Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk, Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt celebrated their first World 11 award in the illustrious Scala theater in Milan.
Becker and Van Dijk formed the rock solid centerpiece in the defence of Liverpool, the team that won the Champions League.
De Jong and De Ligt were only one minute away of facing Liverpool in the Champions League final and both played a crucial part for the surprising Dutch club.
Together with Van Dijk, they did reach the final of the Nations League, eliminating France, Germany and England to get there. However, they lost to Portugal.
Becker was more successful with Brazil, securing the Copa America.
De Jong and De Ligt are the first Ajax players to be voted onto the World 11. The Amsterdam club is only the 14th team represented in the World 11.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were picked by their colleagues worldwide for the 13th consecutive time: they are both record holders. Sergio Ramos is third on the all-time list, making his 10th appearance.
In total, 23,809 professional footballers voted in the 15th edition of the World 11. FIFPRO received most votes from Japan (1,244), followed by Venezuela, England, Zimbabwe and Ukraine.
Most players picked Messi in their team: 19,381. Van Dijk was second (17,085) and Ronaldo third (16,943).
The List of 55
For the first time since 2009, English Premier League clubs had the most players on the List of 55, beating Spain's La Liga clubs with 21 to 20. Liverpool lead the Premier League clubs with 7 selections, although Barcelona (9) and Real Madrid (8) still had more players on the list. South American champions Brazil had 10 players on the list.
For the first time in the 15-year World 11 history, Gianluigi Buffon did not make the list of 55 players. Buffon has 3 World 11 awards.
Cristiano Ronaldo is the only player voted on all fifteen World 11 shortlists.
South Korea’s Heung-Min Son was the first Asian player to appear on the list of 55.
Matthijs de Ligt and Daniel Alves had a very close battle for the final defender’s position in the World 11. It was De Ligt who beat Alves, collecting only three votes more: 8,027 against 8,024.
Two Chelsea players were challenging each other for the final midfielder’s spot: Eden Hazard and Ngolo Kante. Both of them were also a member of the 2018 World 11. The Belgian player won with 1,000 votes more than his French counterpart.
Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah thought they had a chance of becoming the third African player in World 11 history, as they both had won the Champions League with Liverpool. Mane was also runner-up with Senegal in the Africa Cup of Nations. However, their closest rival, Kylian Mbappe, collected approximately 1,600 more votes.