Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, FC Barcelona teammates Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez were named finalists for the 2015 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award on Wednesday.
UEFA revealed the 10 finalists in July and then held another round of voting. According to UEFA, the 54 member associations were asked to give the top five choices with the No. 1 player on the list receiving five points, and one point for the No. 5 on the list of each member.
Following the latest round of voting, UEFA announced that the choice is now down to Messi, Ronaldo and Suarez, but they did not reveal how many points each player garnered.
Ronaldo failed to help Real Madrid win any title last season, but the 30-year-old scored a career-best 61 goals last season, including 48 in the Spanish La Liga. He also posted three consecutive hat tricks last season, and netted five goals during their 9-1 win against Granada in April.
On the other hand, Messi led FC Barcelona to their second treble in history after winning the UEFA Champions League, Copa Del Rey and Spanish La Liga. Aside from leading his team to a historic treble, the Argentine superstar also became the all-time La Liga leading scorer, surpassing Telmo Zarra's previous record of 251 goals.
Suarez struggled during the earlier part of his first season at Camp Nou, but the former Liverpool striker made a lot of noise later in the season.
According to a press statement from UEFA, one of the best moments of his first year with FC Barcelona was when he scored twice during the first leg of their Champions League round-of-16 match with Manchester City.
Suarez also scored a goal in the final match against Juventus. The Italian club were represented by five players during the second round of voting -- Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea Pirlo, Arturo Vidal, Carlos Teves and Paul Pogba.
Buffon ended up fourth in the final list with 24 points, FC Barcelona striker Neymar finished fifth with 23 points, while Eden Hazard, who helped Chelsea win the English Premier League last season, wound up fifth with 21 points. Pirlo finished seventh with 12 points, followed by Vidal with 11 points, Teves with eight points and Pogba with five points.
The 2015 UEFA Best Player in Europe will be named on Aug. 27 during the 2015-16 Champions League group stage draw in Monaco. The prestigious award was handed to Messi in 2011, Andres Iniesta in 2012, Franck Ribery in 2013 and Ronaldo in 2014.
