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FIFA The Best Awards will be held at London on 24 September. The governing body of global football announced its 55 men shortlist for FIFPro Team of the Year recently. The shortlist is star-studded with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Luka Modric among others. However, FIFA has surprised us with a few inclusions and also some notable omissions.
It is a bigger fact that FIFA has preferred those who performed in the World Cup to those who delivered consistent performances at club level. We take a look at three players who probably didn’t deserve their place in the shortlist and three who were overlooked.
Dejan Lovren
The Croatia center back was a main part of the Croatian Team that reached the FIFA World Cup final. But his performances in the World Cup might be the only reason that he made the cut. His performances at Liverpool are appreciable but there were players who did better in the English Premier League.
The Liverpool defense gained shape only after Virgil Van Dijk was instated into the squad. Lovren is not a bad center back but his tackling, interceptions were not better than the next man on the list. Lovren also had a solid midfield providing cover for him, mainly in Croatia. Lovren wanted to be respected as a great center back and FIFA respected him. Although maybe he should have been replaced by another defender.
Jan Vertonghen
The Spurs center back had displayed amazing performances in the English Premier League. He had more tackles and interceptions that Lovren in the League for Tottenham.
The Belgian performed brilliantly in Europe compared to the Croatian defender. Vertonghen was a part of a three-man defense in Belgium's third-place finish in the World Cup. The pressure in the three-man defense is much larger. But Vertonghen at his age held together his position.
Vertonghen had almost twice as many tackles per game than Lovren. He also had a better average match rating according to WhoScored.com. Vertonghen’s performances at the defensive end were statistically better than Lovren at the back. He deserved the spot in the shortlist.
Yerry Mina
Yerry Mina was not too famous until he signed the deal with FC Barcelona and moved to Spain from Brazilian team Palmeiras. He hardly played for the Catalan side last season and his defensive skills might not be amazing.
The Colombian played six matches for Barcelona and was not impressive. He made too many errors against Levante in the closing stages of La Liga and was one of the causes that prompted Barcelona to lose its invincible season in the Spanish League.
The pressure of performing at the higher level is understandable but Mina's campaign was not fantastic enough. He played for Colombia in the FIFA World Cup and the South American squad received only one goal in the three matches he played: Harry Kane's penalty in the round of sixteen.
Mina became famous for his headed goals and aerial ball-winning ability. A player of Mina’s standard might not belong in the shortlist. Although he was hugely important for Colombia in the World Cup, he has not shown amazing defending skills, probably he'll do it at Everton, his new team. His inclusion in the list is a surprise for many people.
Kalidou Koulibaly
Why is Koulibaly not shortlisted? He was rock solid for Napoli last season. He is rated as one of the best center backs in the World currently.
Diego Maradona, Carlo Ancelotti, and Maurizio Sarri have positive words for him. He has attracted Chelsea and Manchester United for his services. His stats are comparable to Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos. He averages around 1.5 tackles a game, 1 interception per game and a match average rating of 7. Astonishingly even Raphael Varane doesn’t boast these numbers.
Italian Serie A is certainly known for the defenses but Koulibaly also played last season against seasoned scorers like Paulo Dybala, Mauro Icardi, Mario Mandzukic, and Ciro Immobile. Koulibaly was one of the best defenders last campaign and his snub is surprising.
Sergio Aguero
One of the lead attackers in the Premier League. Aguero scored 22 goals in Manchester City’s amazing league campaign while dishing 6 assists. He completed an average 2 dribbles per game and also found around 2 key passes per game.
The Argentinian was instrumental in City’s attacking display. Aguero was not really troubled by any defense and he attracted fouls as well. His snub comes as a surprise because he also scored twice for Argentina in the FIFA World Cup. FIFA did snub Aguero and added to the list a striker who did not enjoy his best year.
Karim Benzema
FIFA has some explaining to do here. Benzema who scored 12 goals in 46 appearances for Real Madrid in the 2017/18 and is in the shortlist. However, Benzema added five goals in the UEFA Champions League, including two in the semis and scored in the UCL final after Loris Karius' mistake.
He didn’t play the World Cup and missed sitter chances that he should have converted for Real Madrid during most of the season.
Benzema is in there ahead of a plethora of talent. Ciro Immobile, Mauro Icardi, David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Roberto Firmino all had better seasons than him. Those players had tremendous seasons statistically, significantly better than the French player.
Benzema's place could have belonged to Aguero in this list, but his UCL winning effort with Real Madrid might have something to do with his inclusion.
