uefa.com team of the Year

Fans can now vote online for the uefa.com users’ Team of the Year 2006. The poll, now in its sixth year, gives fans the chance to select a team of players who made their mark in European football over the last 12 months.

Sixty players and managers have been nominated for 12 positions, including coach. Voting continues until 4 January 2007 on uefa.com website and the final team will be announced on 19 January 2007.

The players were selected for their overall performances either for a European club or national team, or in a UEFA club competition in 2006. European champions FC Barcelona have the most nominees with eleven, while UEFA Champions League runners-up Arsenal have seven. English champions Chelsea FC have received six nominations and French champions Olympique Lyonnais and UEFA Cup holders Sevilla FC have five apiece. In total, 19 clubs have players nominated. Eight members of Italy’s FIFA World Cup-winning squad plus coach Marcello Lippi have been nominated.

uefa.com Site Manager Adrian Harte said: "It was particularly challenging to select a group of nominees this year with performances in UEFA club and national team competitions in the latter stages of the 2005/06 season and the start of the 2006/07 campaign, domestic leagues and, of course, the FIFA World Cup coming under scrutiny. While there will always be some debate over players included and omitted, we are confident that this list highlights the best players and coaches over the past year and we can’t wait to see who our users consider worthy for inclusion in the Team of the Year.”

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.