"Ballon d'Or? We don't recognize it." Kane faces unprecedented humiliation... Excluded from 'FIFPro World Best XI' voted by peers, "Lost to Haaland by 0.8%"

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Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), this year's Ballon d'Or winner, was excluded from the 'World Best XI' list selected directly by fellow players. On the other hand, Lionel Messi (Inter Miami) set a record for the most selections in history with his 18th inclusion.

The International Federation of Professional Footballers (FIFPro) announced the list for the '2026 Men's World Best XI' on the 10th (Korean time).

This list was determined by direct voting from 19,806 professional football players across 73 countries. The voting pool was limited to players who appeared in at least 30 official matches between August 2025 and July 2026. After first selecting the top vote-getters for each position, one additional field player with the highest number of votes among the remaining candidates was added to complete a 3-3-4 formation.

In the forward category, Messi, Erling Haaland (Manchester City), Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid), and Lamine Yamal (Barcelona) were selected.

Kane finished fifth among forwards with a vote share of 27.6%, trailing fourth-place Haaland (28.4%) by a margin of 0.8%. He scored 73 goals in official matches last season to claim the Ballon d'Or for an English player for the first time in 25 years, but he did not receive the choice of his peers. This marks the first time since the award's establishment in 2005 that a Ballon d'Or winner has been excluded from the Best XI of the same year, which is analyzed as a difference in perspective between the media vote centered on experts (Ballon d'Or) and the direct player vote (FIFPro).

Messi announced his retirement from international duty after leading his home country Argentina to the World Cup final in August last year, and with this selection, he updated his own record for most selections. Yamal became the first teenager to be selected twice, while Mbappe recorded the highest vote share (46%) among all forwards.

In the midfielder category, Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Rodri (Barcelona), and Vitinha (Paris Saint-Germain) made the list. In Rodri's case, although he is currently with Barcelona, his performance during his time at Manchester City was reflected. The defenders were Pau Cubarsi (Barcelona), Achraf Hakimi, and Nuno Mendes (all Paris Saint-Germain), while David Raya (Arsenal) took the goalkeeper spot.

By club, Paris Saint-Germain had the most players with three selections. By nationality, Spain, the 2026 World Cup champion, had the most with four players.

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*This content was translated by AI.View Original