Fans cast their votes as UEFA.com took a look at the fans’ Team of the Year for 2019 with seven players making a first-time appearance on the annual list, after more than two million votes were cast over the course of six weeks.
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1. Alisson Becker – Liverpool
A UEFA Champions League winner in his first campaign at Anfield, the Brazilian was named Goalkeeper of the Season for the 2018/19 Champions League campaign and kept 21 clean sheets as the Reds finished Premier League runners-up.
2. Trent Alexander-Arnold – Liverpool
The youngest player to start successive Champions League finals, he was named in the official 2018/19 Squad of the Season and, domestically, set a Premier League record for most assists by a defender in a campaign with 12.
3. Matthijs de Ligt – Ajax, Juventus
A star in defence as Ajax won a domestic double and reached the Champions League semi-finals, scoring a last-eight winner against Juventus – who he went on to join last summer – to cement his place in the 2018/19 Squad of the Season.
4. Virgil van Dijk – Liverpool
The UEFA Men’s Player of the Year and 2018/19 Champions League Defender of the Season, he was the man of the match in the final, before finishing as runner-up for both the Best FIFA Men’s Player award and Ballon d’Or 2019.
5. Andy Robertson – Liverpool
A juggernaut in defence, he made the 2018/19 Squad of the Season, provided 13 assists in all competitions last term and scored his first Champions League goal in October.
6. Frenkie de Jong – Ajax, Barcelona
Named the Champions League Midfielder of the Season, he won the Dutch double and was named the Eredivisie Player of the Season before a high-profile move from Ajax to Barcelona.
7. Kevin De Bruyne – Manchester City
Another selected in the 2018/19 Champions League Squad of the Season, the midfielder won a domestic treble with Manchester City and inspired Belgium to become the first team to qualify for UEFA EURO 2020.
8. Lionel Messi – Barcelona
The 2018/19 Champions League Forward of the Season, 12-goal top-scorer and the first player to score in 15 successive seasons in the competition, Messi racked up a half-century of goals for the ninth time in the last 10 years, He scooped a myriad of individual awards along the way to cap off on a brilliant last year, including the highest individual prize in world football for a sixth time in his illustrious career – the Ballon d’Or.
9. Cristiano Ronaldo – Juventus
Another stellar 12 months for the evergreen Portuguese, who added maiden Serie A and UEFA Nations League titles to his already bulging trophy cabinet. At the ripe footballing age of 34, the forward remains talismanic for both club and country.
10. Robert Lewandowski – Bayern
The second-highest scorer in the 2018/19 Champions League topped the charts in the Bundesliga (22) and German Cup (7) – both won by Bayern – before becoming the first man to score in the opening 11 games of a Bundesliga campaign.
11. Sadio Mané – Liverpool
The 2018/19 Champions League Squad of the Season member was also the Premier League’s joint-top scorer – he has since reached 100 appearances and brought up 50 league goals for Liverpool. He was also named 2019 African Player of the Year at the Annual CAF Awards.