Geneva (AFP)

The Polish Robert Lewandowski, winner of the Champions League with Bayern Munich, and the Danish Pernille Harder, finalist in the ladies' category, were crowned Thursday best UEFA players 2019-2020, individual trophies all the more prestigious this season in the absence of Ballons d'Or.

While the coronavirus pandemic has deeply disrupted the calendar of world football in 2020, these prizes awarded Thursday in Geneva on the sidelines of the draw for the men's C1 have the air of consecration for these two attackers, who shone in August and embodied the return of the round ball during the "Final 8" of the European Cups.

On the men's side, the 32-year-old striker took the upper hand over his teammate Manuel Neuer, 34, voted best goalkeeper of the year, and over Belgian Manchester City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne, 29, the decisive passer of the season in Europe.

"It's an incredible feeling to have this trophy, I worked so hard," said the Polish gunner, who had been chomping at the bit for years behind the Ronaldo-Messi tandem and openly dreamed of Ballon d'Or .

It will not be for this year since the supreme distinction of football was canceled for the first time since 1956. The fate of the Fifa The Best prize, traditional foretaste of the Ballon d'Or, remains in suspense.

- Finally decisive -

Arrived from Dortmund in 2014, "Lewy" stacked 34 goals in the Bundesliga and 15 in C1 this season, to become one of the major architects of the five-fold Championship-Cup-C1-European Super Cup-German Supercup achieved by the Bavarian.

Work monster and finally decisive in the choppy matches, the Pole was able to broaden his range of pure number 9 to progress with his back to goal and last year to make six assists in C1 in addition to his fifteen goals, until the European coronation in Lisbon.

He who dreamed of the cup with big ears "since he was a little boy" thus overcomes his frustration of 2013: then rising star of Borussia Dortmund, Lewandowski had spent a quadruplet at Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Champions League before losing in the final ... against Bayern.

Now double winner of the C1, Manuel Neuer for his part fails to become one of the few goalkeepers awarded in individual, since the award in 1963 of the Ballon d'Or to the Russian “Black Spider” Lev Yachine.

To complete Bayern's raid on awards, Hans-Dieter "Hansi" Flick was voted coach of the year, after being called to the rescue in November 2019 to replace Niko Kovac, for whom he was deputy.

- Drogba honored -

Among women, OL coach Jean-Luc Vasseur won by virtue of Lyon's victory in the Champions League final against Wolfsburg (3-1).

But it is the Danish striker Pernille Harder, transferred this summer from Wolfsburg to Chelsea, who was crowned best player, at the expense of the French Wendie Renard and the English Lucy Bronze, who had yet reached the European Grail. with OL.

Less known than Marta, Ada Hegerberg or Megan Rapinoe, Pernille Harder thus settles in the world elite of her sport, a few weeks after becoming this summer the most expensive player in the world by leaving Wolfsburg for Chelsea, where she found her companion Magdalena Eriksson.

"I am proud to take my discipline to another dimension," commented the person on Thursday when receiving the trophy for best striker, in addition to that of best player overall.

The evening opened with the presentation of the "UEFA President's Award" to former Ivorian striker Didier Drogba, who won the Champions League with Chelsea in 2012 against Bayern Munich, after playing for Le Mans, Guingamp and have become a Marseille icon thanks to his only 2003-2004 season.

© 2020 AFP