“He can’t be in the conversation” – Rio Ferdinand explains why Lionel Messi does not deserve place in the FIFA Team of the Year

Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand recently chose his FIFA Team of the Year and decided to leave out Paris Saint-Germain’s (PSG) Lionel Messi. Instead, the former England defender decided to go with a frontline of Cristiano Ronaldo, Robert Lewandowski and Mohamed Salah.

Messi has not had the best of times since joining PSG last summer. He has scored just one Ligue 1 goal to add to his five Champions League goals this season.

Ferdinand believes that Ronaldo, Salah and Lewandowski deserve to be in the XI simply due to the impact they have had on their respective teams. Speaking on his YouTube channel FIVE, the former United defender said:

"Messi, since he's been at PSG, can't be in the conversation – because of how badly he's done after the transfer window in terms of goals and assists. If [Ronaldo] doesn't play, Man United get knocked out of the Champions League. [Salah is the] Premier League's best player. He has been nothing short of remarkable. He's destroyed all comers."

He added:

"There's not enough I could say about this guy [Lewandowski]. He scored the most league goals of any player in Europe's top five leagues. That's all I need to say. He wins it, no argument.”

Ferdinand went on to choose Chelsea's Eduardo Mendy as his goalkeeper. He also included Premier League players like Antonio Rudiger, N'Golo Kante, Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias and Joao Cancelo. The Englishman rounded up the XI with Thomas Muller along with PSG’s Marco Verratti.

Rio Ferdinand leaves out Lionel Messi from his FIFA team of the year, includes Cristiano Ronaldo

The steady decline of the performances of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi has led to multiple players being in contention for individual awards recently. Rio Ferdinand believes that both Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland will emerge as major contenders for the Ballon d'Or over the next decade. He said:

"[Kylian] Mbappe and [Erling] Haaland are going to win [selection] for the next ten years. If you don't have Kante as well, then you might as well go under the table."

As things currently stand, both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi look some way off competing for individual accolades in the future. Lionel Messi has already been linked to a move away from PSG at the end of the season. Reports have claimed that the way the rest of the campaign goes will decide his long-term future.

Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo might have made the cut in Rio Ferdinand’s team. However, his selection can be put down, at least partly, to bias as Ferdinand is a former teammate. Ronaldo has scored 14 goals in 21 appearances for Manchester United so far this season but the team's overall performances have left a lot to be desired.

Ironically, two footballing greats have far different problems to solve at this point in their careers. Lionel Messi is part of a team that has a good chance of winning multiple trophies this year, including the UCL crown. However, his individual performances for PSG have not been up to the mark.

On the other hand, Cristiano Ronaldo’s performances have been impressive but his team is far from contending for trophies.