Arsenal and England winger Beth Mead was voted second by the UEFA panel for the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year, behind Spain and Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas and ahead of Wolfsburg and Germany’s Lena Oberdorf.

England's striker Beth Mead holds up the trophy as England's players celebrate after their win in the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 final football match between England and Germany at the Wembley stadium, in London, on July 31, 2022. - England won a major women's tournament for the first time as Chloe Kelly's extra-time goal secured a 2-1 victory over Germany at a sold out Wembley on Sunday. - No use as moving pictures or quasi-video streaming. Photos must therefore be posted with an interval of at least 20 seconds. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP) / No use as moving pictures or quasi-video streaming. Photos must therefore be posted with an interval of at least 20 seconds. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
England’s striker Beth Mead holds up the trophy as England’s players celebrate after their win in the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 final football match between England and Germany at the Wembley stadium, in London, on July 31, 2022. 

This is a great reward for her fantastic season for club and country.

Here are the full UEFA Women’s Player of the Year  rankings

1 Alexia Putellas (Barcelona/Spain) – 97 points
2 Beth Mead (Arsenal/England) – 84 points
3 Lena Oberdorf (Wolfsburg/Germany) – 47 points
4 Alex Popp (Wolfsburg/Germany) – 35 points
5 Aitana Bonmatí (Barcelona/Spain) – 25 points
6 Keira Walsh (Manchester City/England) – 18 points
7 Leah Williamson (Arsenal/England) – 17 points
8= Ada Hegerberg (Lyon/Norway) – 12 points
8= Wendie Renard (Lyon/France) – 12 points
10 Lina Magull (Bayern München/Germany) – 10 points
11 Delphine Cascarino (Lyon/France) – 9 points
12= Amandine Henry (Lyon) – 8 points
12= Mapi León (Barcelona/Spain) – 8 points
14 Tabea Wassmuth (Wolfsburg/Germany) – 6 points
15= Mary Earps (Manchester United/England) – 5 points
15= Selma Bacha (Lyon/France) – 5 points
17= Sakina Karchaoui (Paris Saint-Germain/France) – 4 points
17= Marie-Antoinette Katoto (Paris Saint-Germain/France) – 4 points
19 Merle Frohms (Eintracht Frankfurt, now Wolfsburg/Germany) – 2 points
20 Fridolina Rolfö (Barcelona/Sweden) – 1 point
21= Christiane Endler (Lyon/Chile)
21= Marina Hegering (Bayern München, now Wolfsburg/Germany)

On the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year voting process

The top three nominees were voted for by a jury comprising the following:

• The coaches of the 16 clubs that participated in the group stage of the 2021/22 UEFA Women’s Champions League
• The coaches of the 16 nations that played at UEFA Women’s EURO 2022
• A group of journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM)

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Jury members chose their top three players, with the first receiving five points, the second three and the third one. Coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own team.

https://twitter.com/SheKicksdotnet/status/1562851352904024064

There is a lot of debate, sensible or not, online about the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year award and the same will happen when the Women Ballon d’Or is announced soon.

The truth is individual awards, in the context of team sport, are not meaningless but genuinely impossible to assess.

There is no mathematical formula to assess a full season’s performances, so each voter ends up with his/her personal bias helping in the voting process.

There is now a lot data available, which is a good thing, and therefore performances can be measured, but the truth is comparing players in different positions is like comparing apples and oranges.

UEFA, to their credit, are very clear why Alexia Putellas won.

I would have expected, for example, a Lyon or an England player who had performed well to win the award, recognising the work done this season. And indeed, when we look at the Women’s Coach of the Year award, the top two reflects that with England’s Sarina Wiegman the winner:

1 Sarina Wiegman (England) – 200 points
2 Sonia Bompastor (Lyon) – 94 points
3 Martina Voss-Tecklenburg (Germany) – 71 points
4 Jonatan Giráldez (Barcelona) – 27 points
5 Tommy Stroot (Wolfsburg) – 22 points

So, congratulations to Beth Mead for a fantastic season aka ‘The Beth Mead Revenge Tour’ after missing out on the Tokyo Olympics’ squad

Hopefully, she can do even better in 2022/23 for club and country.

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