Real Madrid eclipse Barcelona in FIFA FIFPro World XI
Featured in the World XI of last season, as voted by 23,000 FIFpro players are: Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Modric and Hazard. From Barcelona, Messi and De Jong.
This evening in Milan's Teatro alla Scala, FIFA revealed the FIFPro World XI - the world's outstanding team from last season. Barcelona, who were the club with the most candidates in the final list (they have 10 players in the definitive list of 55), ended losing by four to two to Real Madrid in the final standings, as this newspaper revealed earlier today.
Featured in the FIFPro World XI (as voted by 23,000 professional players affiliated to FIFPro) are: Marcelo (best left-back), Sergio Ramos (best centre-back alongside Van Dijk), Modric (the last Ballon d'Or) and Eden Hazard, the latter for the oustanding season he had with Chelsea. As for Barça's representatives, there is just Messi, and also De Jong who had a brilliant season with Ajax before joining the Blaugranas this summer.
Check out how the evening unfolder in Milan: The Best 2019 Awards.
Surprising outcome to FIFPro XI
The results of the FIFPro voting will certainly be a talking point for many as last season was hardly a memorable one for Real Madrid. Barça, who made up for other disappointments by retaining the league title, suffered a traumatic Champions League exit and also lost the Copa del Rey to Valencia. But in spite of that, the world's professionals have voted en masse for Madrid's players and Messi. The four Madrid finalists also appeared in last year's World XI - as did Messi but for De Jong, this is his first time to make the team.
Other curiosities in this year's list of 55 candidates include the absence of Italian goalkeeping legend Gianluigi Buffon, who has regularly featured among the nominees during the 15 years since the category was set up - as did Andrés Iniesta, who left Barcelona to join Japanese outfit Vissel Kobe after being in the 12 previous lists. The only player who has consistantly been among the FIFPro list of the world's top players is Cristiano Ronaldo, who has always figured in the list.
Messi wins The Best
Barcelona's Leo Messi claimed his sixth Best Men's Player title, ahead of Virgil Van Dijk and Cristiano Ronaldo. The Juventus man tipped everybody off to the fact he wouldn't be winning the prize when he decided not to turn up at the ceremony, however many had expected Van Dijk to win after he picked up UEFA's men's player of the year award recently.