award winners
Reds Trio Land Top Awards
Jürgen Klopp, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson have all been recognised for their outstanding efforts for Liverpool Football Club in 2019 by picking up five trophies between them at FIFA and UEFA's glittering award ceremonies.
The individual silverware haul may not end there either as van Dijk is the bookies' favourite to win the Ballon d'Or in December. Should Virgil become the first Liverpool FC player since Michael Owen in 2001 to lift the Ballon d'Or – which was introduced by France Football in 1956 and is voted for by sports journalists around the world – it will complete a hat-trick of personal honours after he cleaned up at the UEFA Awards in August.
Virgil was named as UEFA Champions League Defender of the Season – beating Matthijs de Ligt into second and Reds' full-backs Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson into third and fourth respectively – before going on to land another prestigious accolade.
He was voted as UEFA Men's Player of the Year ahead of fellow top-three candidates Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, beating them both by over 100 points in the voting system. Sadio Mané (4th) and Mo Salah (5th) completed a Liverpool FC dominated top five.
The votes were cast by the 80 coaches from clubs that participated in the group stages of the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League (32) and UEFA Europa League (48), along with 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) group, one from each of UEFA's member associations.
“It has been a long road but that's part of my journey, it's part of who I am,” said VVD. “I needed it like this, I'm not a player who was 18-years-old and had that rise straight away. I had to work hard for every step of the way – that's part of me and I'm happy about that. I'm very proud to get this trophy.
“It’s been a great year and obviously, to get recognition for what we did last year is stunning. It’s down to everyone at Liverpool, everyone that is helping me along the way as well, so it’s great.”
Virgil wasn't the only UEFA award winner. Alisson won UEFA Champions League Goalkeeper of the Year by a landslide, receiving 334 points in the voting system with the other nine goalkeepers shortlisted only accumulating 332 points between them.
He kept the most clean sheets (6) in the UEFA Champions League last season and made a record eight saves in the UEFA Champions League final, which also earned him recognition at The Best FIFA Football Awards held in Milan's famous Teatro Alla Scala.
Alisson was named as The Best FIFA Men's Goalkeeper 2019 and was also voted into the FIFA FIFPro Men’s World11 alongside Anfield team-mate van Dijk. The big Dutch defender was shortlisted for The Best FIFA Men's Player 2019 gong alongside Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, but was pipped to that title by FC Barcelona's Argentinean captain.
Nobody was stopping Jürgen Klopp from being The Best FIFA Men's Coach 2019, however. The Liverpool FC manager beat off competition from Tottenham Hotspur FC's Mauricio Pochettino and Manchester City FC's Pep Guardiola to confirm what we already knew.
Jürgen Klopp is the best manager in the world.
“I have to say thank you to a lot of people, obviously,” said the Liverpool FC manager in his acceptance speech after collecting his trophy. “I have to start at the beginning with my family, sitting at home and probably watching it. It's great. Nobody would have expected that I stand here 20 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago, four years ago, probably.
“I have to say thank you to my outstanding club Liverpool FC. Who doesn't love it, has no heart haha! No that's not true, you can love other clubs as well!
“But to the owners, I have to say they gave me an incredible team, Mike Gordon in particular. And I have to thank my team because as a coach, you can only be as good as your team is. The potential of your team is one, what they make of it is the other. So I'm really proud of being the manager of such an incredible bunch of players.”
The 2019 Ballon d'Or ceremony will be held at Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, on Tuesday 3rd December.
