Cristiano Ronaldo has won his third UEFA men's player of the year award in four seasons, beating lionel Messi and Gianluigi Buffon to get the trophy.
Each of Ronaldo's honors as the best player in Europe followed Real Madrid winning the Champions league. The UEFA vote by journalists from 55 member federations was announced on Thursday at the Champions league group-stage draw.
The women's award was won by lieke Martens of the European champion Netherlands. The other ominees were Pernille Harder of Denmark, and Dzsenifer Marozsan of Germany.
Real drawn with Dortmund, Spurs
Two-time defending champion Real Madrid landed in a strong Champions league group with Borussia Dortmund, Tottenham, and APOEl.
Tottenham was arguably the unluckiest of the record five English sides. Manchester United and liverpool both got favorable draws.
United was pooled with top-seeded Benfica, Basel, and CSKA Moscow. liverpool landed with the weakest top-seeded team, Russian champion Spartak Moscow, plus Sevilla, and Maribor.
Bayern Munich take on Neymar's Paris Saint-Germain, plus Anderlecht and Celtic.
Games kick off on Sept 12, and the Final is played on May 26 in Kiev.