Thibaut Courtois, Achraf Hakimi, Joao Cancelo, Casemiro and Karim Benzema have made the 2022 FIFA FIFPRO Men’s World 11 for the first time, while Lionel Messi earned his 16th inclusion, taking outright the record he previously shared with Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese missed out for the first time since 2006 as Luka Modric made the team for a sixth time – a figure bettered only by Dani Alves (8), Andres Iniesta (9), Sergio Ramos (11), Ronaldo (15) and Messi.
Kylian Mbappe, who missed out in 2020 and 2021, returned to the XI and Erling Haaland made it back-to-back selections. Virgil van Dijk and Kevin De Bruyne, with their third inclusions apiece, completed the side.
The FIFPRO Men’s World 11 was voted for exclusively by professional footballers from across the planet. FIFPRO and affiliated players’ unions distributed unique links that gave players from all professional football clubs access to a digital voting platform. They picked the three players who, in their opinion, were the most outstanding in the 2021/22 season in each of the following positions: goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and forwards.
The goalkeeper, three defenders, three midfielders and three forwards with the most votes in their position made it into the FIFPRO Men’s World 11. The 11th spot was assigned to the outfield player with the next highest number of votes.
The votes were made for players’ performances from 8 August 2021 to 18 December 2022.
FIFPRO Men’s World 11
Goalkeeper
Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid, Belgium)
Defenders
Joao Cancelo (Manchester City/Bayern Munich, Portugal)
Achraf Hakimi (Paris Saint-Germain, Morocco)
Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool, Netherlands)
Midfielders
Casemiro (Real Madrid/Manchester United, Brazil)
Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City, Belgium)
Luka Modric (Real Madrid, Croatia)
Forwards
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid, France)
Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund/Manchester City, Norway)
Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain, France)
Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain, Argentina)
