Wendie Renard named Women's Champions League Defender of the Season

Wendie Renard has been named the first UEFA Women's Champions League Defender of the Season at the UEFA Awards ceremony in Geneva.

The 30-year-old Lyon captain lifted the Champions League trophy for the fifth year running, taking her own personal records to seven titles and nine final appearances, alongside goalkeeper and fellow award-winner Sarah Bouhaddi. As well as her commanding defensive presence – overcoming the injury absence in August's finals of central partner Griedge Mbock Bathy – Renard was her usual threat at the other end, not least with a trademark set-piece header to win the last-four tie with Paris Saint-Germain.

Defender of the Season voting

1 Wendie Renard (Lyon) – 102 points
2 Lucy Bronze (Lyon) – 85 points
3 Lena Goessling (Wolfsburg) – 9 points
4 Sakina Karchaoui (Lyon) – 8 points
5 Dominique Janssen (Wolfsburg) – 7 points
6 Irene Paredes (Paris Saint-Germain) – 6 points
7 Kathrin Hendrich (Wolfsburg/Bayern) – 5 points
= Mapi León (Barcelona) – 5 points
9 Paulina Dudek (Paris Saint-Germain) – 3 points
= Carolin Simon (Bayern) – 3 points

Clubs listed are those that players took the pitch for during the 2019/20 UEFA Women's Champions League (i.e. not including as unused substitute). Where players took the pitch for more than one club during the competition, the later team is listed first.

Renard's 2019/20 in numbers

Appearances: 6
Minutes: 540
Clean sheets: 4
Goals conceded: 2
Goals scored: 5
Assists: 0

How Renard was chosen

Wendie Renard lifted the trophy as Lyon captain for the fifth year in a rowGetty Images

The jury comprised the coaches of the eight clubs that participated in the 2019/20 UEFA Women’s Champions League final tournament in Spain, and 20 journalists specialising in women’s football and selected by the ESM group.

Coaches and journalists were requested to pick a shortlist of three players by allocating respectively five points, three points and one point to each of them. The final result was based on the total number of votes cast by the coaches and the journalists. The coaches were not allowed to choose players from their own team.

The other award winners

UEFA Men's Player of the Year: Robert Lewandowski
UEFA Women's Player of the Year: Pernille Harder
Men's Coach of the Year: Hansi Flick
Women's Coach of the Year: Jean-Luc Vasseur
Men's Goalkeeper of the Season: Manuel Neuer
Men's Defender of the Season: Joshua Kimmich
Men's Midfielder of the Season: Kevin De Bruyne
Men's Forward of the Season: Robert Lewandowski
Women's Goalkeeper of the Season: Sarah Bouhaddi
Women's Midfielder of the Season: Dzsenifer Marozsán
Women's Forward of the Season: Pernille Harder
UEFA President’s Award: Didier Drogba