Mead, Oberdorf and Putellas make UEFA Women’s Player of the Year shortlist

Germany's Lena Oberdorf, furthest left, and England's Beth Mead, second left, have both been nominated for the UEFA Women's Player of the Year award ©Getty Images

England’s Beth Mead and Germany’s Lena Oberdorf, who met in the Women’s European Championship final last month, are joined by Spain’s Alexia Putellas on the shortlist for the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year.

An initial shortlist of 22 was whittled down to three by a jury consisting of national team coaches at the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, club coaches whose teams competed in the 2021-2022 UEFA Women’s Champions League group stages, and journalists selected by the European Sports Media.

Mead earned the Player of the Tournament award after helping England to become European champions for the first time on home soil.

The right-sided attacker was joint-top scorer at the Women’s Euro 2022, finding the net six times including the tournament opener against Austria, a hat-trick in the 8-0 thrashing of Norway and the first goal of England’s 4-0 semi-final victory against Olympic silver medallists Sweden.

The 27-year-old scored 14 times and notched 19 assists during her season with club side Arsenal.

Holding midfielder Oberdorf is the youngest of the nominees at the age of 20, and was named Young Player of the Tournament at Euro 2022.

She was a key part of the Wolfsburg team that won the Frauen-Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal Frauen in Germany and reached the UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-finals.

A sensational campaign for Putellas in 2020-2021, when club side Barcelona won the Spanish Primera División de la Liga de Fútbol Femenino, the Copa de la Reina and the Women’s Champions League, earned her individual accolades in the form of the 2021 Ballon d’Or Féminin and The Best FIFA Women’s Player awards and the 2020-2021 UEFA Women’s Player of the Year.

Alexia Putellas enjoyed another superb season with club side Barcelona, but missed the Women's Euro 2022 with Spain due to an ACL injury ©Getty Images — Alexia Putellas enjoyed another superb season with club side Barcelona, but missed the Women’s Euro 2022 with Spain due to an ACL injury ©Getty Images

Another prolific season in which Putellas scored 34 times has her in contention to win UEFA’s award for the second consecutive year.

Barcelona again won the league and cup as well as the Supercopa de España Femenina in Spain, and reached the Women’s Champions League final, which they lost 3-1 to Lyon.

Putellas was expected to be one of Spain’s stars at Euro 2022, but was ruled out on the eve of the tournament with an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

Members of the jury were required to award five, three and one points to their top three players from the shortlist of 22, with coaches unable to vote for players from their own team.

Alex Popp of Germany and Wolfsburg, the joint-top scorer at Euro 2022, was among the players to miss out, ranking fourth with 35 points.

The shortlist has also been revealed for the UEFA Women’s Coach of the Year, with five reduced to three following a vote by a jury consisting of coaches and journalists.

Dutch manager Sarina Wiegman was nominated after helping England to win the European Championship, and is joined by Martina Voss-Tecklenburg after guiding her native Germany to the final and French manager Sonia Bompastor who led Lyon to domestic and European titles.

Both awards are set to be announced on Thursday next week (August 25) at the 2022-2023 men’s UEFA Champions League group stage draw at the Haliç Congress Center in Istanbul.