UEFA Women's Player of the Year nominees: Hermoso, Martens, Putellas

Jenni Hermoso, Lieke Martens and Alexia Putellas, all from UEFA Women's Champions League winners Barcelona, are the three nominees for the 2020/21 UEFA Women's Player of the Year award.

• UEFA Women's Champions League positional award nominees
• UEFA Women's Coach of the Year award nominees

The winner will be named – along with the UEFA Men's Player of the Year, UEFA Men's and Women's Coach of the Year and UEFA Women's Champions League and UEFA Champions League positional award winners – during the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League draw ceremony in Istanbul, Turkey, on Thursday 26 August. The UEFA Europa League Player of the Season will be announced the following day.

Forward Hermoso finished as joint-top scorer in the UEFA Women’s Champions League on six goals as Barcelona won the trophy for the first time. She was also Spanish Liga top scorer for the third straight year – and fifth time in six seasons – with 31 goals in 26 games, overtaking long-time leader Esther González with a final-day hat-trick.

What's more, Hermoso got nine UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 goals for Spain over the course of last term as the Spaniards sealed their finals spot. And during the same period she became the all-time leading scorer for both Barcelona and Spain.

Winger Martens, the 2016/17 award winner, also had a spectacular Barcelona season with 20 goals and 16 assists. Five of those strikes came in Europe, including both goals as Barcelona beat Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 in their semi-final second leg to clinch their spot in the decider.

Additionally, Martens contributed as the Netherlands booked their place to defend their UEFA Women’s EURO title in England and scored four goals in the Dutch Olympics campaign. Should she top the poll, Martens would equal the record of two awards held by Pernille Harder, who was honoured in both 2017/18 and 2019/20.

Putellas was the driving force in the Barcelona midfield, lifting the UEFA Women’s Champions League trophy as captain after displaying leadership and plenty of attacking skill, not least when combining with Martens on the left. She converted a penalty to put Barça 2-0 up in the final and notched 26 club goals overall in the season – not to mention chipping in for Spain during Women’s EURO qualifying.

The rest of the top ten

4 Vivianne Miedema (Arsenal/Netherlands) – 32 points
5 Aitana Bonmatí (Barcelona/Spain) – 29 points
6 Caroline Graham Hansen (Barcelona/Norway) – 28 points
7 Sam Kerr (Chelsea/Australia) – 18 points
= Fran Kirby (Chelsea/England/Great Britain) – 18 points
9 Pernille Harder (Chelsea/Denmark) – 17 points
10 Irene Paredes (Paris Saint-German/France, now Barcelona) – 11 points

How the players were picked

The UEFA Women's Player of the Year prize recognises the best players, irrespective of nationality, who played for a club within the territory of a UEFA member association during the past season. Players are judged on performances in all club and national-team competitions.

The shortlist of three players was selected by a jury composed of the coaches of the clubs that participated in the 2020/21 UEFA Women’s Champions League round of 16. Twenty journalists specialising in women’s football and chosen by the ESM group were also part of the jury. The coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own teams.

Previous winners were Nadine Angerer (2013), Nadine Kessler (2014), Célia Šašić (2015), Ada Hegerberg (2016), Lieke Martens (2017), Pernille Harder (2018 and 2020) and Lucy Bronze (2019).