Real Madrid dominate FIFA FIFPro World11 nominations

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo predictably headlined the 55-man selection for the FIFA FIFPro World11, announced on Thursday.

The players themselves will pick the final XI, which will be named at the Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony in Zurich on January 9 2017.

You can check the list in full below, but here are some of the numbers behind the whopping list.

22 – La Liga is the most-represented league with two-fifths of the players coming from either Real Madrid, Barcelona or Atletico Madrid.

12 – Only 12 clubs are represented across the 55 names, all selected from Europe’s top-five leagues: LaLiga, the Bundesliga, the Premier League, Serie A and Ligue 1.

11 – Real Madrid could feasibly make up the whole dream XI, with a team full of the Champions League holders nominated.

2 – Ronaldo and club-mate Pepe are the only Portuguese players to make the cut, despite their Euro 2016 success. Their final opponents France, by comparison are represented by five players.

3 – It’s a similar story among the South American players represented. Chile beat Argentina in the final earlier this year, but only three Chileans are named. Five Argentinians – including penalty-shootout villain Messi – are there.

1 – The Ivory Coast’s Serge Aurier is the sole African player named. Algeria’s Riyad Mahrez, named PFA Player of the Year, misses out despite helping Leicester City to a remarkable Premier League triumph.

7– Aurier is one of seven men that are their country’s sole representative. The others are Keylor Navas (Costa Rica), David Alaba (Austria), Gareth Bale (Wales), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden), Robert Lewandowski (Poland) and Jamie Vardy (England). 

FIFPro World11 longlist in ful:

Goalkeepers: Claudio Bravo, Gianluigi Buffon, David de Gea, Keylor Navas and Manuel Neuer.

Defenders: David Alaba, Jordi Alba, Serge Aurier, Hector Bellerin, Jerome Boateng, Leonardo Bonucci, Dani Carvajal, Giorgio Chiellini, Dani Alves, David Luiz, Diego Godin, Mats Hummels, Philipp Lahm, Marcelo, Javier Mascherano, Pepe, Gerard Pique, Sergio Ramos, Thiago Silva and Raphael Varane.

Midfielders: Xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets, Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Andres Iniesta, N’Golo Kante, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Mesut Ozil, Dimitri Payet, Paul Pogba, Ivan Rakitic, David Silva, Marco Verratti and Arturo Vidal.

Strikers: Sergio Aguero, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Paulo Dybala, Antoine Griezmann, Gonzalo Higuain, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robert Lewandowski, Lionel Messi, Thomas Muller, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, Alexis Sanchez, Luis Suarez and Jamie Vardy.