20th September, 2017
Photo: BBC/EPA
A record number of 13 Real Madrid players have been nominated for long list of the FIFPro World XI, while Manchester United’s Paul Pogba and Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez lead the pool of Premier League nominees.
A total of 25,000 professional footballers were asked to select a team of 11 players – one goalkeeper, four defenders, three midfielders and three attackers – from across the world, and the 55 players with the most votes have now been revealed.
Real dominate the list after winning both La Liga and the Champions League in 2016-17, with Keylor Navas, Dani Carvajal, Marcelo, Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane, Casemiro, Isco, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo all in line to make the XI. Pepe is listed as both a Real Madrid player and a Besiktas player, after moving to the Turkish team in the summer.
The Premier League has the same total nominees as Real, with Tottenham striker Harry Kane the only English player on the list.
Chelsea have three nominees in Eden Hazard, David Luiz and N’Golo Kante, while De Gea, Antonio Valencia, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba and Nemanja Matic – formerly of the Blues – represent Manchester United. Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil are nominated from Arsenal, while Philippe Coutinho is the only Liverpool player on the list.
PSG’s Kylian Mbappe is the youngest player on the list, at the age of 18, fresh from sealing a loan move to PSG from Monaco. The teenager scored 27 goals in 60 games for the principality club last season.
PSG have six nominees in total – including Neymar and Marco Verratti – while Barcelona and Bayern Munich have eight apiece, Goal.com reports.