UEFA Best Player in Europe 2012-13: Why Lionel Messi Will Win

For the third straight year, Lionel Messi is among the top three players competing for the UEFA Player of the Year award.

The Argentinean superstar won the award in its inaugural year back in 2011, but failed to pick up the trophy last season. In his first year, Messi picked up an overwhelming number of votes (39) while second place Xavi only earned 11. Last season Andres Iniesta took the trophy with 19 votes while Messi and third place Cristiano Ronaldo each picked up 17.

Messi enters the 2013 competition with a slight edge over either of his immediate competitors. Last year's loss was a marginal and was likely attributed to the lack of trophies he collected; Iniesta not only won the Euro Cup 2012 but also picked up the MVP award. This year, however, Messi picked up a trophy (the Spanish league title) and scored a plethora of goals throughout the season. He finished 2012-13 with 60 goals in all competitions. He led the Spanish league with 46 tallies and scored eight during Barcelona's run to the semifinals in the Champions league. He also scored four goals in the Spanish Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup.

While his output was not as impressive as it was during the 2011-12 season (when he finished with 50 Spanish league goals), Messi scored 40 percent of his team's goals in the Spanish league and helped the squad to its fourth Spanish league title in five years.

Messi is beloved by reporters, who are the primary voters in the award, and that alone could swing the contest in his favor. His nearest rival Cristiano Ronaldo finished with nearly as many goals but did not win a single trophy in 2012-13 except for the Spanish Super Cup. Franck Ribery won three titles with Bayern Munich but was far from the team's top player.