Mircea Lucescu, the Shatior Donetk technician, has been nominated by UEFA for the Coach of the Year title. The Romanian led the Ukrainian team to win the 2009nUEFA Cup. Il Luce will have to fight for the title with Joseph Guardiola and Sir Alex Ferguson, among others.
Beside Lucescu, the list of coaches competing for the title includes Josep Guardiola, Alex Ferguson, Laurent Blanc and Horst Hrubesch. The technicians can be voted until January 8, 2010. The UEFA winners will be announced on January 20 by the Champions magazine.
UEFA will award the "Team of the Year" a check worth of 100,000 euros. It might be meaningful the fact that FC Barcelona has 11 players nominated in the competition. The money will be donated to the Red Cross, like it happened in 2008 in Cristiano Ronaldo's case or in 2007, with Xavi Hernandez.
Best footballers of the year:
- Goalkeeper: Edwin van der Sar, Iker Casillas, Victor Valdes, Julio Cesar, Manuel Neuer.
- Right-back: Daniel Alves, Maicon, Dario Srna, Javier Zanetti, Philipp Lahm.
- Central defender: John Terry, Nemanja Vidic, Gerard Pique, Giorgio Chiellini, Rio Ferdinand, Carles Puyol, Dmitri Cigrinski, Thomas Vermaelen, Per Mertesacker, Bruno Alves.
- Left-back: Patrice Evra, Ashley Cole, Eric Abidal, Aly Cissokho, Marcel Schafer.
- Right mildfield: Cristiano Ronaldo, Dejan Stankovic, Milos Krasic, Jesus Navas, Marek Hamsik.
- Central midfield: Xavi Hernandez, Xabi Alonso, Yaya Toure, Sergei Semak, Frank Lampard.
- Attacking midfield: Steven Gerrard, Kaka, Yoann Gourcuff, Zvjezdan Misimovic, Diego.
- Left midfield: Ryan Giggs, Franck Ribery, Andrei Arsavin, Andres Iniesta, Mesut Ozil.
- Forward: Samuel Eto'o, Edin Dzeko, Grafite, Lionel Messi, Fernando Torres, Wayne Rooney, David Villa, Zlatan Ibrahimovici, Diego Forlan, Marcus Berg.
