Premier League stars N’Golo Kante, Eden Hazard and Virgil van Dijk have been voted into UEFA’s Fans’ Team of the Year 2018.
Kante and van Dijk are making their debuts in the prestigious team, while Hazard is selected for the second successive season. Fans were able to vote online for their favourite players to be selected for the team from a 50-man shortlist.
Liverpool centre-back van Dijk was the only non-Real Madrid player in the back four, with Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane and left-back Marcelo also named – the latter for a third time.
In goal is Barcelona stopper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, earning a 30% vote share to beat the likes of Liverpool’s Alisson Becker, Keylor Navas and Hugo Lloris to the No 1 shirt.
Kante, with 53% of votes, is joined in a midfield three by Ballon D’Or winner Luka Modric of Real Madrid and Chelsea talisman Eden Hazard.
With 115,440 votes, World Cup finalist Modric earned more votes than any other player in the team.
Predictably, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo slot into the front three, but Paris Saint-Germain wonderkid Kylian Mbappe takes the final spot ahead of Neymar.
Ronaldo extends his own record in making his 13th UEFA Team of the Year, while Messi joins him in double figures with a 10th selection.
Premier League stars including John Stones, Paul Pogba, James Milner, Kevin De Bruyne, Harry Kane, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah all missed out on a place in the team.
Real Madrid winger Gareth Bale was also denied a spot, having twice featured before in 2011 and 2013.
However, his club is still the best-represented with four players, while Barcelona and Chelsea both have two and Liverpool, PSG and Juventus boasting one apiece.
The award has been running since 2001, with 1.8million people voting to decide the 2018 team.
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