5 strangest nominees from the FIFPro XI

-

The nominees for the FIFPro XI were released today as the players nominated were recognized for their performances in the past football season for both club and country. However, some players on the list were given far too much credit that they deserve. Here are the 5 strangest nominees from the FIFPro XI.

Karim Benzema


How Karim Benzema got a nomination for the FIFA XI is beyond me given how poor he was last season to get the ball in the net. The Frenchman had his worst goalscoring season for Los Blancos, scoring just 12 goals in 47 appearances with only 5 goals each in La Liga and the Champions League. That as well as his broken relationship with France coach Didier Deschamps prevented him from getting to the French squad for the World Cup and it's unlikely he will make it back anytime soon. He's already one short from his goal tally from last season with 4 goals in just 3 leagues appearances which shows he bad he was last season.

Yerry Mina


A strong World Cup can do a lot for any player and Yerry Mina is one of them. The Colombian scored three goals in the World Cup. The most from a defender in a single tournament. However, is that why he's nominated. Mina wasn't in the best 10 defenders at the World Cup and made just 5 league appearances for Barcelona last season starting in their sole league defeat against Levante. There's a good reason why Barcelona decided to let Mina go and got good money when they sold him to Everton.

Dani Alves


Dani Alves at his height was one of the most explosive full-backs in the world being an attacking threat from right-back. Now at 35, he's certainly past his peak and is on borrowed time. Name recognition is the sole reason for his nomination and given that he recovered from a knee injury before the World Cup, can he keep his performances up?

Arturo Vidal


Another benefactor of name recognition, Vidal's inclusion doesn't make much sense. The Chilean added another Bundesliga title with Bayern Munich before moving to Barcelona but he was much of a passenger from last season. Vidal missed 15 games last season due to injury which has affected his time at Bavaria. Not a potential starter for Barcelona, Vidal's inclusion is not merited.

Keylor Navas


Keylor Navas added another Champions League medal which was a sweet ending from an otherwise poor season for the Costa Rican. Novas last season kept just 11 clean sheets in all competitions last season with just 7 in La Liga last season as well as conceding 14 goals in Madrid's UCL winning run. Over Jan Olbak, really?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday's UCL Roundup: Round of 16 (1st Leg)

-
Image
Giménez and Godín down The Old Lady Atlético centre-backs José Giménez and Diego Godín were the heroes for Atlético Madrid following a massive 2-0 win against Italian champions Juventus at the Wanda Metropolitano with more discussions about Video Assistant Referee (VAR). Both sides sides have reached the final of the Champions League in the past five years with Juve making a big coup to win the competition with the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, who has also scored 22 goals against Atléti. Juventus had the first big chance when Leonardo Bonucci who had a free header from a set-piece but went over the crossbar. Diego Costa and Antonie Griezmann had their chances but were unable to score then they scored from substitute Álvaro Morata but was ruled out by VAR. The Rojiblancos finally took the lead from José Giménez with Juve unable to clear their lines from a set-piece allowing the Uruguayan to score. Five minutes later, Diego Godín scored the second from another set-piece. A big win ...
Read more

UEFA Champions League Final: The Road to Lisbon

-
Image
So, the UEFA Champions League Final is finally upon us. The 2019/2020 Champions League season has already given us some fantastic moments from the emergence of Eerling Håland, Atlético Madrid stunning Liverpool at Anfield, the feel-good story of Atalanta, RB Leipzig reaching the semifinals, Ligue 1 not really a farmer's league and Bayern's absolute destruction of Barcelona. The final was to take place at the Atatürk Stadium in Istanbul on May 30th. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the latter stages of the competition were postponed until August with UEFA deciding to play the latter stages in Portugal, with no fans in attendance. The restart continued where we left off and now, we have our finalists with Ligue 1 Champions Paris Saint-Germain facing Bundesliga Champions Bayern Munich on Sunday at the Estádio da Luz. For PSG, this is their golden opportunity to get the holy grail they crave while Bayern is achieving a treble for the second time in the club's history. Here is...
Read more

Ten Most Expensive January Signings

-
Image
Clubs are pretty cautious when it comes to the January transfer window from trying to get a big signing midway to the season in savaging their season to clubs playing hardball to get more money from the transfer. Still, millions are spent during the window and with the January window closing, here are the ten most expensive January transfer signings. Juan Mata (Chelsea to Manchester United £37m) David Moyes made a big coup to save his job by signing Spanish midfielder Juan Mata from Chelsea for a club record fee of £37 million in January 2014. Mata was one of the most creative players during his time with Chelsea with 33 goals and 63 assists, winning the Champions League in 2012. However, after falling out with José Mourinho, Mata left London for Manchester where he has made 208 appearances for the Red Devils, scoring 44 goals. Alex Teixeira (Shakhtar Donetsk to Jiangsu Suning £38m) China have been putting their feet in the football world by challenging Europe's eli...
Read more