Ballon d’Or winner Harry Kane has not made this year’s men’s World 11 chosen by FIFPro, the global players’ union. Players voted for four forwards, and the Bayern Munich star, who scored 73 goals in 65 matches last season, was not among them. A total of 19,806 male footballers from 73 countries voted to pick this year’s team.
Kane, 33, won the Ballon d’Or, the top individual award of the year, in London last month. The Ballon d’Or winner is decided by a jury of 100 journalists, one from each of the top 100 countries in the FIFA men’s ranking. Like Kane, his French Bayern team-mate Michael Olise and last year’s Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé also missed out on this year’s World 11.
The attack this time is made up of Barcelona’s Spanish forward Lamine Yamal, Manchester City’s Norwegian striker Erling Haaland, Real Madrid’s French striker Kylian Mbappé and Inter Miami’s Argentine forward Lionel Messi.
Messi, 39, is back in the FIFPro World 11 for the first time since 2023. It is his 18th selection, extending his record for the most appearances in the team. The great led Argentina to the final of the most recent World Cup.
Yamal, a World Cup winner with Spain, was in the FIFPro World 11 last year as well. Being picked again makes the 19-year-old the first player to be named in the team twice before turning 20. Three more players from Spain’s 2026 World Cup-winning squad join him: Pau Cubarsí in defence, Rodri in midfield and David Raya in goal.
From Paris Saint-Germain, winners of the Champions League two years running, come wing-backs Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes, with Vitinha in midfield. Jude Bellingham joins Mbappé from Real Madrid.
Kane, who scored 73 goals for club and country last season, has 16 so far this season. This year he won the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the German Super Cup with Bayern, and scored six goals as he took England to the semi-finals of the World Cup that ended in July.
FIFPro was founded in 1965 and represents more than 60,000 footballers. It has picked a men’s team of the year since 2005 and a women’s team since 2015. The team is called the World 11.
The women’s team
As in past years, some omissions from this year’s women’s World 11 have drawn debate. Manchester City’s Khadija Shaw, Kansas City Current’s Temwa Chawinga and Barcelona’s Patri Guijarro and Ewa Pajor were left out despite outstanding seasons.
England and Chelsea right-back Lucy Bronze has become the first female footballer to be named in the World 11 for a ninth time. In the team, chosen by the votes of 6,511 female footballers from 64 countries, Zambia forward Barbra Banda is the only player from outside England and Spain.
Spain midfielders Aitana Bonmatí and Alexia Putellas are both in this year’s team. Putellas won her third Ballon d’Or last month, so she and Bonmatí now share the record of three women’s Ballon d’Or wins.
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