The debate over individual awards never quiets. A frequent critique aimed at the Ballon d\u2019Or is that it is determined by journalists rather than those inside the game, summed up by the sceptical refrain, “What do they know?”.<\/p>\n
Voting based on the 2024\u201325 season is already under way and the initial list of 26 leading men\u2019s and women\u2019s players has been published. The longlist reflects last season\u2019s major honours and high-profile performances, with the reigning European champions well represented among the nominees.<\/p>\n
Paris Saint-Germain feature prominently. Seven members of Paris Saint-Germain\u2019s starting XI for the men\u2019s Champions League final received nomination, a showing that underlines the influence of that successful side on this stage. Arsenal Women also register strongly on the list, while England\u2019s triumph at the summer\u2019s European Championships has left a clear mark, giving the nominee pool a distinct Lionesses twang.<\/p>\n
Those 26 names will not form the final teams. More votes will be compiled to produce two definitive XIs, one for men and one for women. Each final lineup will include a goalkeeper and at least three defenders, three midfielders and three forwards, ensuring balanced formations rather than arbitrary position counts.<\/p>\n
The finished FIFPRO World XIs will be announced on Nov. 3, 2025. Until then the process will continue to attract scrutiny, both for who is included and for who decides. The shortlist offers a snapshot of the 2024\u201325 season’s standout performers, but the final selections will be decisive in shaping the year\u2019s official best elevens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Twenty-six nominees for the 2025 FIFPRO World XI were revealed, with PSG and Arsenal Women prominent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,961,1031],"tags":[1064,1047],"class_list":["post-4078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-international","category-paris-saint-germain","tag-ballon-dor-2","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}