Three of Liverpool’s players have been nominated for the 2025 FIFPRO Men’s World 11, a team into which Mo Salah has astonishingly never been voted.
Liverpool trio recognised by FIFA
Following their Premier League title-winning campaign, Alisson, Salah and Virgil van Dijk have all been nominated for the FIFPro Men’s World 11 – a team of the year type award selected each year.
The team is voted for by more than 26,000 professional footballers around the world, with 26 finalists announced already before this is whittled down to 11.
The final XI will be announced on November 3 at 2pm (GMT). Here are the men’s 2025 nominees:
Goalkeepers: Alisson, Courtois, Donnarumma
Defenders: Alexander-Arnold, Cubarsi, Van Dijk, Hakimi, Marquinhos, Mendes, Saliba
Midfielders: Bellingham, De Bruyne, Modric, Neves, Palmer, Pedri, Valverde, Vitinha
Forwards: Dembele, Haaland, Mbappe, Messi, Raphinha, Ronaldo, Salah, Yamal
While his form has taken a dive this season, the voting should be based on the last campaign when Salah scored 29 goals and provided 18 assists, managing 11 goal contributions more than next best in Europe’s top five leagues.
Incredibly, Salah has never been named in the FIFPro 11 despite his exploits for Liverpool since arriving in 2017.
Today’s Liverpool FC News
• Under-21s coach Rob Page offered a minor update on Stefan Bajcetic‘s fitness, saying he is still out but “we should know more in the next couple of weeks”
• The former Wales boss has also left the door open to a January move for Kaide Gordon, adding that the attacker wanted to leave on loan in the summer
• Kostas Tsimikas was taken off at half time for Roma and was criticised in the Italian press – read our loan watch round-up here
• Trent Alexander-Arnold returned from injury for Real Madrid, sitting on the bench for Sunday’s 2-1 win over Barcelona – just in time for their trip to Anfield in the Champions League…
More from This Is Anfield
With Liverpool losing four Premier League matches in a row, Joanna Durkan, Peter Bolster and journalist David Lynch took stock and assessed the Reds’ biggest problems:
“When Liverpool lose the ball, there’s no base in midfield to recover. We’ve seen it time and time again.
“There’s no natural number six who senses danger, no compactness, no foundation for the attacking players to build from. Instead, he seems to think that throwing on attacker after attacker will fix it.
“He points to the xG being high and says we should be scoring more, but the bigger issue is that we don’t control football matches.”
Elsewhere in the football world today
• Juventus have sacked manager Igor Tudor following an eight-match winless run – he only joined the club in March!
• Matty Cash has signed a new Aston Villa contract that will last until 2029
• Wolves will stick with manager Vitor Pereira “for the foreseeable future” (Sky Sports) – seven defeats and two draws in the Premier League for him this season
Rest in peace, Jose Manuel Ochotorena
It was announced on Monday that Jose Manuel Ochotorena has passed away at the age of 64.
The former goalkeeping coach arrived at Anfield with Rafa Benitez in 2004 and helped Liverpool to penalty shootout wins in the 2005 Champions League final and the 2006 FA Cup final.
After leaving Liverpool, the Spaniard worked on the staff of arguably international football’s greatest-ever team, as Spain won the World Cup in 2010 as well as the European Championships in 2008 and 2012.
As a player, Ochotorena earned one Spain cap and played in goal for Real Madrid, Tenerife, Valencia, Racing Santander plus Logrones.
Rest in peace, Jose.
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