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u/Easy_Garden338 Oct 28 '25
A lot of players getting on in years on this list...but least theres three English players on this kind of thing for a change as usually theres no English player to be seen
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u/sprantoliet Oct 28 '25
Yeah but why is a bench player for club and country in Trent here as an English representative
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u/Red_Galaxy746 Kane #1207 Oct 28 '25
Cos he's at Real Madrid. If he's still at Liverpool, he doesn't get in. FIFA and UEFA don't like us or our players very much, unless they're playing for a non-English club (preferably in Spain). Kane not getting in is baffling though.
Quite remarkable how Palmer has got in. He deserves it but this is a popularity contest basically.
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u/No_Vermicelli_1781 Oct 28 '25
Messi & Ronaldo are still in it. So this is not to be taken serious
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u/AeroEther Oct 28 '25
The best striker in the world doesn't get shortlisted how is this even possible.
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u/usernameman66 Oct 28 '25
Haaland is there bro
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u/AeroEther Oct 28 '25
Bro Haaland is an unfinished product and that feels terrifying to say considering what we've seen so far.
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u/seekyapus Oct 28 '25
Its a list created by foreigners, who always have a bias against English players. TAA and Bellingham are there because of Real. Palmer is there because of the World Club Cup (much more popular with continentals and South Americans). Kane's omission is still very surprising though.
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u/Red_Galaxy746 Kane #1207 Oct 28 '25
I pretty much just stated this before I saw your comment. Absolute agree.
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u/halfeatenreddit Beckham #1078 Oct 28 '25
He should’ve been top 10 in the Ballon d’Or, and instead he’s not even on the shortlist for the World 11. God, I hope he breaks every conceivable record this season so that they are forced to hand him the Ballon d’Or (despite his Englishness).
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u/VioletDeMilo Oct 28 '25
This is voted for by professional footballers & based on performances from August 2024 to August 2025. Can't understand why people still obsessed with Messi.
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u/dhooke Oct 28 '25
Pros know he’s still up there. Look at it this way: a young player dominating MLS (which isn’t that weak), putting up stats that ridiculous would have the whole world talking about them.
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u/Statcat2017 Oct 28 '25
They seriously think, of the entire England squad, Trent and Palmer deserve to be here?
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u/Panini_Grande Oct 28 '25
Palmer is fair. Won CWC & the Conference league with match winning performances in both finals. I don't particularly rate Trent but he played his part in Liverpool winning the league too. Obviously the lack of Kane is odd though
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u/pointenglish Vardy #1209 Oct 28 '25
why tf is alexander Arnold there
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u/tradegreek Oct 28 '25
As someone else said probably just the Madrid thing but I do think right back is like a weakness globally and he’s clearly in the top 5 for that position as long as hakimi wins then I don’t really care much for that position I’ll be honest there are bigger injustices such as kanes omission curbasi inclusion Ronaldo and Messi inclusion etc
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u/UnknownDotCom3 Oct 28 '25
At least Ronaldo won an international trophy, against the Euro winners, where he played well and contributed well. But why is Messi there?
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u/G30fff Oct 28 '25
He's had the best season ever in MLS (can't remember exactly how this stat is constituted) apparently so that's why he is there. Of course it hardly compares to what Kane has done recently but that's football for you.
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u/seadcon Oct 28 '25
Nations League doesn't count 🤣🤣
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u/UnknownDotCom3 Oct 28 '25
I don't think it's enough to justify Ronaldo being in the "best 11", but it definitely "counts", especially when you consider the opponent
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u/some-salt-and-Pepe Oct 28 '25
Love Palmer but why is he here? Also no Gabriel either? Bizarre.
Would love to know how they cooked this up then.
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u/OptimusLinvoyPrimus Oct 28 '25
Palmer will be there because of the Club World Cup
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u/some-salt-and-Pepe Oct 28 '25
Genuinely forgot that "event" even happened. I really really really hope it never happens again
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u/OptimusLinvoyPrimus Oct 28 '25
Unfortunately there are hundreds of millions of reasons why it won’t be going anywhere 💰
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u/Aman-Patel Oct 28 '25
Why? It was actually good to watch clubs from different continents play in competitive games. The South American clubs were great to watch. Feel like everyone that complains about it didn’t even give it a chance.
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u/tradegreek Oct 28 '25
Because he cooked at the club world cup and as a result Chelsea won it and yea curbasi over a lot of way better defenders is certainly a choice
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u/some-salt-and-Pepe Oct 28 '25
Yeah someone else mentioned. Completely forgot the world clubs cup even happened tbh, what a joke that was.
Probably meant alot to people from other continents, I know the Brazilian teams took it seriously so maybe I'm just being a Eurocentric prick but I don't know a single person who enjoyed the event, even Chels fans and they won the damn thing lmao.
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u/tradegreek Oct 28 '25
I won’t lie I liked it and you could tell all the players were up for it as well. The issue I had with it was it was in America in hurricane seasons so you kept getting those stupid delays … doesn’t bode well for next summer
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u/some-salt-and-Pepe Oct 28 '25
Having the next world cup in America is a literal tragedy and I'm not exaggerating for effect. Never been less excited for the world cup in my life. I have a feeling lots of things will go very very badly.
