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Football

24th Sep 2018

There were two glaring omissions from the FIFPro World XI

Doesn't make a lot of sense

Darragh Murphy

If Mohamed Salah is one of the three best players in the world then surely he should make it into the best XI in the world, right?

Fifa’s ‘The Best’ awards ceremony took place on Monday night and, as usual, there was plenty of room for debate when all was said and done.

Many of the arguments revolved around Mohamed Salah.

Salah was one of three men nominated for Fifa’s best men’s player of the year, along with Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric, but was beaten out.

The Egypt international came out on top when it came to the Puskas Award, however, as his stunning effort against Everton was voted the best goal of the year in the face of stiff competition from the likes of Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.

Hardcore Liverpool supporters argued that Salah ought to have been named the best player but Modric took that prize home after three consecutive Champions League triumphs and a journey to the World Cup final with Croatia.

Others suggested that there were better goals than Salah’s that should have earned the Puskas Award.

And most neutrals were left baffled after Salah was left out of Fifa’s FifPro XI, meaning that the Reds forward was considered to be in the top three players in the world in one category but not in the top XI in the world in another.

Another major issue with the selection came with the fact that Thibaut Courtois, who was voted the world’s best goalkeeper earlier in the evening, was omitted from the XI at the expense of David de Gea.