UEFA has revealed the results of a vote by journalists and coaches who have chosen Dutch defender Vergel van Dijk as Europe's best player, who overwhelmed Portuguese rivals Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
The Liverpool defender, who became the first defender to receive the award, got 305 points, while Messi got only 207 points, but the shocking result was Ronaldo with 74 points.
The 28-year-old Dutch captain has been able to strengthen Liverpool's defense since joining from Southampton in January 2018 for 75 million pounds ($ 92.08 million), in a record deal for the defender at the time, thanks to his physical strength and good reading of the games.
Van Dyck began his career at home to Groningen, moved to Celtic before going to the Premier League, and helped Liverpool to finish second and win the Champions League.
The method of voting for the prize is similar to the method of voting for the Golden Ball award. Voting was restricted to journalists only. In the first round, 53 journalists representing all the UEFA football federations will select only the top three players.
However, in 2018, UEFA included eighty coaches from the clubs that participated in the group stage of the Champions League and the Europa League to the jury. The number of journalists selected by UEFA has risen to 55, representing the federations.