LONDON: FIFPro, the player’s representative body in world football has nominated as many as seven players from France’s FIFA World Cup 2018 winning team in the list of 55 professional footballers out of which the FIFPro’s World XI 2018 will be selected.
This exclusive list features Antoine Griezmann, N’Golo Kante, Kylian Mbappe, Benjamin Pavard, Paul Pogba, Samuel Umtiti and Raphael Varane. Karim Benzema is the eighth Frenchman on the list, although he didn’t play for France in the marquee event. Yet the striker qualified due to his role in Real Madrid winning a hat-trick of UEFA Champions League titles.
FIFPro and its affiliated player associations invited professional footballers worldwide to pick a team of one goalkeeper, four defenders, three midfielders and three attackers who performed exceptionally well during the 2017-18 season.
In total, 25,000 footballers from 65 countries selected their eleven.
The World XI will be unveiled by FIFA and FIFPro during the Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony in London on September 24.
