FIFA FIFPro World11 2017: 55 Nominees

Discussion in 'The Beautiful Game' started by EvanJ, Sep 20, 2017.

  1. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    http://www.fifa.com/the-best-fifa-f...-world11-2017-shortlist-revealed-2908322.html lists the nominees. Here are how many players each club had:

    Real Madrid: 13
    Barcelona: 8.5*
    Bayern Munich: 8 (meaning that over half of the 55 nominees came from three clubs)
    Manchester United: 5
    Paris Saint-Germain: 4.5*
    Juventus: 4*
    Chelsea: 3.5*
    Atletico Madrid: 3
    Arsenal: 2
    Liverpool: 1
    Tottenham: 1
    AC Milan: 0.5*
    Everton: 0.5*
    AS Monaco: 0.5*

    * If a player played for two clubs, I gave them 0.5 each because I didn't want to look at individual situations.

    Here's a breakdown by league:

    La Liga: 24.5
    English Premier League: 13
    Bundesliga: 8
    Ligue 1: 5
    Serie A: 4.5
     
  2. comme

    comme Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 21, 2003
    Typically terrible list.

    Bale has barely played this year. Same goes for Boateng.
     
  3. comme

    comme Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 21, 2003
    The best award's top 23 was actually a bit better:

    http://www.fifa.com/the-best-fifa-football-awards/best-fifa-mens-player/index.html

    Finalists:

    Messi
    Neymar
    Ronaldo

    Shortlist:

    Aubameyang
    Bonucci
    Buffon
    Carvajal
    Dybala
    Griezmann
    Hazard
    Ibrahimovic
    Iniesta
    Kane
    Kante
    Kroos
    Lewandowski
    Marcelo
    Modric
    Navas
    Neuer
    Ramos
    Sanchez
    Suarez

    Iniesta and Ibrahimovic are pretty questionable but the rest of it isn't too bad.
     
  4. lanman

    lanman BigSoccer Supporter

    Aug 30, 2002
  5. nooshcat

    nooshcat Member

    Jan 3, 2017
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Does this include the Euros or no? Otherwise I'm not sure why players like Bale are on here. These lists are all about popularity.
     
  6. Milan05

    Milan05 Member

    Dec 2, 2015
    Club:
    AC Milan
    Iniesta and Ibrahimovic have no business being in this list, and should be replaced by Thiago and Casemiro.
     
  7. PuckVanHeel

    PuckVanHeel Member+

    Oct 4, 2011
    Club:
    Feyenoord
    Thiago was in particular important in the first half of 2016-17, after that his form and importance tailed off. In the second half it was simply Robben against the all the difficult opponents (Real Madrid, Dortmund, Leipzig etc.), and since the start of this season (so far) it is Lewandowski.
     
  8. comme

    comme Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 21, 2003
    Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Leonardo Bonucci (Milan), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Edinson Cavani (PSG), Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool), Kevin de Bruyne (Man City), David de Gea (Man Utd), Paulo Dybala (Juventus), Edin Dzeko (Roma), Radamel Falcao (Monaco), Antoine Griezmann (Atlético Madrid), Eden Hazard (Chelsea), Mats Hummels (Bayern Munich), Isco (Real Madrid), Harry Kane (Tottenham), N’Golo Kanté (Chelsea), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich), Sadio Mané (Liverpool), Marcelo (Real Madrid), Kylian Mbappé (PSG), Dries Mertens (Napoli), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Luka Modric (Real Madrid), Neymar (PSG), Jan Oblak (Atlético Madrid), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Luis Suárez (Barcelona).

    Of these I think Benzema and Coutinho are particularly questionable. I'm not sure De Gea had his best year last season either.

    I am presuming the Falcao inclusion is based to a significant extent on his great start this season which I think makes some sense. Bernardo Silva was France's best player last season but is yet to make an impact at Man City.
     
  9. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Manchester United allowed 29 goals in 2016-2017, which was their fewest in the six complete seasons they have had de Gea.
     
  10. comme

    comme Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 21, 2003
    Yeah, because United's defence was a lot better/the team was a lot more defensive. His saves per game (2.1) was the lowest of his time at United.

    Basically, United's previous poor form gave him more opportunity to show his quality.

    Last year was the first for 3 years that he wasn't United's player of the season.
     
  11. comme

    comme Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 21, 2003


    WhoScored's top picks for the years so far.
     
