Manchester City, Manchester United, and Barcelona stars feature on UEFA’s best footballer shortlist, along with little known Les Davies…
There was a big surprise when UEFA unveiled their shortlist for their prestigious award yesterday, in the form of undheralded Weslh semi-professional star Les Davies.
In case you are wondering just who Davies is, and what is behind his remarkable story, here are five facts about him…
1) Les Davies plays for Bangor City in Wales and is 27.
2) He was the Welsh side’s top scorer last year with 15 goals
3) He started as a winger but ahs converted to ‘an old fashioned centre forward’ and was capped by the Wales under-21 side in his younger days, and has played in the Intertoto Cup and Champions League qualifying rounds.
4) His former club is little known Porthmadog, one of Wales’ oldest clubs, founded in 1884, where he scored 18 goals in two seasons.
5) Davies is nicknamed ‘The Truck’ due to his playing style, using his physical strength to his advantage to take players on and score goals.
Here is the 32-player ‘shortlist’ for the UEFA award:
Aguero (Man City), Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid), Balotelli (Man City), Blaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund), Buffon (Juventus), Casillas (Real Madrid), Cech (Chelsea), Coentrao (Real Madrid), Davies (Bangor), Drogba (Shanghai Shenhua), Fabregas (Barcelona), Falcao (Atletico Madrid), Hart (Man City), Ibrahimovic (AC Milan), Iniesta (Barcelona), Kagawa (Man Utd), Kompany (Man City), Lampard (Chelsea), Messi (Barcelona), Modric (Tottenham), Ozil (Real Madrid), Pepe (Real Madrid), Pirlo (Juventus), Ramos (Real Madrid), Raul (Al-Sadd Sports Club), Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Rooney (Man Utd), Silva (Man City), Torres (Chelsea), Y Toure (Man City). van Persie (Arsenal), Xavi (Barcelona).
Read just why Welsh journalist Dave Jones nominated him for the award.
Watch a video of Les Davies in action, scoring against a Wigan developmental side earlier this year…
image: © us_army_rolling_along
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