Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe officially qualified for the finals of FIFA FIFPRO World 11 2023 . The nominations were selected by more than 25,000 professional players from FIFA and FIFPro, based on the player’s achievements from December 19, 2022 (after the World Cup) to August 20, 2023.
Cristiano Ronaldo suddenly appeared on the nomination list. Previously, the Al Nassr star was eliminated by FIFA from the shortlisted candidates for the Best Male Player of the Year Award.
The nomination list had 23 players, before being reduced to 11 players. The selected outstanding squad will be announced on January 15 at The Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony in London.
The final squad list will include a goalkeeper, 3 defenders, 3 midfielders and 3 strikers. This means that Ronaldo, Messi, Haaland and Mbappe are competing for a place in attack.
Manchester City dominates the list with 8 representatives, not including midfielder Ilkay Gundogan who moved to Barcelona. Inter reached the Champions League final last term and won the Italian Cup, but no names appeared.
List of nominations for outstanding teams:
Goalkeeper: Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid, Belgium); Ederson (Manchester City, Brazil) and Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa, Argentina).
Defender: Ruben Dias (Manchester City, Portugal); Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool, Netherlands); Eder Militao (Real Madrid, Brazil); Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid, Germany); John Stones (Manchester City, England) and Kyle Walker (Manchester City, England).
Midfielder: Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund/Real Madrid, England); Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City, Belgium); Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City/Barcelona, Germany); Luka Modric (Real Madrid, Croatia); Rodri (Manchester City, Spain); Bernardo Silva (Manchester City, Portugal) and Federico Valverde (Real Madrid, Uruguay).
Striker: Karim Benzema (Real Madrid/Al Ittihad, France); Erling Haaland (Manchester City, Norway); Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur/Bayern Munich, England); Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain, France); Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain/Inter Miami, Argentina); Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nassr, Portugal) and Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid, Brazil).
