Van Dijk to take on Messi and Ronaldo again for FIFA player of the year
Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk will renew his rivalry with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo after being shortlisted alongside the two greats in The Best FIFA Football Awards.The Holland international and Champions League winner pipped the pair to become UEFA player of the year last week and will be looking to do so again later this month when the final results are announced.Premier League stars dominate the awards, with Liverpools Alisson Becker and Manchester Citys Ederson shortlisted for the goalkeeper accolade, along with Barcelonas Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, and Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Tottenhams Mauricio Pochettino making it a clean sweep on the shortlist for manager of the year.Who will be #TheBest?We now know the finalists FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) September 2, 2019England Women are also well represented with Phil Neville in the final three for womens coach of the year, having guided the Lionesses to a World Cup semi-final this summer, and newly-crowed UEFA womens player of the year Lucy Bronze making the final three in the womens player category.Alisson had the edge on his City counterpart in terms of Premier League clean sheets last season, with 21 to his Brazil team-mates 20, earning the Liverpool man the Golden Glove.However, Ederson finished the campaign with more winners medals after completing the domestic treble with City, although Alisson will view victory in the Champions League as adequate compensation.After leading his side to victory in Madrid and contributing to one of the most thrilling title races as his side lost out by one point with a record runners-up points tally, Klopp, a losing Champions League finalist the previous year, is one of the final three on the managers shortlist.Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola won the domestic treble (Nick Potts/PA)It is no surprise he is joined by Guardiola, who has changed the face of English football with a record-breaking City side, while Pochettinos efforts in getting Spurs to their first Champions League final are also recognised.Nevilles accomplishments were also rewarded, having revitalised the England team which had the nation gripped on their run to the last four.They eventually lost out to eventual winners the United States and one of his rivals for the award is their coach, Portsmouth-born Jill Ellis. Hollands Sarina Wiegman is the other. View this post on Instagram Words surpass me. Truly grateful to be named uefa player of the year, having played with and against so many great players this year, it really is a great honour and a huge surprise #NoneStopA post shared by Lucy Bronze (@lucybronze) on Aug 29, 2019 at 12:32pm PDTBronze was one of Englands standout stars at the World Cup and, after winning the UEFA award, is in line for the double.However, she is up against Megan Rapinoe, high-profile poster girl of the tournament, and her US team-mate Alex Morgan.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');
ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Carl Markham, PA');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '3dbb9f30-d2e1-4568-a06e-52e835deb17b');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football,paservice:sport:uk,paservice:sport:world');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Van Dijk to take on Messi and Ronaldo again for FIFA player of the year'});