The Football Blog’s World XI: do you agree?

World Cup qualifying is dominating the football headlines at the moment with the world’s best players currently battling it out for their country’s place in the finals next summer. With such an array of talent on display, it got us thinking about who would make up a World XI – a task harder than it sounds.
Our team has been picked on current form, although the player’s country does not necessarily have to have qualified for the World Cup in order for them to feature. Some may also be carrying an injury, although we feel that their form merits a place in the side regardless of the lack of opportunity to impress in recent games. So here it is:
Iker Casillas (Spain)
Dani Alves (Brazil)
Nemanja Vidic (Serbia)
Alessandro Nesta (Italy)
Philipp Lahm (Germany)
Andres Iniesta (Spain)
Xavi (Spain)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
Lionel Messi (Argentina)
Kaka (Brazil)
Fernando Torres (Spain)
Subs: Julio Cesar (Brazil), Segio Ramos (Spain), Patrice Evra (France), Franck Ribery (France), Steven Gerrard (England), David Villa (Spain), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden).
There are some notable omissions and players who would feel be hard done by to be left out of that list would probably include: Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Maicon (Brazil), Javier Mascherano (Argentina), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Michael Essien (Ghana), Xabi Alonso (Spain) and Wayne Rooney (England).
Do you think we’ve got it about right? Is there anybody we’ve missed out of the reckoning altogether? As ever, let us know your thoughts and tell us who would make your XI.






October 14th, 2009 at 10:54 am
I’d like to see Rooney in there, but it might upset the balance of the side. Torres is your typical predator and would be the ideal choice to play in front of Kaka, Ronaldo and Messi. To pick Rooney, you’d probably need to drop Kaka or Messi, which is a guaranteed way to get yourself sacked as World XI Manager.