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The wait is over as the FIFA FIFPro World XI team was announced yesterday at the Best FIFA Football Awards. After winning their third UEFA Champions League title in a row, Real Madrid dominated the team with five representatives including the departed Cristiano Ronaldo.
The 11 players who earned a place in the FIFA FIFPro World XI team are as follows:
Goalkeeper: David de Gea
Defenders: Dani Alves, Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane
Mid Fielders: Eden Hazard, N’Golo Kante, Luka Modric
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi
There are many players who played magnificently the entire season and deserved to be a part of the dream team this year, however, they were not included in the team.
Right on this note, let us look at the three best players who really deserved to be a part of the FIFA FIFPro World XI.
#3 Joshua Kimmich
Bayern Munich's Joshua Kimmich is among the best right-backs in the world right now and he enjoyed a magnificent 2017-2018 season with the Bavarians.
He helped the club win their sixth consecutive Bundesliga title and won the DFL Supercup with the German giants. Kimmich played 47 games in all competitions last season, scoring six goals and assisting whopping 17 goals.
Bayern Munich lost to Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Champions League last season, but the 23-year-old German was among the best performers in the tournament and was also included in the UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season 2017-2018.
PSG's Dani Alves is included in the Dream Team, however, the Brazillian is beyond his prime now and so the inclusion of Joshua Kimmch makes more sense.
#2 Kevin de Bruyne
The Belgian international enjoyed a stunner 2017-2018 season and if it wasn't for Mohamed Salah's brilliant performances, KDB deserved the PFA Player of the Season 2018 award.
He was the vital cog of Manchester City's outstanding performances in the 2017-2018 season, scoring eight goals and assisting further 16. He was Manchester City's Player of the Season and was also a part of the Champions League Team of the Season 2017-2018.
His performances in the FIFA World Cup also got a lot of plaudits and he was included in the FIFA World Cup Dream team. He scored one goal and assisted two others at the World Cup as well.
Manchester City's playmaker is a part of the FIFPro XI 2nd team but in my personal opinion, he deserved to be in the 1st team instead of his Belgium teammate, Eden Hazar.
#1 Mohamed Salah
Fans all across the world were shocked when the Egyptian star, Mohamed Salah was not included in the dream team despite being named among the three shortlisted players for the Best Men's Player of the Year award. This was very strange as it meant that Salah was considered to be in the top three players in the world in one category but not in the top XI in the world in another.
Salah enjoyed a brilliant campaign last season and also set a record of scoring the most number of goals(32 goals) in a 38 games Premier League season. He won a number of Liverpool individual awards despite the 2017-18 season being his debut season at Anfield. He was even awarded the PFA Player of the Year award 2018, however, it was not enough to earn him a place in the World XI Team.
Nevertheless, his goal in the Merseyside derby was declared as the best goal and he was awarded the Puskas Award 2018.
