Arsenal’s attacking duo Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez have both been nominated for the 2016/17 FIFA World 11.
The FIFPro World Players’ Union posted the list of the top 55 most voted players for the World 11 for last season. 25,000 professional footballers voted for their picks, and on October 23 the eleven players with the most votes will be revealed in a ceremony in London.
For now, we just have the 55 nominees, and among them are Arsenal stars Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez.
Congratulations to Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, who have both been nominated for the FIFA World 11. #World11 pic.twitter.com/71TS9yHuMB
— Arsenal News (@ArsenalFC_fl) September 20, 2017
Both have a lot of competition, as only three midfielders and three forwards can be selected for the team. Some of the other contenders in the forward positions are Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, Suarez and Lewandowski, some of the biggest names in world football, so Alexis has his work cut out for him.
In total, 13 of the 55 players came from the Premier League. The English top-flight contributed the most in midfield, with five nominations in total for Philippe Coutinho, Eden Hazard, Nemanja Matić, Mesut Özil and Paul Pogba.
Özil and Alexis earned their nominations by being easily the best two players in an under-performing Arsenal side that managed to pick up an FA Cup, despite finishing fifth in the league table last season.
Alexis scored 30 goals and provided 19 assists in all competitions, whilst Özil scored 12 goals and added 14 assists from midfield in 2016/17. Congratulations to both on their nominations.