#3 Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid / France)
Antoine Griezmann actually finished fourth in the UEFA Player of the Year shortlist. Clearly even winning a World Cup trophy wasn't enough to give him a realistic chance of winning the award.
With 4 goals and 2 assists at the tournament in Russia, Griezmann was crucial to Les Bleus repeating their success from 1998 with a 4-2 win over Croatia in the final.
Luka Modric, who lost to France in that thrilling final, has been nominated among the top three - more so because of his Champions League success and the Golden Ball award for the Best Player at the World Cup.
And Griezmann did not have as much success with Atletico Madrid. They dropped down to the Europa League and won that with ease with the only tough opponents being in the form of Arsenal.
Atletico also managed to finish second in LaLiga but there was no way any other club was going to catch up with Barcelona.