Absent from the FIFA FIFPRO Men’s World 11 since 2019, Kylian Mbappe has a great chance of being included in the 2022 line-up. His presence will be decided by the votes of his fellow players, as usual, but his stratospheric level over the past year and a half must make him optimistic.
A brief reminder: the period for which footballers vote for the 2022 team is from 8 August 2021 to 18 December 2022 inclusive. In other words, the 2021/22 season plus the first few months of 2022/23, including the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Now that the list of 26 shortlisted players has been revealed, all that remains is to see which ones have enough votes to join the new team of the year.
How does the World 11 voting work?
Other players in the forward category are: Karim Benzema (Real Madrid, France), Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund/Manchester City, Norway), Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich/Barcelona, Poland), Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain, Argentina), Neymar Jr (Paris Saint-Germain, Brazil) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United/Al Nassr, Portugal).
Mbappe’s achievements
The first thing that springs to mind about this French forward is his superb performance at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
His three goals in the final against Argentina, plus the penalty he scored in the final shoot-out, cannot be overshadowed by the fact that he was not in the winning team.
Mbappe was unquestionably the star of his team and won awards as the second-best player of the tournament and the top scorer, netting eight times. Not since Brazil’s Ronaldo in 2002 had anyone scored so many in a World Cup. In the 22 championships held, only eight players have managed to reach that figure – but only Mbappe and Ronaldo have done so in the last 50 years.
Mbappe also belongs to a select group of just five footballers in history who have scored in two World Cup finals.
His personal goal tally was supplemented by two assists, and he was the player with the most shots, at 29.
But the World Cup was not Mbappe’s only brilliant exploit in the last year and a half: he was the star of another Ligue 1 title for Paris Saint-Germain. He finished as the highest scorer in the 2021/22 season, with 28 goals, and, in a team that includes Messi and Neymar, he was the top provider of assists, with 17.
In October 2021 Mbappe became a UEFA Nations League champion with France. In the semi-final and final he recorded two goals and two assists.
Source: fifpro.org
