Twelve Premier League players nominated for UEFA Team of the Year

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Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Leicester City, Stoke City, West Ham and Manchester City players are among the nominees.

Aaron Ramsey and Kevin De Bruyne are both nominated

Not a single Premier League player made UEFA’s Team of the Year last season, but 12 have been nominated to make the prestigious XI for 2016. Among them are a few surprise names, most notably Joe Allen of Stoke City, who finds himself among the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta.

West Ham United star Dimitri Payet is also nominated. Both Payet and Allen’s performances at the summers European Championship’s are likely to have played a big part in their nominations, and that is perhaps one reason why there are three Welshmen but not a single Englishman in the shortlist of 40 players.

Those 40 are made up of 4 goalkeepers, 12 defenders, 12 midfielders and 12 forwards. Perhaps the most surprising Premier League omission comes in goal, where there is no place for David de Gea. Widely regarded as being among the world’s best goalkeepers, the Manchester United man is overlooked in favour of Keylor Navas, Gianluigi Buffon, Rui Patricio and Jan Oblak.

Arsenal have the most inclusions of any Premier League club, with one player in defence, midfield and attack making the cut. Gunners defender Laurent Koscielny is joined by midfielder Aaron Ramsey and forward Alexis Sanchez on the shortlist. Some Arsenal supporters might be disappointed with Mesut Ozil’s omission.

Koscielny is one of just two Premier League defenders named among Europe’s 12 finest of 2016, the other being Tottenham Hotspur ace Toby Alderweireld. The Belgian has been exceptional since joining Spurs and is well worth his place among the top 40, whilst Dele Alli and Harry Kane can consider themselves unfortunate not to have made the cut.

Manchester United have two inclusions on the shortlist, although both spent the majority of 2016 with other clubs. Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are the only 2 Old Trafford based players on the shortlist in De Gea’s absence.

Toby Alderweireld is the only shortlisted player from Tottenham

Title winners Leicester City have just one representation on the shortlist in Riyad Mahrez, although N’Golo Kante also makes the final 40, having spent much of 2016 at the King Power, but he is of course now a Chelsea player.

Kante is the only Chelsea man to make the shortlist, with Eden Hazard and Diego Costa’s excellent starts to the 2016/17 season seemingly not enough to compensate for their poor 2015/16 campaigns.

Two Manchester City players are among the shortlist, and the inclusion of Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero is difficult to argue against. Not a single Liverpool player did enough to make the cut, and some Reds supporters may feel the likes of Philippe Coutinho & co can consider themselves a tad unfortunate, having reached a European final last season and flying in the Premier League this season.

Riyad Mahrez is the only Leicester player to make the final 40

Surprises in the announcement of the final 40 include 4 of last years starting XI not even making the shortlist, namely Manuel Neuer, Dani Alves, David Alaba and James Rodriguez. The omission of Neuer in particular, along with David De Gea, is likely to cause a number of raised eyebrows.

Stoke City and West Ham United will be overjoyed to see two of their players make the shortlist. Both clubs find themselves currently languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League, and aren’t used to seeing their men named among Europe’s elite.

Manchester United world record signing makes the shortlist largely due to his form at Juventus

The full list of Premier League nominees is below:

Toby Alderweireld (Tottenham Hotspur)

Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal)

Paul Pogba (Manchester United)

Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City)

Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal)

N’Golo Kante (Chelsea)

Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)

Joe Allen (Stoke City)

Dimitri Payet (West Ham United)

Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Manchester United)

Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal)

Stoke City’s Joe Allen finds himself alongside the likes of Ronaldo and Messi