http://www1.uefa.com/fanzone/TeamOfTheYear/index.html

Voting has opened for the uefa.com users' Team of 2008 and fans have until 12 January 2009 to select their star performers from a list of 60 players and coaches who have shone in the last 12 months.

Eighth edition
The poll, now in its eighth year, allows users to select their choice of players and coaches in 12 positions from a group of nominees picked by uefa.com's staff writers on the basis of their displays for club and country in 2008. The uefa.com Team of the Year is not intended as a rival to more established awards, and does not bear the official UEFA imprimatur, but has already proved hugely popular with fans, with more than 13 million votes cast in previous polls.

'Accurate reflection'
uefa.com editorial manager Massimo Gonnella said: "With UEFA EURO 2008™ taking place this year, it was even harder than usual to come up with a shortlist of nominations for the uefa.com users' Team of 2008. However, we feel that the users' final list will represent an accurate reflection of the best performers of the past year. This year we will also be giving fans the chance to explain why they have voted for a particular player or coach and to have their say on all the nominees."

Most nominated
European champions Manchester United FC have the most nominees with seven, while UEFA Champions League runners-up Chelsea have six. UEFA Cup winners FC Zenit St. Petersburg earned five nominations along with Spanish champions Real Madrid CF. In total, 20 clubs have players or coaches involved, while 14 members of Spain's UEFA EURO 2008™-winning squad, including coach Luis Aragonés, have been nominated.

Goalkeeper: Edwin van der Sar , Iker Casillas , Petr Cech , Rene Adler , Igor Akinfeev

Right-back: Jose Bosingwa , Aleksandr Anyukov , Bacary Sagna , Sergio Ramos , Maicon

Central defender: Jamie Carragher , Tomas Ujfalusi , Rio Ferdinand , Ricardo Carvlho , Nemanja Vidic , Carles Puyol , John Terry , Carlos Marchena , Giorgio Chiellini , Pepe

Central defender: Jamie Carragher , Tomas Ujfalusi , Rio Ferdinand , Ricardo Carvlho , Nemanja Vidic , Carles Puyol , John Terry , Carlos Marchena , Giorgio Chiellini , Pepe

Left-back: Joan Capdevila , Philipp Lahm , Patrice Evra , Yuri Zhirkov , Giovanni van Bronkhorst

Right midfield: Javier Zanetti , Steven Gerrard , Hamit Altintop , Cristiano Ronaldo , Bastian Schweinsteiger

Central midfield: Anatoliy Tymoschuk, Xavi Hernandez , Konstanin Zyryanov , Marcos Senna , Mehmet Aurelio

Attacking midfield: Frank Lampard , Michael Ballack , Cesc Fabregas , Andrei Arshavin , Luka Modric

Left midfield: Wesley Sneijder , Arjen Robben , Andreas Iniesta , David Silva , Franck Ribery

Forward: Alessandro Del Piero , Fernando Torres , Zlatan Ibrahimovic , Wayne Rooney , David Villa , Karim Benzema , Lionel Messi , Sergio Aguero , Daniel Guiza , Emmanuel Adebayor

Forward: Alessandro Del Piero , Fernando Torres , Zlatan Ibrahimovic , Wayne Rooney , David Villa , Karim Benzema , Lionel Messi , Sergio Aguero , Daniel Guiza , Emmanuel Adebayor

Coach: Temuri Ketsbia , Fatih Terim , Dick Advocaat , Luis Aragones , Sir Alex Ferguson

----------------Cassilas----------------

Bosingwa--Ferdinand--Carvalho--Evra

Ronaldo---Senna--Lampard---Iniesta

----------Messi--Ibrahimovic----------

Coach: Ketsbaia

That's how i voted.

Gerrard officially a right sided midfielder then?

Ian Rush just picked his UEFA Team of the Year 2008, on ITV Champions League programe.



No Man Utd player, what a c**t.

He's probably gutted that he didn't make Rio Ferdinand's homegrown XI, while 7 current/former Man Utd players did.

Batman wrote:Ian Rush just picked his UEFA Team of the Year 2008, on ITV Champions League programe.

GK (can't remember)

Ramos . . Carragher . . Terry . . Lahm

Gerrard . . Senna . . Arshavin . . Iniesta

Torres . . Messi

No Man Utd player, what a c**t.

Gerrard over Ronaldo and Carragher over Rio.


Just voted for mine.

Casillas,
Maicon, Rio, Vidic, Evra
Ronaldo, Senna, Arsharvin, Ribery
Torres, Messi

Coach - Fergie.

Parks lives wrote:
Coach - Fergie.

Blasphemer!!

-----------------Cas

--Maicon-------Puyol--------Vidic----- Evra


--Ronaldo------Ashavin------Xavi-------Iniesta


---------------Messi----- Zlatan

Luis Aragones

You can't vote for both Senna & Xavi they are competiting for the same spot & Senna > Xavi.

Goalkeeper: Iker Casillas

Right-back: Bacary Sagna

Central defender: Ricardo Carvlho

Central defender: Rio Ferdinand

Left-back: Patrice Evra

Right midfield: Steven Gerrard

Central midfield: Marcos Senna

Attacking midfield: Andrei Arshavin

Left midfield: Franck Ribery

Forward: David Villa

Forward: Fernando Torres

Coach: Dick Advocaat

. . . . . . . . . . . . . Akinfeev . . . . . . . . .

