Agencies
Zurich, January 13
Real Madrid and Bayern Munich dominated the 2014 Fifa FIFPro World XI, but there were surprise inclusions including Andres Iniesta and Paris Saint-Germain centre-backs David Luiz and Thiago Silva.
Champions League winners Madrid have three current players in the team – Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos and Toni Kroos – as well as their former star Angel Di Maria, now at Manchester United.
Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich provide World Cup winners Manuel Neuer and Philipp Lahm, in addition to Dutch attacker Arjen Robben.PSG duo David Luiz and Thiago Silva both make the backline, while Barcelona are represented by Iniesta and Lionel Messi.
The Fifa FIFPro World XI is the best team of the year as voted for by professional footballers all over the world.
Each voter picks 11 players and after collating the votes from FIFPro members, a shortlist of 55 names is released in late November – consisting of five goalkeepers, 20 defenders, 15 midfielders and 15 forwards.
The returned ballots are counted, and the players with the highest number of votes are chosen for the final XI which is arranged in a 4-3-3 formation. Despite the formation, there is no distinction between specific positions within the lines of play. For example, a player may choose four centre-backs in their vote, rather than two central defenders, a right-back and a left-back.
This year, 23,383 votes were cast from 60 countries.