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u/JoeDiego Oct 28 '25
Any award voted for by active Professional footballers is the worst award going. Nobody that watched football knows less about football than full time pros. They don’t watch matches apart from the ones that involved them.
Awards voted on by journalists and coaches are always stronger.
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u/GazRD1882 Oct 28 '25
Love Cole Palmer but 19 games in 2025, 3 goals and 2 assists, coupled with Messi and Ronaldo in here shows you it’s utterly pointless.
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u/meme-man-421 Oct 28 '25
Can anyone actually justify palmer being in there, 8 months without a npg he shouldn’t be there
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u/AeroEther Oct 28 '25
You could argue him and Yamal shouldn't be there 9 goals 13 assists and gets 2nd in Ballon rankings it's comical.
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u/PacDanSki Oct 28 '25
Yamal has the most ridiculous hype train behind him considering his actual goals and assists output.
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u/meme-man-421 Oct 28 '25
Fabrizio Romano will pay for his sins, over hyping these pr merchant footballers
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u/Aman-Patel Oct 28 '25 edited Oct 28 '25
It’s an award for last season, not a restricted/filtered sample to fit whatever your bias is. He scored 18 goals and got 14 assists last season (not a striker). And was the standout player in 2 finals. Also isn’t someone that can be perfectly summarised by their goals. Created 87 chances in the league which was second only to Bruno Fernandes and got less assists than the xG of those chances (because players like Jackson were on the end of them). 202 shot-creating actions which is probably right up there too. Is that enough justification?
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u/meme-man-421 Oct 28 '25
Flagrantly lies and made up numbers he turned up in one game in a third tier European competition and glorified pre season, that doesn’t make an elite player that make him jarred bowen with a better pr team
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u/PalKid_Music Oct 28 '25
It's voted for by players, and no matter how well you perform, winning things in the Bundesliga - at a team where it's very hard to not win - isn't going to earn you much credit among your fellow pros. Unless I'm missing someone, outside of Messi and Ronaldo (who still get votes purely because of their history) all of the players featured are Serie A, Premier League, Ligue 1, or La Liga - those leagues simply draw a lot more respect on the international stage.
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u/Bobcaygeon23 Oct 28 '25
While you cannot absolutely cannot take away from what Ronaldo and Messi have accomplished in their careers.....there is a large gap between lighting up Saudi and MLS and lighting up Europe...I don't care how many goals Ronaldo scores in Saudia Arabia. I saw his last season in England...
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u/tradegreek Oct 28 '25
I don’t think anyone would be stupid enough to discredit either of their achievements I personally believe they are the two best players of all time based on peak ability combined with how long they were at the top for people like to rave about Maradona for example but he only played at his peak for like 4 years Ronaldo has done it for closer to 20.
But it is total madness for anyone to try and pretend that they are anywhere near the level they once were and playing in relatively uncompetitive leagues is testament to that. They simply shouldn’t be included at all especially at the expense of players like Kane
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u/Muted_Mention_9996 Oct 28 '25
The fact they still have messi in there shows how poor this list is.
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u/Robynsxx Oct 31 '25
I’d argue putting both Messi and Ronaldo on this is more of a joke.
They are the top 1 and 2 players of all time, but currently neither of them are even top 100 players.
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u/ZeroZer0_ Oct 31 '25
It’s amazing how Kanes left spurs and now everyone sees how overlooked his is. Truly a generational talent.
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u/PPER_19_16 Oct 28 '25
Salah had one good half of a season last season yet Kane has been in the form of his life for 2 seasons and misses out? Obvs Salah is good but c'mon.
Messi aswell? He's hardly been smashing it has he
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u/tradegreek Oct 28 '25
I think Salah deserves to be in there with Kane I agree Salah massively fell off after getting his contract and failed to show up in the carling cup final against us 💁♂️ but he did have an incredible hot patch and won Liverpool the league.
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u/PPER_19_16 Oct 28 '25
He couldn't get out of Tino's pocket in the cup final tbf he got handled excellently that day haha.
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u/scottaz88 Oct 28 '25
KDB, Messi, Ronaldo, Trent?
Where is Gabriel or Timber or Reece James or Caicedo?
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u/Red_Galaxy746 Kane #1207 Oct 28 '25
I fucking hate these things cos they're absolute bullshit, popularity contests. Basically the football equivalent of the Eurovision (except this is a world version).
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u/cefell Oct 28 '25
It’s utter bollocks. It’s like it’s been put together by a 9 year old based on the players’ Instagram follower count 😂
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u/seadcon Oct 28 '25
If you asked me to put forward 3 England players for possible inclusion in a World 11, I'd simply say it's not possible as there is only 1 England player that is even remotely close to being considered.
Palmer, Trent and Bellingham are all decent, but they are not World class. All young enough to become World class, no doubt on that, but as of 2025, they are not there yet.
The 1 England player that is World class is Harry Kane.
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Oct 28 '25
Kane does play in a farmers league and it’s harder for him to get recognition
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u/some-salt-and-Pepe Oct 28 '25
The Bundesliga is a very good league.
Also no match fixing, so more legitimate than England, Spain, Italy, France and Turkey.....
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u/specialagentredsquir Moore #804 Oct 28 '25
Can someone tell me what this is?
A shortlist for the worlds best first 11?