Bosinwga . . Carvalho . . Rio . . Evra . .

Gerrard . . Senna . . Lampard . . Ribery

. . . . . . . . . Villa . . Torres . . . . . . . .

If only it was 4-4-3

Wanted to put Messi in there.

Iker Casillas (GK was a poor selection...VDS was hardly magnificent last year, so I have to vote for a Madrid player )

Maicon, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra

Ronaldo, Xavi, Arshavin, Iniesta (though Senna should be here instead of Iniesta)

Fernando Torres, David Villa

Coach: Luis Aragones


The only picks I had to think twice about were Maicon vs. Sagna at RB (Maicon wins for winning a title), Iniesta over Senna because of the way they've set it up, and who to partner Torres in attack. Adebayor, Aguero, and Guiza had great domestic seasons...but so did Villa, and he won the Euros, so he wins.


Bench: Van Der Saar, Aguero, Guiza, Adebayor, Ribery, Senna, Sagna

------------Casillias

Maicon - Terry - Vidic - Lahm
Gerrard - Xavi - Arshavin - Ribery
-----------Messi - Torres

Coach: Ketsbaia

I picked Gerrard over Ronaldo because Ronaldo is a Foward and not a RM.

----------------Sar
Sagna---Ujfalusi---Marchena----Gio
-------------Tymoschuk-----------
----Hamit A-------------Ribery----
---------------Cesc---------------
---------Messi---------------------
----------------Ade---------------

Dick

----------------Cassilas----------------
Maicon--Ferdinand--Carvalho--Evra
Ronaldo---Senna--Ashravin---Iniesta
----------Messi--Ibrahimovic----------

Coach: Aragones

----------Casillas
Ramos Rio Carvalho Evra
Ronaldo Senna Cesc Iniesta
--------Villa----Messi

Coach: Fergie

-------------Cassilas----------------
Maicon--Chiellini--Vidić--Evra
Ronaldo---Senna--Arshavin---Iniesta
----------Messi--Torres----------

Coach: Aragones

Gone wrote:------------Casillias

Maicon - Terry - Vidic - Lahm
Gerrard - Xavi - Arshavin - Ribery
-----------Messi - Torres

Coach: Ketsbaia

I picked Gerrard over Ronaldo because Ronaldo is a Foward and not a RM.

Gerrard is an AM not a RM?

Ketsbaia

L.r.d wrote:

Gone wrote:------------Casillias

Maicon - Terry - Vidic - Lahm
Gerrard - Xavi - Arshavin - Ribery
-----------Messi - Torres

Coach: Ketsbaia

I picked Gerrard over Ronaldo because Ronaldo is a Foward and not a RM.

Gerrard is an AM not a RM?

At least he plays in midfield and has played RM on occasions. When have you seen Ronaldo play RM?

The whole of this season.

RM or winger?

The uefa.com users' Team of the Year 2008 has been announced, with players from UEFA EURO 2008™ winners Spain dominating the selection.



Three million votes
More than 3.3 million votes were cast by about 256,000 users, whose resulting dream team features six members of the Spain side that conquered Europe last summer. Iker Casillas is the goalkeeper, playing behind two international team-mates in right-back Sergio Ramos and centre-back Carles Puyol. The continental champions strongly influence the central sphere of operations, with Xavi Hernández being the pick in the middle of the park and Cesc Fàbregas handed the role of attacking midfielder. Fernando Torres lines up in attack.

Spanish flavour
The Spanish flavour continues with the deployment of FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi alongside Torres. That makes the current Liga leaders the best-represented club, with three players. Together with Real Madrid CF, FC Bayern München have two representatives thanks to the inclusion of left-back Philipp Lahm – a EURO finalist with Germany – and winger Franck Ribéry. English football can point to the nominations of centre-half John Terry and winger Cristiano Ronaldo, both protagonists in the UEFA Champions League final between Chelsea FC and Manchester United FC. Overseeing this talented blend is the winning coach from Moscow in May, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson. Xavi Hernández gets the captaincy.

Iker Casillas & Sergio Ramos

John fucking Terry always features in these teams, yet is half the player he was 2/3 years ago... and he is at best a very limited centre half.

In addition last season was his worst in what the last 4?

Football Genius wrote:John fucking Terry always features in these teams, yet is half the player he was 2/3 years ago... and he is at best a very limited centre half.

In addition last season was his worst in what the last 4?

That was because he had Makelele & Essien infront of him.

Probably, GEMPA right ?

TM wrote:

Football Genius wrote:John fucking Terry always features in these teams, yet is half the player he was 2/3 years ago... and he is at best a very limited centre half.

In addition last season was his worst in what the last 4?

That was because he had Makelele & Essien infront of him.

And Mourinho at his best

at least the football world knows that lahm is better than evra, not this limited board

i think this vote is really accepatable in my opinion

terry was like a rock last year, i would pick him every day ahead of fergie

for me he has more presence too, i would be scared to play against him, when i look at fergie i would only scared because of his hairstyle