When I blogged about the candidates for the Ballon D'Or in October, a lot of you suggested Fifa had gone for overkill by drawing up a ridiculously large list of 50 players in contention for the award, which has since been whittled down to
Well, Uefa, never one to let the grass grow beneath its feet when it comes to emulating its global counterparts in Zurich, has put forward 55 players - five for each position - for the 10th edition of the plus the five nominations for the coach of this hypothetical team.
However, unlike the Ballon D'Or recipient who is voted for by a closed constituency of national coaches, captain and journalists, at least the public get the chance to say who they think are the best players on the continent over the last 12 months.
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It's that time of the year again when the unofficial "Phil Awards" get handed out for club successes and failures.
Last year I concentrated just on Spain but this time around I've widened the scope to the whole of continental Europe.
You might be wondering, or maybe not, why I am concentrating just on clubs and not individual players.
Well, next week I'm going to turn my attention to the Uefa Team of the Year 2010 and put forward some thoughts of my own.
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Porto suffered a blow, both to their self-esteem and coffers, when their four-year reign as Portuguese champions
Not only did they give up their title, they missed out on Champions League football for the first time since the 2002/03 campaign, confined instead to the relative backwaters of the Europa League.
Failing to make Europe's premier club competition cost Porto at least £8.5m (10m euros) - Braga have pocketed £11.6m (13.6m euros), Benfica £9.5m (11.1m euros) while the Europa League has only added £1.3m (1.6m euros) to the Porto bank account - and probably two key players as both Bruno Alves and Raul Meireles have both departed after advertising the fact that they were far from from happy at the club.
However, under new coach , the 2004 champions of Europe are grabbing the headlines again for all the right reasons, having gone unbeaten in 25 games in all competitions this season.
The 33-year-old Villas-Boas, currently the Portuguese first division's youngest coach, appears to be on a similar trajectory to mentor and former Porto boss Jose Mourinho.
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Shakhtar Donetsk are on the verge of making their own little bit of history and, into the bargain, making life probably a little more uncomfortable for Premier League leaders Arsenal.
A point at home to Portuguese side Braga on Wednesday will ensure that the Ukrainian team finish top of their group and qualify for the Champions League last 16 for the first time.
The Gunners, assuming Arsene Wenger's men fulfil expectations and get three points at home to a struggling Partizan Belgrade outfit that have not won in the Champions League so far and only scored one goal, will then have to settle for second place.
Arsenal then face the possibility of facing a team such as Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid or even reigning champions Inter Milan in the knockout stages.
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Hi, I'm Phil Minshull. I've lived in Spain since 1997 and covered Spanish football since the first day I got here. My blog aims to provide some insight into what's happening in La Liga, and there is much more to it than only Real and Barcelona, as well as elsewhere around Europe.
