, one from each of UEFA’s member associations. Jury members chose their top three players with the first receiving five points, the second three and the third one. Coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own team.
Players in Europe, irrespective of nationality, were judged for the award, according to their performances over the whole season in all competitions both domestically and internationally and at either club or national team level.