Barcelona vice-president Jordi Mestre has hit out at Uefa for snubbing their attacking stars, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.
Suarez and Messi – despite starring for Barcelona on their way to winning La Liga and the Copa del Rey last season – were placed fourth and fifth in Uefa’s Europe Player of the Year award.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Antoine Griezmann were the three nominees for the award and that has angered Barcelona, especially considering Suarez scored 59 goals last season and outscored everyone else on the continent last season.
Mestre hit out at the governing body for their decision, saying to TV3: “It doesn’t seem the right decision to me at all.
“I don’t know what criteria UEFA applied, with all respect to the chosen winners, but I disagree [with the choices]. That our players aren’t there, such as Suarez or Messi, is scandalous. The club are very disappointed and angry.”
Suarez was the star of the show at Barcelona last season as he scored 40 goals in the Spanish top flight to become just the third player ever to hit that mark in a single La Liga campaign.
Only Messi and Ronaldo have previously hit that figure, and the Uruguayan’s goals at the end of the campaign were key to them lifting the title following a late-season decline.
After losing three straight games in the league, Suarez went into supernova form and hit 14 goals in their last five league games to lead Barcelona to another triumph in the top flight.
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