  12. comme

    comme Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 21, 2003
    My own 23 would be:

    Aubameyang, Bonucci, Buffon, Carvajal, Dybala, De Bruyne, Eriksen, Hazard, Isco, Kane, Kante, Kroos, Lewandowski, Marcelo, Mertens, Messi, Modric, Neymar, Ramos, Robben, Ronaldo, Suarez, Thiago.

    But it's hard going.

    Messi head and shoulders the number 1. Modric should be in the top 3.
     
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  13. comme

    comme Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 21, 2003
    #13 comme, Oct 24, 2017
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2017
  14. comme

    comme Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 21, 2003
    Without looking to dignify these awards too much, you do wonder what some of the voters are thinking. Does Messi miss out on some people's top 3s because they are looking to share it around a bit or because they genuinely don't think he's been that good.
     
  15. PuckVanHeel

    PuckVanHeel Member+

    Oct 4, 2011
    Club:
    Feyenoord
    Also how Cristiano and Messi refuse to vote for each other, for a few years going now. Although Cristiano did name Xavi as #1 in 2010, and in 2009 Simao was voting in his place (as did Bruno Alves in 2011) and he had Messi at #1 while team captain Mascherano had Messi not in his top three.

    Think the 'spreading around' was more something of earlier years (at Ballon d'Or), occasionally being an explicit instruction by France Football (which voters followed or did not follow). After a player had won one or two of these things.
     
  16. PuckVanHeel

    PuckVanHeel Member+

    Oct 4, 2011
    Club:
    Feyenoord
    Maradona's votes when he was national team manager also intriguing.

    2008: Cristiano, Zlatan, Adebayor
    2009: Drogba, Rooney, Zlatan


    But no, Messi and Cristiano never voted for each other. The closest being Xavi at #1 in 2010 by Cristiano.
     
  17. comme

    comme Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 21, 2003
    Which is one of the reasons that these awards are highly imperfect.

    There is sometimes a snobbish feeling to look at the votes of the coach of Burundi or the captain of Vanatu and ask how are they qualified. But look at Messi's votes. He chose Iniesta (the least deserving player on the shortlist) as the 2nd best.
     
  18. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I wouldn't want a system where only the top fifty (or pick another number) of countries got votes. Another possibility would be to give the top countries more votes, but there were 459 combined captains, coaches, and media who voted without doing that. I'm not saying all voters are qualified, but none of us know personally how often the coach of Burundi has watched the top clubs play. Furthermore, it would be strange if the fan component was open to people in countries whose captain, coach, and media didn't get votes.
     
  19. comme

    comme Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 21, 2003
    Well so far the top nations' voters have done nothing to show they are more qualified. In fact, by and large, we've seen that they vote for their own players/teammates.
     
  20. PuckVanHeel

    PuckVanHeel Member+

    Oct 4, 2011
    Club:
    Feyenoord
  21. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm going to type all the ballots in a spreadsheet. Separately, I'll look at the subsets of ballots from countries with the Top 15 leagues in UEFA and ballots from the Top 32 in the October 2017 FIFA Rankings to see how those ballots compare to all the ballots.
     
  22. robnycus

    robnycus Member+

    Jun 28, 2010
    Club:
    New York Cosmos
    I dont think they believe he’s been that good just that Cristiano was better this past season.
     
  23. ko242

    ko242 Member+

    Jul 9, 2015
    messi has clearly been the best player from january to now. the question is, what is considered more important, the 2 months that CR7 performed at a high level in the champions league or the 7+ months of consistency that came from Messi. albeit CR7s season depends on 2 months it was against top level opponents. but that`s CR7s only case. had it not been for the 5 or so games, he would be lucky to be in the top 10.
     
  24. comme

    comme Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 21, 2003
    True or not, this argument has been covered enough I think.
     
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  25. robnycus

    robnycus Member+

    Jun 28, 2010
    Club:
    New York Cosmos
    I dont think consitency is that highly valuable specially when you’ve failed to win any throphies. See Alves for example.. he was in beast mode for the last two months in the champions and also the French super cup and made the best XI team but overall Carvajal was the most consistent right back.
    Scoring goals in final and semifinal add more weight than scoring more goals consitently against non competite teams.
    Messi didnt do much (in comparison to Cristiano) against PSG nor Juve and that is IMO what some of these voters were considering.
     
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