Van Dijk to Battle Ronaldo and Messi for the FIFA Best Player of the Year Award

Virgil Van Dijk has another individual award to contest with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

The three players were candidates in last week’s UEFA Player of the Year Award held in France. Liverpool’s Van Dijk secured the title to become the first Dutch defender to win the European Award.

One of the three on September 23 will have one declared as the ultimate winner of the FIFA Best Men’s Player of the year at Teatro all Scala in Milan.

Cristiano Ronaldo has won the award twice and has returned to the top three for the fourth year running whiles Messi, named the world’s top player five times is once more nominated among the trio. Van Dijk conducted a decent Liverpool backline to win their sixth UEFA Champions League trophy after a disappointing lose to Madrid in Kiev last two seasons. Liverpool almost won the Premier League for the first time after 29 years but were beaten by Guardiola’s City by a point to retain the trophy.

Ronaldo’s exit from the Spanish Laliga animated the Italian Series A after he opted for Juventus. He won the Serie A title with the ‘old ladies’ and influenced Portugal with his leadership to win the maiden edition of the UEFA Nations League trophy on home soil. They defeated Van Dijk's Netherlands in the final by a goal to nil.

Messi won the Spanish Laliga yet the disappointing exit from the Champions League semi-final second leg at Anfield was one of the shocking defeat in his career. The Argentine was the leading top scorer in the competition with 12 goals. He failed to win the Copa America with Argentina and was banned and fined $50,000 for alleging bias on the South American football body.

Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan of the United States Women National Team (USWNT) are competing with England’s Lucy Bronze for the Best FIFA Women’s Player of the Year.