Inter monopolise UEFA Club Football Awards

FC Internazionale Milano have achieved a clean sweep of the 2010 UEFA Club Football Awards at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, the first time such a feat has been achieved since the awards' inception in 1998.

Diego Milito, who scored both goals in Internazionale's 2-0 UEFA Champions League final defeat of FC Bayern München in Madrid in May, secured the overall prize as UEFA Club Footballer of the Year, voted for, like all these accolades, by the coaches of the teams that reached the round of 16 last season. The 12 nominees for the four positional awards were all eligible for the main honour.

Milito was also named UEFA Club Forward of the Year, emulating the double claimed by Ronaldo for Inter in 1998, after beating off fellow nominees Lionel Messi – who lifted both prizes in 2009 – and Wayne Rooney. Both individual trophies were fully merited according to another UEFA Champions League final hero, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, who was Manchester United FC's match-winner against Bayern in 1999.

"Of course you have talent and all the best players have talent, but what sets the best players apart from the others is the attitude, the determination and work rate, and that's what impressed me with Inter last season and not just Milito," he told UEFA.com. "Of course when you get the bonus of scoring two goals in the final, I think his work rate made him deserve that as well.

"They were top-class goals," continued Solskjær. "In a final any goal you score is [great] but he took them really, really well and that shows not only determination but that he has the mental strength and toughness of playing in big games. It is one thing to be talented and play well in the easy games but when you go to the big games and do that, that shows strength of character."

Inter playmaker Wesley Sneijder took the plaudits as UEFA Club Midfielder of the Year, for which his Netherlands colleague Arjen Robben and Xavi Hernández were also nominated. Full-back Maicon was voted the UEFA Club Defender of the Year, a category in which his Nerazzurri team-mate Lúcio was a nominee along with Gerard Piqué. And Júlio César completed the Inter clean sweep, getting the nod as UEFA Club Goalkeeper of the Year ahead of Hugo Lloris and Víctor Valdés.