Will Grigg Nominated For ‘Best Player in Europe’ Award With More Votes Than Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

UEFA have announced the shortlist for their annual 'Best Player in Europe' Award, and Will Grigg has received more votes that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Kevin De Bruyne and Blaise Matuidi.

Nominations are decided by journalists representing UEFA's 55 member associations, with each writer providing a list of five top-ranked footballers. The first player on each list receives five points, the second four and so on, before results are collated and the nominees ranked accordingly.

While only the top ten players move on to the second, definitive round of voting, all those who received nominations are included on the preliminary shortlist. Will Grigg has been ranked 25th, ahead of several players who are quantifiably better than him.

Though we're sure his surprise nomination is meant in the spirit of fun, and all that, we also feel that it marks the point where Will Grigg banter has gone too far. Sure, Grigg scored an impressive 28 goals for Wigan last season, but Wigan are in League One, and several of those goals were scored against Swindon.

By contrast, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang notched 36 times for Borussia Dortmund, and is now one of the most sought-after players in Europe. The only possible reason to rank Will Grigg ahead of him is, well, to take the absolute piss.

This is what it has come to, then. European journalists are so eager to subvert the system that they've ranked Will Grigg ahead of Aubameyang, all because he's inadvertently revived a Eurodance banger from 1996. It's not because of his goals, it's not because of his skill, it's because he's accidentally inspired thousands of pinging festival goers to belt out "Will Grigg's On Fire" at every given opportunity, and so ruin summer for everyone.

This must not be encouraged further. Please, for humanity's sake, let the Will Grigg banter come to an end.