Virgil van Dijk has been voted as the best player of 2019 in Goal.com’s annual polling of the world’s best.
Goal’s list of the top 50 players in the world gets football fans talking every year.
The last few years have been dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.But van Dijk and Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah have gatecrashed the party and come first and third respectively.
Check out the top 25 below.
- Luis Suarez
- Marco Reus
- Andy Robertson
- Dusan Tadic
- Harry Kane
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
- Antoine Griezmann
- Jadon Sancho
- Roberto Firmino
- Robert Lewandowski
- Trent Alexander-Arnold
- Son-Heung Min
- Sergio Aguero
- Matthijs De Ligt
- Eden Hazard
- Kylian Mbappe
- Bernardo Silva
- Frenkie de Jong
- Alisson Becker
- Raheem Sterling
- Sadio Mane
- Cristiano Ronaldo
- Mohamed Salah
- Lionel Messi
- Virgil van Dijk
The Dutchman helped Liverpool to their first Champions League title in 14 years and they came within one point of Premier League glory.
Van Dijk has also ended the Messi and Ronaldo duopoly at the top.
Messi has enjoyed a fantastic season with Barcelona and has turned into a human highlight reel this season.
An array of dazzling performances with some sublime individual moments as well as winning La Liga last season earns the Barcelona man second place.
Mo Salah places in third after another great season with Liverpool for the Egyptian.
Ronaldo finds himself in fourth place after a below par year by his standards.
The 34-year-old still took home a Serie A as well as the inaugural UEFA Nations League with Portugal.But he and Juventus were knocked out of last season’s Champions League at the quarter-final stage, and he’s endured a slow start to this season.
Sadio Mane rounds off the top five to complete a Liverpool trifecta in the top spots.
Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva represent Premier League champions Manchester City in sixth and ninth respectively.
Frenkie de Jong makes it into eighth after a breakout year with Ajax which then led to a big summer transfer to Barcelona.
French superstar Kylian Mbappe rounds off the top ten.
This year’s best player will be decided on December 2 when the Ballon d’Or is awarded in Paris.
Last year’s winner Luka Modric has failed to make the men’s shortlist this year making him the first holder to not make the shortlist after winning the previous year.