Arsenal’s William Saliba has made the shortlist for the 2025 FIFPRO Men’s World 11, as voted by his fellow professionals.
FIFPRO have revealed their 26-player shortlist for the 2025 FIFPRO Men’s World 11, following a vote by players worldwide. The organisation confirm that the final team will be revealed on November 3rd, 2025.
Arsenal’s William Saliba has received a nomination, as one of just seven Premier League players on the shortlist.
The others are Gianluigi Donnarumma (who obviously earned his nomination largely as a PSG player), Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk, Cole Palmer, Mohamed Salah, and Erling Haaland.
Trent Alexander-Arnold and Kevin De Bruyne are also worthy of mentions, given they spent most of 2025 to this point with Premier League teams, despite subsequently moving abroad.
In terms of centre-backs, Saliba is up against van Dijk, PSG’s Marquinhos, and Barcelona’s Pau Cubarsi, with no other central defenders making the list.
The Arsenal player should have a good shot at inclusion in the final 11, given he’s been a key part of one of the best defences in the world with his club all year, as well as regularly starting for France.
But trophies tend to have a lot of sway in these awards, meaning someone like Marquinhos will get a significant boost due to his team’s Champions League success, regardless of whether he actually performed better than Saliba as an individual.
Regardless of whether Saliba makes the final team, it will be encouraging to him to see that his fellow professionals consider him to have been among the four best centre-backs in the world this year.