Curious case of Bernardo Silva, Sadio Mane missing from FIFAPro Men's XI

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The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) announce the annual football awards on Tuesday which marked FC Barcelona's talisman Lionel Messi winning the Best Men's Player Award. Meanwhile, US football star Megan Rapione grabbed the best women's player accolade.

The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) announced the annual football awards on Tuesday with FC Barcelona's talisman Lionel Messi winning the Best Men's Player Award. Meanwhile, US football star Megan Rapione grabbed the best women's player title.

The FIFA awards are considered as one of the most prestigious awards in the football community. In the year 2016, FIFA broke the contract with French football magazine and introduced their own FIFA award for the best player instead of Ballon d'Or. However, France football continued with the Ballon d'Or ceremony separately every year.

Apart from Messi and Rapione, the other winners from the award ceremony were Jurgen Klopp - Best Coach, Alisson Becker - Best Goalkeeper in Men's category. While in women's category, Jill Ellis of USA won the best coach and Sari van Veenendaal of Netherland clinched the best goalkeeper award.

It was a big night for footballers and their fans, as the best of best were crowned at a mega event in Milan. FIFA also announced the FIFPRO XI of the year, for which world football's governing body came under a lot of scanners.

The FIFAPro Men's XI of 2018/19:

Goalkeeper -Alisson; Defenders: Matthijs de Ligt, Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Virgil van Dijk; Midfielders: Frenkie de Jong, Eden Hazard, Luka Modric; Attackers: Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi

There was not a single player from Manchester City who won the Premier League domestic treble last season and were one of the most dominating teams in Europe. While Spanish giants - Real Madrid had three players from last year despite of having a rough phase in last season as they were knocked out from UCL in Round of 16 by Ajax and also finished third in La Liga in 2018/19. 

The exclusion of Bernardo Silva (Manchester City), Andrew Roberston (Liverpool) and Sadio Mane (Liverpool) grabbed a lot of eyeballs and questioned the credibility of XI.

Real Madrid's Marcelo and Luka Modric could be considered as the most undeserving players in the FIFApro XI, as looking at their game in the last season it was nowhere near to Robertson, who won the Champions League with Liverpool and Bernardo- the Premier League domestic treble winner.

Andrew Robertson was the backbone of Liverpool in their sixth Champions League winning campaign and carried the team on his back on various occasions. In the UCL semifinal against Barcelona, Roberston was one of the star players who took the team forward with his fierce attitude. While, everyone who followed football season can easily claim that Marcelo had one of the worst seasons of his life in 2018/19, which created doubts in people minds over his place in the team.

Meanwhile, Silva is currently one of the best midfielders in the world and is definitely playing better football than the veteran Modric, who won the FIFA Men's Player of the Year in 2018. Silva was also one of the prime contenders of Premier League player of the year award which was eventually won by Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk. Meanwhile, Modric might be one of the best midfielders of the generation but his game went downwards in the awful season of Real Madrid.

Another shocking exclusion from the list was Liverpool's attacker Sadio Mane who won the Premier League golden boot this season. PSG young sensation Kylian Mbappe was prefered over Mane, but it was unfair for The Reds star player. Mbappe had a sensational season but if you count his achievement, it was lesser than Mane and if you look at the standard of the league in which both players played - Premier League is far tougher than Ligue 1.

Despite a successful night in Milan, it is fair to say that FIFA raised many eyebrows that will take some time to settle down.