Fifpro’s world 11 shortlist included mohamed salah and alisson, with virgil van dijk the only liverpool player to be included in the 23-man squad.
Salah, 31, has been in superb form for liverpool this season, scoring his 150th premier league goal in the 4-2 victory over newcastle and finishing joint-top of the scoring charts for the africa cup of nations (2023/24). Salah’s form isn’t a new phenomenon, with liverpool’s no. 0 being a surprise.
In 2023, 11 are having a great calendar year. Salah was the only premier league player to reach 15 goals and assists in a calendar year since arsenal legend thierry henry achieved it back in 2003, according to opta. salah did not do enough to earn a spot on fifpro’s 23-man shortlist for its annual world 11 tournament, which is voted for by over 25,000 professional players.
On wednesday, the club announced the 23-man’squad’ ahead of the final xi announcement. although salah was left out, there was one liverpool player who did make the cut when it came to votes from his peers: van dijk.
Ruben dias, kyle walker, john stones (manchester city), antonio rudiger, and eder militao (real madrid) were among the six defenders named.
Instead, Karim Benzema (Al Ittihad), Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Erling Haaland (Manchester City) Kylian Mbappe (PSG), Lionel Messi (Inter Miami) and Cristiano Ronalo (Al-Nassr) are the seven forwards selected from the tallied votes.
Despite being rated as one of the best in the country in his position, liverpool’s no. 0 has become a regular occurrence. Van dijk was the only liverpool player to make fifpro’s world xi in 2022, joining achraf hakimi and joao cancelo in the final team.
