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On Monday, FIFA announced its 23-man shortlist for the much-awaited FIFPRO World XI. In an attempt to resemble a standard football team squad, the shortlist has been trimmed significantly, bringing the number down from 55 to 23. While most popular figures have made the cut, some deserving candidates have been surprisingly left out.
These five players on our list today were firing on all cylinders in the 2020-21 campaign but were still ignored by footballers during voting. Here are the five players who deserved to be on the FIFPRO World XI this year:
#5 Joshua Kimmich - Bayern Munich
Bayern Munich star Joshua Kimmich is arguably the most versatile player in Europe. The German can not only slot into any defensive or offensive position, but he also tends to own that position.
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The defensive midfielder has played as a right-back, a central midfielder, a deep-lying playmaker, and even a winger. Kimmich’s knack for dictating play from the middle of the park helps Bayern dominate proceedings. It was on full display over the last campaign.
Kimmich’s aggression, leadership skills and sense of positioning allowed Bayern to shift from defense to attack in a heartbeat, often catching the opposition off-guard. Despite missing quite a few matches with a knee injury last season, the 26-year-old put up impressive numbers on the board for the Bundesliga holders.
Kimmich scored four goals and provided ten assists in the Bundesliga, netted once and assisted four times in the Champions League for Bayern.
#4 Marcos Llorente - Atletico Madrid
Last season, Atletico Madrid left Real Madrid and Barcelona in the dust to cruise to the La Liga title. They played a surprisingly expansive brand of football and made full use of the talented players at their disposal.
Former Real Madrid man Marcos Llorente was the star of the show at Atletico Madrid last season. The natural central-midfielder adjusted his positioning time and again over the course of the campaign to lead Atletico Madrid to important victories.
The Spaniard utilized his pace well, made excellent use of his game-reading skills, and popped up with decisive goals and assists every now and then.
Over the course of the 2020-21 La Liga campaign, Marcos Llorente featured in 37 games for Atletico. He was deployed as a second striker, a central midfielder, a right midfielder, and even an attacking midfielder.
Proving himself in all the aforementioned positions, Llorente bagged 12 goals and provided 11 assists in La Liga last season.
#3 Thomas Muller - Bayern Munich
Bayern Munich are by far the strongest team in the Bundesliga, which tends to go against them when individual accolades are considered. To no one’s surprise, FIFA has once again overlooked several key Bayern players for FIFPRO World XI, including the evergreen Thomas Muller.
While Robert Lewandowski stole all the headlines with his goals, Bayern’s leading assist-provider did not get the attention he deserved. The German was excellent with the ball and without it, doing complete justice to his name “Raumdeuter (space interpreter).”
Last season, the 2014 World Cup winner scored 11 goals and provided 22 assists in the league to help Bayern to their ninth successive Bundesliga title.
#2 Harry Kane - Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur captain Harry Kane may have struggled to get going this campaign, but that shouldn’t be a reason to overlook his last-season exploits. The England striker was in the form of his life in the 2020-21 campaign and was one of the most prolific forwards in Europe.
Kane used his physical strength, movement off the ball and pace to leave defenders for dead in the Premier League. Kane also held up the ball expertly for his teammates and produced key passes and assists at will.
The 28-year-old ended his Premier League campaign with 23 goals and 14 assists. Not only did he win the Premier League Golden Boot, but was also the league’s highest assist-provider last term.
Putting his numbers into perspective, Neymar only had nine goals to his name in the 2020-21 Ligue 1 campaign, but still made the FIFPRO shortlist.
#1 Mohamed Salah - Liverpool
Liverpool ace Mohamed Salah has been at the top of his game for a couple of seasons now, scoring goals and providing assists for fun. So, when the Egypt international was left out of the FIFPRO 23-man shortlist, the netizens wasted no time taking the fight to FIFA. The governing body of football is currently being hounded across social networking platforms and deservedly so.
Despite failing to win a trophy with Liverpool in the 2020-21 season, Salah himself enjoyed an impressive campaign. The right-winger was at the heart of every impressive passage of play for Liverpool and pitched in with important goals and assists.
Salah scored 22 goals and provided five assists in the Premier League. He netted six goals in the Champions League and three more in the FA Cup to take his season total to 31.
