2019 UEFA Awards: Top 5 contenders for Men's Player of the Year 

#1 Virgil Van Dijk - Defender (Liverpool)

Van Dijk is the current PFA Player of the Year

In the first three years of Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool tenure as manager, The Reds were very much a classic case of a loose cannon. You never knew what to expect, for they were as capable of exhilarating play in attack as they were of capitulating mistakes in defense in almost equal measure.

This meant that for all of their attacking brilliance, success was always going to be a distant dream as the requite resoluteness as the back to remain at the top was sorely lacking.

It was for this reason that Jurgen Klopp went all out to sign Virgil Van Dijk, eventually getting his man for a record breaking sum of £75m.

The Dutch international's impact was immediate, as under his guidance and leadership, Liverpool saw their defense transformed from shambolic into an impenetrable fortress.

Van Dijk's reading of the game is immaculate, while his positioning and organizational abilities are second to none and despite coming up against all the big guns in the game last season, he was famously never dribbled past.

The 28-year-old was instrumental to Liverpool's Champions League triumph as well as his country's second placed finish at the Nations League and it is for his imperious displays at the heart of defense for club and country that in 2018/2019 that Van Dijk has been installed as the favorite for most of the individual awards, while he was also named the 2019 PFA Player of the Year.