Juventus striker Cristiano Ronaldo is back as 2018 European Player of the Year candidate. His name is in the top three with Mohamed Salah and Luka Modric.
Currently, Ronaldo is the holder of the title. He was selected as European Player of the Year three times in the last four seasons.
This year, Ronaldo again became a strong candidate to win the award thanks to a slick appearance with Real Madrid. He delivered Los Blancos to win the prestigious title in Europe for three consecutive seasons.
In the tournament, Ronaldo also won the top scorer with 15 goals. It was the sixth time in a row that CR7 became the king of goals in the competition.
As reported by Sky Sport, Ronaldo's challenger is Mohamed Salah, who performed superbly last season with Liverpool. He became England's best player and brought the Reds to the Champions League final.
Another Ronaldo competitor is Luka Modric who is also a former Ronaldo teammate in Madrid. In addition to being a pillar that led Les Merengues to triumph in the European arena, Modric also successfully led Croatia to the 2018 World Cup final, despite eventually losing to France. But, the Vatreni Wizards have been named 2018 World Cup Player of the Year.
Interestingly, this time there was no name Lionel Messi to compete with Ronaldo. The Barcelona star is only on the top 10 with Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard and Sergio Ramos.
Announcement of the European Player of the Year will be held on 30 August 2018. Simultaneously with the draw of the Champions League group phase.