Van Persie, Rooney, Messi & Ronaldo among the 32 nominees for Uefa's Best Player in Europe award

Uefa has announced a list of the 32 players who are in contention for their award for the best player of Europe.

La Liga champions Real Madrid are the most represented club on the list, with seven players, followed by Premier League holders Manchester City, who boast six players. 

Champions League winners Chelsea and Catalan giants Barcelona boast four players each, while Radamel Falcao is the sole player from Europa League champions Atletico Madrid to make the cut.The players were chosen by a a jury of journalists from each of Uefa's 53 member associations. The governing body for European football will reveal on August 14 the names of the three players who were given the most points by the writers, who will then proceed to the live vote to choose the overall winner in Monaco.

Barca's Lionel Messi was the winner of the first edition of the award, beating team-mate Xavi and Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo to the honour.

Raul and Didier Drogba have left Europe since their exploits last season for Al Sadd and Shanghai Shenhua respectively, while Shinji Kagawa's form for Borussia Dortmund earned him a summer move to Manchester United.

One surprising nomination is 27-year-old Bangor City winger Les Davies, who has been voted the club's player of the season for two consecutive seasons.

Player	Club	Player	Club
Sergio Aguero	Manchester City	Xabi Alonso	Real Madrid
Mario Balotelli	Manchester City	Jakub Blaszczykowski	Borussia Dortmund
Gianluigi Buffon	Juventus	Iker Casillas	Real Madrid
Petr Cech	Chelsea	Fabio Coentrao	Real Madrid
Leslie Davies	Bangor City	Didier Drogba	Chelsea
Cesc Fabregas	Barcelona	Radamel Falcao	Atletico Madrid
Joe Hart	Manchester City	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	AC Milan
Andres Iniesta	Barcelona	Shinji Kagawa	Borussia Dortmund
Vincent Kompany	Manchester City	Frank Lampard	Chelsea
Lionel Messi	Barcelona	Luka Modric	Tottenham
Mesut Ozil	Real Madrid	Pepe	Real Madrid
Andrea Pirlo	Juventus	Sergio Ramos	Real Madrid
Raul	Schalke	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid
Wayne Rooney	Manchester United	David Silva	Manchester City
Fernando Torres	Chelsea	Yaya Toure	Manchester City
Robin van Persie	Arsenal	Xavi	Barcelona