Samuel Chukwueze has bagged a Top 20 Europa League ranking and will make his UEFA Champions League debut next season after his club Villarreal upstaged Manchester United to win the Europa League.
Villarreal edged past Manchester United 11-10 on penalties after scores stood at 1-1 in Wednesday night’s Europa League Final in Gdansk.
The big bonus for this triumph is that they automatically qualify for the money-spinning group stage of the more prestigious Champions League come the new season.
Chukwueze was ruled out of the Final no thanks to injury he suffered in the semifinal return leg at Arsenal.
However, he still emerged as one of the most outstanding stars of the competition after UEFA officially ranked him as No 16th best player of this season’s Europa League with 4434 points.
He was also Nigeria’s best player in the competition – ahead of Peter Olayinka of Slavia Praha (1103 points) and Iyayi Atiemwen of Dinamo Zagreb (606 points).
