Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk has beaten Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to be named UEFA Men's Player of the Year award.
Van Dijk scooped the honour having helped the Reds win the Champions League in June and claim a club-record 97 points in the Premier League last season.
The Dutchman, who also featured for his country in the UEFA Nations League final, received the accolade during a special gala in Monaco that has been combined with the draw for the group stage of the Champions League.
The 28-year-old was up against Barcelona's Messi and Ronaldo of Juventus, both three-time winners of the award, and succeeds Luka Modric, who won the award last year after helping Real Madrid beat Liverpool in the Champions League final and Croatia reach the World Cup final.
It's another honour for Van Dijk, who is the current PFA Player of the Year and was named the official man of the match in the Champions League final win over Tottenham Hotspur.
Liverpool's only previous winner of the award, which started in 1998 as the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year, was Steven Gerrard in 2005.
"It's been a long road but that's part of my journey, it's part of who I am," said Van Dijk on accepting the reward.
"I needed it like this, I'm not a player who was 18 years old and had that rise straight away. I had to work hard for every step of the way – that's part of me and I'm very happy about that.
"I'm very proud to get this trophy and it's all credit to everyone that's helped me along the way."
It was a good evening for the Reds in terms of individual honours, with their sixth European Cup triumph recognised.
Van Dijk also won the positional award as the best defender in the Champions League last season, beating team-mate Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ajax's Matthijs de Ligt.
Alisson Becker, who was also present in Monaco, took home the goalkeeper award ahead of Tottenham's Hugo Lloris and Barcelona keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
But Jordan Henderson was beaten to the midfield award by Frenkie de Jong, former of Ajax who moved to Barcelona in the summer.
And Sadio Mane missed out on the forward gong, which was claimed by Barcelona's Lionel Messi.
The nominees for the positional awards were determined by the coaches of the 32 teams in the Champions League group stage last season, along with 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) group, one from every UEFA member association. Coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own teams.
Jury members chose their top three players per position, with the first receiving five points, the second three and the third one.
For the Player of the Year award, coaches of the 48 teams in the Europa League group stage were also given a vote.
