Meet the women's player award nominees: Hermoso, Martens, Putellas

Barcelona trio Jenni Hermoso, Lieke Martens and Alexia Putellas are the nominees for the 2020/21 UEFA Women's Player of the Year award.

All helped the club win their first UEFA Women's Champions League title and one will claim the individual award when the prize is handed out – along with those for the UEFA Men's Player of the Year, UEFA Men's and Women's Coach of the Year, and the UEFA Women's Champions League and UEFA Champions League positional awards – during the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League draw ceremony in Istanbul, Turkey, on Thursday 26 August.

• UEFA Women's Player of the Year award nominees
• UEFA Women's Coach of the Year award nominees
• UEFA Women's Champions League positional award nominees

UEFA.com takes a look at the three contenders.

Overall facts

• No Spain player has previously made the shortlist of three.
• Martens is the only Netherlands player previously to make the top three – when she won the award for 2016/17, soon after joining Barcelona (who otherwise have not had a nominee before).
• Before this year, Martens was the only shortlisted player who had not spent some of the season in question with either Lyon, Wolfsburg or Frankfurt. She was also the only Barcelona player to have appeared in the top ten.
• This is the third time a single club have provided all three nominees, after Wolfsburg (2013/14) and Lyon (2018/19).
• It is just the second time that Lyon have not been represented, after 2013/14.

Jenni Hermoso (forward, Barcelona/Spain)

Age: 31
2020/21 appearances: 35 (UWCL 7)
2020/21 goals: 37 (UWCL 6)
International caps: 84
First appearance in top ten

• Hermoso finished as joint-top scorer in the UEFA Women's Champions League as Barcelona lifted the title for the first time. She was named in the Squad of the Season for a second straight season.

• She was Liga top scorer for the third year in a row, and a fifth time in six seasons, overtaking long-time leader Esther González with a final-day hat-trick as Barcelona did the domestic double. In December she became Barcelona's all-time leading scorer.

• Over the course of last season Hermoso got nine goals as Spain won all of their ten games and reached the UEFA Women's EURO 2022 finals. Hermoso's five strikes against Azerbaijan in February moved her ahead of Verónica Boquete as the national team's all-time leading scorer.

Lieke Martens (midfielder, Barcelona/Netherlands)

Age: 28
2020/21 appearances: 36 (UWCL 8)
2020/21 goals: 20 (UWCL 5)
International caps: 127
Previous appearances in top ten: 2016/17 winner, 2017/18 6th, 2018/19 9th=

• Martens aims to follow Pernille Harder, who became the first two-time winner of this award last year, having excelled during Barcelona's historic treble campaign.

• The winger struck both goals in the 2-1 win against Paris Saint-Germain that took Barcelona to the final, and in the decider capped a stand-out display with an assist for the fourth in the 4-0 Gothenburg success over Chelsea. She also made three assists in the Copa de la Reina final against Levante, among 16 for the season.

• Martens bagged eight Netherlands goals during the campaign, including four at the Olympics, making her only the third player to pass 50 for the Dutch women's national team.

Alexia Putellas (midfielder, Barcelona/Spain)

Age: 27
2020/21 appearances: 43 (UWCL 9)
2020/21 goals: 25 (UWCL 2)
International caps: 87
First appearance in top ten

• The engine in Barça's midfield, whether on the left, as a playmaker or asked to be a marauding forward. The team's leader, naturally she lifted the Women's Champions League trophy as captain, having scored a penalty to make it 2-0 in the final and set up the third despite having been an injury doubt. She was named in the Squad of the Season for a second time in three years.

• A Barcelona fan as a girl and formerly in the academy, she signed for the club in 2012 and this January netted the first competitive goal by a woman at Camp Nou in a win against old club Espanyol. She also struck twice in the Copa de la Reina final.

• In April, Putellas joined Irene Paredes and Hermoso in Spain's captains group as she helped them to UEFA Women's EURO 2022 qualification. She is also closing in on Marta Torrejón's Spain record of 90 caps.

Roll of honour

2019/20 ─ Pernille Harder (Wolfsburg & Denmark)
2018/19 ─ Lucy Bronze (Lyon & England)
2017/18 ─ Pernille Harder (Wolfsburg & Denmark)
2016/17 ─ Lieke Martens (Rosengård & Netherlands)
2015/16 ─ Ada Hegerberg (Lyon & Norway)
2014/15 ─ Célia Šašić (Frankfurt & Germany)
2013/14 ─ Nadine Kessler (Wolfsburg & Germany)
2012/13 ─ Nadine Angerer (Frankfurt & Germany)