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After all, Jürgen Klopp's side had endured a miserable 2024/23 season, failing to qualify for the Champions League and exiting 🎉 the competition at the round of 16 stage with a heavy 6-2 aggregate defeat to Real Madrid. While these are 🎉 ostensibly individual awards, they are almost always viewed through the prism of collective accomplishment, and so Liverpool's broader failures were 🎉 costly for some of its better players. On Wednesday, the shortlist was released for another of football's most prestigious prizes — 🎉 a place in the FIFPro World XI — and again only one Liverpool player made the cut. This time, it 🎉 was Virgil van Dijk rather than Salah. READ MORE: Liverpool transfer news as Jürgen Klopp 'leads' midfielder race amid Kylian Mbappé 🎉 'hope' READ MORE: Liverpool 'submitsR$33m defender bid' as Kylian Mbappé breaks silence on next transfer move The first thing to understand here 🎉 is that, while it's ostensibly a calendar year award, the best XI is in practice determined by the last complete 🎉 season. That's why, for instance, Kevin De Bruyne has been nominated, despite hardly kicking a ball since June because of 🎉 injury. |