Erling Haaland from treble winners Manchester City has been voted Europe’s Footballer of the Year for the first time. UEFA also honored Aitana Bonmati, Sarina Wiegman and Haaland’s coach Pep Guardiola on Thursday (08/31/2023).
Haaland prevailed over Argentinian world champion Lionel Messi and his City teammate Kevin De Bruyne. This was announced by UEFA during the group draw for the Champions League in Monaco. “I’m proud, I’m happy – I won the treble when I was just 22 years old,” said Haaland. “It was my dream when I was a kid. It’s something special. It gives me so much motivation to achieve even more. To collect even more trophies, I’m so happy.”
For women, the Spanish world champion Aitana Bonmati from FC Barcelona was crowned Europe’s best, unsurprisingly City’s triple coach Pep Guardiola won the coach choice. Sarina Wiegman, who only lost to Spain in the World Cup final with England’s women, received the award for Coach of the Year.
Wiegman and Bonmati contra Rubiales
At the ceremony, Bonmati and Wiegman made a strong statement against sexual assault against the head of the Spanish association, Luis Rubiales. “We all know problems with the Spanish team. It really hurts me – as a coach, as a mother of two daughters, as a wife, as a person. It shows that there is still a very long way to go in women’s football and in society . It’s a long road,” Wiegman said after winning the award for Best Coach of a Women’s Team. In equally haunting and emotional words, Bonmati appealed to football officials to set an example for the children.
In contrast to FIFA, UEFA selects its best player on a seasonal basis rather than on an annual basis. Haaland switched from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester City last year and, with his 36 goals in the Premier League alone, played a major role in the successful season of the “Skyblues”. His coach Guardiola also won the title of best coach ahead of Italy’s Simone Inzaghi (Inter Milan) and Luciano Spalletti (Naples).
