Lionel Messi was snubbed for UEFA Men's Player of the Year for a fourth year running on Thursday night as Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk came out on top.

In a vote made up of coaches from every team in last season's Champions League and Europa League, as well as 55 journalists, Van Dijk earned 305 points to Messi's 207.

Three-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo came third on 74 points, while Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Frenkie de Jong made the top 10 - which you can see in full HERE.

Van Dijk fully deserved his triumph after an incredible campaign with Liverpool where he won the Champions League and finished second in the Premier League.

The Dutchman is the undisputed best centre-back in the world right now, too, and yet there's a lot of football fans who believe Messi should have won the award.

Individually speaking, there was no one better than the 32-year-old last season as he scored 51 goals and made 19 assists in all competitions.

He single-handedly fired Barcelona to the La Liga and Copa del Rey double and did everything he in his power to take them to Champions League glory.

A stunning brace in the 3-0 victory over Liverpool in the semi-final first leg seemed to have guaranteed Barcelona place in the final, but we all know what happened in the second at Anfield.

Arguments could be made for both Messi and Van Dijk in truth and no two players deserved to win the award more than them.

However, the idea that Van Dijk - a defender - is actually a better footballer than Messi hasn't gone down well with some people.

A video titled, "You can never convince me that a defender is a better footballer than this man," has gone viral on social media and it's caused quite a stir.

FOOTBALL FANS REACT

No one in their right mind would say that Van Dijk is a better player than Messi, but equally no one can deny that he deserved to win Player of the Year.

The 28-year-old was awesome for Liverpool last season and ultimately winning the Champions League was the difference between him and Messi. Case closed.