The Best Men's Player The Finalists

The Best Men's Player: The Finalists

 

 

• • Antoine GRIEZMANN

  • France
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  • Having been named the best player both in the Spanish league, in which he helped Atletico Madrid finish third, and at the UEFA EURO, 2016 will go down as the year in which Antoine Griezmann truly came into his own. With 40 goals over the course of the 2015/16 campaign, he spearheaded Atletico and France's respective charges to the finals of the UEFA Champions League and EURO 2016, although both ended in heart-wrenching defeats. A skilful, unselfish attacker, the 5'9 (1.76m) schemer can quite simply do the lot. As Griezmann himself recently told, he is a "more complete player now" than ever before and has "improved in every way in the last two years". One person who would certainly echo this view is his coach Diego Simeone, who is on record as saying that the man they now call Grizou has raised his game to such an extent that he is currently "among the top three players in the world".

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    Lionel MESSI

  • Argentina
  • Lionel Messi shows no signs of letting up. After rounding off 2015 by collecting the adidas Silver Ball at the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan, he continued to figure large for club and country in 2016. In winning his eighth La Liga winner’s medal with Barcelona, he chipped in with 20 goals (putting him third in the scoring charts) and an impressive 16 assists, and also won the Copa del Rey for a fourth time with Los Blaugrana and the Spanish Super Cup for the seventh time. La Pulga also starred for Argentina on their run to the final of Copa America Centenario, serving up more assists in the tournament than any other player and ending it as the second highest scorer. In the process, Messi also became La Albiceleste’s leading all-time goalscorer.