Bayern Munich striker Roberto Lewandowski will be crowned European Football of the Year for 2019-20 by UEFA, Goal and SPOX have learned.
Individual prizes will be handed out by European football’s governing body on Thursday. The cream of the crop from 2019-20 will see their efforts recognised after the group stage draw for this season’s Champions League is held in Geneva.
Bayern are the current holders of that continental crown, having swept aside all before them last term. Another treble triumph was won at the Allianz Arena, with Hansi Flick’s side also claiming Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal honours.
Prolific Polish frontman Lewandowski led the way when it came to chasing down major silverware.
At 32 years of age, the experienced goal-getter enjoyed the most productive season of his career to date. In 47 appearances for Bayern, Lewandowski found the target on 55 occasions.
In the calendar year of 2020, he scored 26 efforts in as many games and has gone on to claim a UEFA Super Cup triumph in the early weeks of the current campaign.
His contribution was expected to make him a leading contender for the Ballon d’Or, but the awarding of that gong has been scrapped by France Football amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
UEFA will still be dishing out their awards, and Bayern are set to figure prominently on their roll of honour.
Lewandowski will take the top prize, becoming the 11th player from the Bundesliga to do so.
Franck Ribery, another of those to have starred for Bayern on the biggest stage in European club football, was the last man turning out in the German top-flight to take the award, in 2013.
Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne – the reigning PFA Player of the Year in England – had been shortlisted for the 2020 honour, but the Belgian misses out. Manuel Neuer was also among the frontrunners, and Bayern’s World Cup-winning shot-stopper will be recognised as the Goalkeeper of the Year.
The defender prize also heads to the Allianz Arena, with Joshua Kimmich set to get the nod, while Flick’s remarkable efforts on the back of succeeding Niko Kovac will see him take the Coach of the Year crown.