Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Riyadh Mahrez didn’t make the Fifa Fifpro Men’s Team of the Year despite having stellar seasons with Liverpool and Manchester City respectively
Mane and Salah helped Liverpool win the UEFA Champions League and also came close to ending the Reds’ wait for the English Premier League title.
Besides, Mane came close to winning Senegal their first ever Africa Cup of Nations title but lost to Algeria in the finals.
Mahrez won the Afcon with Algeria scoring important goals in the tournament, won the EPL with the Citizens as well as the FA Cup and Carabao Cup as City won a domestic treble.
How the FIFA FIFPro World XI is determined
Each year since 2005, FIFPro invited all professional men’s footballers in the world to compose the best men’s team of the year, named the FIFPro World 11 (also known as the FIFPro World XI). Every player was requested to pick one goalkeeper, four defenders, three midfielders and three forwards.
In 2009, the world players’ union joined hands with FIFA.
While the format remained the same, the award name changed to the FIFA FIFPro World11. This became the only team award picked by all professional footballers worldwide.
The 2019 FIFPro World XI
Goalkeeper – Alisson Becker (Liverpool/Brazil)
Defenders – Matthijs de Ligt (Ajax and Juventus/Netherlands), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid/Spain), Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool/Netherlands), Marcelo (Real Madrid/Brazil).
Midfielders – Luka Modric (Real Madrid/Croatia), Frenkie de Jong (Ajax and Barcelona/Netherlands), Eden Hazard (Chelsea and Real Madrid/Belgium)
Forwards – Kylian Mbappe (Paris St-Germain/France), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus/Portugal), Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina)
