Mesut Ozil has been left out of yet another shortlist, this time Uefa’s 40-man shortlist for 2016 team of the year.
Laurent Koscielny and Alexis Sanchez have been included.
While the latter isn’t exactly a surprise given his exploits for Arsenal as well as the Copa America with Chile, it’s good to see Kos included in one of these. He’s one of the world’s top centrebacks and was a key player for France during the Euros.
Oddly, Mesut Ozil hasn’t been included. While I get that Arsenal didn’t win anything last season and Germany didn’t even make the final of the Euros, you’d think the playmaker would still be nominated… especially as Aaron Ramsey was.
Ramsey has been injured since the first day of the season and has only just made his rusty return for the first team. However, even last season, he wasn’t quite hitting the dizzying heights that we’d predicted he would. If fact, it seems he’s having really trouble recreating that form from a few years ago.
The only reason that I can think he was handed this nomination is the Euros, seeing as Gareth Bale and himself were huge for Wales.
Either way, I won’t complain about the midfielder being noticed. Congratulations to Kos, Alexis and Rambo.
Here’s the entire shortlist [via 101greatgoals]:
Goalies: Rui Patricio (Sporting), Keylor Navas (Real Madrid), Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid), Gigi Buffon (Juventus)
Defenders: Gerard Pique (Barcelona), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Toby Alderweireld (Tottenham), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Raphael Guerreiro (Borussia Dortmund), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal), Diego Godin (Atletico Madrid), Pep (Real Madrid), Juanfran (Atletico Madrid), Dani Carvajal (Real Madrid, Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich)
Midfielders: Dimitri Payet (West Ham), Yannick Carrasco (Atletico Madrid), Paul Pogba (Man United), Riyad Mahrez (Leicester), Kevin De Bruyne (Man City), Joe Allen (Stoke), Luka Modric (Real Madrid), Aaron Ramsey (arsenal), Toni Kroos, (Real Madrid), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), N’Golo Kante (Chelsea), Grzegorz Krychowiak (PSG)
Strikers: Leo Messi (Barcelona), Luis Suarez (Barcelona), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Man United), Gonzalo Higuain (Juventus) Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund), Neymar (Barcelona), Gareth Bale (Real Madrid), Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal), Sergio Aguero (Man City)