Messi, Ronaldo & Lewandowski make FIFPro World XI but Neuer misses out

Liverpool’s Alisson was preferred to The Best Men’s Goalkeeper in the final line-up, but his Bayern Munich team-mate was included in the front three

Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski were named in the attack for the 2020 FIFA FIFPro Men’s World XI, but Manuel Neuer missed out after the final vote.

Messi, Ronaldo and Lewandowski were all finalists for The Best FIFA Men’s Player award and so were unsurprisingly included in the FIFPro Men’s World XI in Zurich on Thursday night.

Barcelona‘s captain enjoyed another superb individual season at Camp Nou, while his long-time rival helped Juve win a ninth successive Serie A crown and Bayern Munich‘s star striker inspired Hansi Flick’s side to Bundesliga, Champions League and DFB Cup glory.

The chief shock elsewhere in the team saw Liverpool No.1 Alisson preferred in goal to Manuel Neuer, with the Brazilian having played a key role in the Merseyside outfit’s run to a first league title in 30 years.

Neuer, who captained Bayern to the treble, had earlier been named The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper, beating Alisson and Atletico Madrid shot-stopper Jan Oblak to the award.

The Germany skipper had said: “It’s one of the best years of my career, of course. We were so confident with our team and it’s amazing what we have done in this year, 2020, especially in the summer when we played together in Lisbon [in the Champions League].”

In a team voted for by the players, Alisson was joined by Liverpool team-mates Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Thiago Alcantara.

Thiago spent the majority of the year with Bayern, who were represented by Alphonso Davies and Joshua Kimmich as well as Lewandowski.

Real Madrid skipper Sergio Ramos and Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne completed the line-up, with the former having helped the Blancos win a record-extending 34th La Liga title and the latter adding a third consecutive Carabao Cup winners’ medal to his silverware collection.

FIFA FIFPro Men’s World XI: Alisson; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Sergio Ramos, Alphonso Davies; Joshua Kimmich, Kevin De Bruyne, Thiago Alcantara; Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski, Cristiano Ronaldo.

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