Revealed on January 12th, the FIFPro World XI is supposed to be a list complete with the best goalkeeper, four best defenders, three best midfielders, and three best attackers of the past calendar year. This XI is voted on by 20,000 professional soccer players from across the world, all members of FIFPro, the largest soccer player association. Those 20,000 players decided on this as their best XI.
At first glance, it seems like a fine list. It has 3 members of the World Cup winning German side, the magisterial Messi and Ronaldo, the dynamic Arjen Robben, and the La Decima hero Sergio Ramos.
However, when one begins to look more closely at the defenders, in particular, the XI starts to fall apart. The most controversial selection of the bunch is certainly the curly haired Brazilian, David Luiz. Best known for his utter disaster of a performance as captain of Brazil during their 7-1 drubbing by Germany, David Luiz wasn’t even the second best defender on his club team for the first half of 2014. He was consistently stuck on the bench at Chelsea behind the excellent English combination of John Terry and Gary Cahill. Even though he has been the best center back at Paris Saint Germain over the latter half of 2014, it does not make up for his mediocre form at Chelsea and his absolute shocker at the World Cup. There are many candidates for Luiz’s spot, but most agree that it should have gone to either Uruguay and Atlético Madrid’s Diego Godin or Germany and Bayern München’s Jerome Boateng.
But, if David Luiz is so undeserving of the award, how was he voted into the World XI? One possible explanation is contained in this imgur album, and that explanation is regional voting. Every single South American country voted for the David Luiz/Thiago Silva pairing, while only Uruguay and Germany voted for Godin and Boateng respectively. The most striking example is Chile, who were the most biased, voting for four of their own players. Those players were Alexis Sanchez, Arturo Vidal, Gary Medel, and Claudio Bravo, players that did not appear on any other country’s XI.
However, regional and country based voting is not the only reason that David Luiz, among other undeserving candidates, made this World XI. Social media and general popularity are hugely important in the world of soccer, and David Luiz is one of the most popular players out there. He featured in a huge amount of commercials throughout the World Cup, for brands such as Gillette, Gatorade, and Nike. His face was plastered all around the world, raising his profile and almost certainly prompting lots of other players to vote for him.
All in all, the FIFPro World XI is a glorified popularity contest, and should be viewed as such. It is not an all-encompassing list of the best possible XI in world football, and will not be such a list unless its format is changed. The voters are simply more inclined to vote for their compatriots and players they know, rather than the real best players.
Sources:
Thank you!! I completely agree on Luiz vs. Boateng, especially if you keep Luiz’ performance during the World Cup in mind. Iniesta doesn’t belong there either. For me, Thomas Müller would have been the better choice. Also, while Robben is dynamic as Kurt suggested, I like him better as right winger but of course I can understand why they would put Messi there. Still haven’t made up my mind on Di Maria though. Neymar might be more suitable but he didn’t win any titles last year which is kind of contradictory given that Messi got a spot.
Couldn’t agree more; the 7-1 incident showed that, without proper direction from the other defender (Silva in Brazil, Terry when he was in Chelsea), David Luiz is prone to expose his back-four at the wrong moments.
Another thing that supports your argument is that all three of the midfielders are all considered to be attacking-minded, and could easily have been candidates to the front three (except maybe Toni Kroos). If this was indeed a well-thought-out list of the best XI, then I feel that Mascherano would’ve been included instead of Iniesta.