There’ll be more to celebrate!

Chelsea has a record 9 nominations for this year in the FIFPro World Player of the year award and the World XI team which would be announced on 9-Nov-2006. FIFPro is the international players’ union and their award was started last year. The nine Chelsea players out of the total 55 nominations are:

1. Petr Cech
2. John Terry
3. Claude Makelele
4. Frank Lampard
5. Arjen Robben
6. Didier Drogba
7. Ashley Cole
8. Michael Ballack
9. Andriy Shevchenko

The complete list is:

The Goal Keepers

Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Petr Cech (Czech Republic), Dida (Brazil), Jens Lehmann (Germany), Edwin van der Sar (Holland)

The Defenders

Roberto Ayala (Argentina), Cafu (Brazi), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Roberto Carlos (Brazil), Cicinho (Brazil), Ashley Cole (England), Rio Ferdinand (England), William Gallas (France), Fabio Grosso (Italy), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Lucio (Brazil), Rafael Marquez (Mexico), Marco Materazzi (Italy), Miguel (Portugal), Alessandro Nesta (Italy), Carles Puyol (Spain), Willy Sagnol (France), John Terry (England), Lilian Thuram (France), Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy)

The Midfielders

Michael Ballack (Germany), Deco (Portugal), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Luis Figo (Portugal), Gennaro Gattuso (Italy), Steven Gerrard (England), Kaka (Brazil), Frank Lampard (England), Claude Makalele (France), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Juan Roman Riquelme (Argentina), Francesco Totti (Italy), Patrick Vieira (France), Ze Roberto (Brazil), Zinedine Zidane (France)

The Forwards

Adriano (Brazil), Hernan Crespo (Argentina), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast), Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon), Thierry Henry (France), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Arjen Robben (Holland), Ronaldinho (Brazil), Ronaldo (Brazil), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Wayne Rooney (England), Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine), Luca Toni (Italy), Fernando Torres (Spain)

To arrive at a World XI from the above list of 55 players is absolutely difficult. Whatever team one comes up with, we can have endless arguments and discussions. If I have to keep my Chelsea preferences away (only to some extent) and make a World XI out of the above 55 stars, with lots and lots of difficulty I would say:

This would work only if the work rate of these players are really high. To mange this Galacticos, only Jose Mourinho should be the manager as he is a strong high profile task master. A match between two World XI teams should be fun to watch, if only you come up with your World XI that can beat mine!