Ronaldo, Messi lead FIFA World XI nominations

A total of 25,000 professional footballers took part in a poll to nominate the best players. The footballers who received most votes in their line are on the list of 55.

Ronaldo (4) and Messi (5) share nine Ballon d'or amongst them and are favourites to add one more to the tally during the next award ceremony.

"FIFPro and its affiliated player associations invited professional footballers worldwide to pick a team of 1 goalkeeper, 4 defenders, 3 midfielders and 3 attackers who were the best at their position during the 2016-2017 season," FIFPro said in a statement. Real Madrid dominated the list after winning both La Liga and the Champions League in 2016-17, with Keylor Navas, Dani Carvajal, Marcelo, Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane, Casemiro, Isco, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo all in line to make the XI.

Pepe is listed as both a Real Madrid player and a Besiktas player, after moving to the Turkish team in the summer.

Champions League runners-up and Serie A champions Juventus had four players on the list comprising Gianluigi Buffon, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini and Paulo Dybala. EPL champions Chelsea have three nominees in Eden Hazard, David Luiz and N'Golo Kante. David De Gea, Antonio Valencia, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba and Nemanja Matic represent Manchester United.