The UEFA Player of the Year award is presented by a panel of coaches from UEFA’s affiliated national teams, coaches of clubs from the Champions League, European and Conference Leagues, and football journalists.
Coaches were not allowed to select a player from their team.
Last year, French striker Karim Benzema, who beat De Bruyne and Thibaut Courtois, returned with the trophy.
Because of his nomination this year, De Bruyne was among the three nominees for the fourth year in a row, but he never received the award.
Courtois is not even in the top ten in the poll. The top five consists of four players from Manchester City with Germany’s Ilkay Gundogen (fourth) and Spaniard Rodri (fifth).
Kylian Mbappe (sixth), Luka Modric (seventh), Marcelo Brozovic (eighth), Declan Rice (ninth) and Alexis McAllister (10th) round out the top ten.
The Spaniard Pep Guardiola (Manchester City) and the Italians Simone Inzaghi (Inter) and Luciano Spalletti (Napoli) can become coach of the year.
The winners will be announced during the Champions League group stage draw on Thursday 31 August.
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