Being ahead of the favorites Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, Bayern Munich’s Frank Ribery won the UEFA Best Player in Europe award for the 2012/13 season.
Bayern Munich’s Frank Ribery won the UEFA Best Player in Europe award for the 2012/13 season. Ribery won the voting ahead of favorites Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The award function took place on Thursday at Monaco. The draws for the Champions’ League group stages were drawn earlier in the night.
Ribery won the Champions League, Bundesliga and the German Cup with Bayern Munich last season. He was instrumental in all the three cup victories. Winning the award was a big achievement by the French International as over the last few years Messi and Ronaldo have dominated this award.
In a glittering ceremony at Monaco, Messi and Ribery were both present for the award function. Ribery scored 10 goals in 27 Bundesliga appearances and also set up Arjen Robben’s decisive goal in the 2-1 Champions League final win over Borussia Dortmund.
Ribery earned 36 votes in the poll of journalists from across Europe — 23 more than four-time reigning world player of the year Messi. Real Madrid forward Ronaldo won three votes. The three-man shortlist was selected by a panel of 53 journalists drawn from each of UEFA’s member nations. The same journalists then voted for the winner. UEFA created the award after France Football magazine combined its traditional European accolade with FIFA’s world player prize. Messi won the inaugural prize in 2011 but was beaten by Barcelona teammate Andres Iniesta last year.
