Six Brazilian players will today hope to be named in the FIFPro World XI selection at the Ballon D’or awards ceremony in Zurich, Switzerland.
There are no goalkeepers on the list and, perhaps more surprisingly, no midfielders either.
Instead, Brazilian success will have to come from the five defenders and sole attacker listed, with Barcelona’s Dani Alves, Bayern Munich’s Dante, Real Madrid’s Marcelo, PSG’s Thiago Silva and David Luiz of Chelsea chosen from the former category and Neymar from the latter.
It is perhaps Dante who has the greatest chance of any glory as he helped the German team sweep aside all in front of them domestically, continentally and internationally last season.
The XI is set to be largely made up of Munich players although Thiago and Neymar have excelled for club and country in the past twelve months.
The ficticious Dream Team will be selected in a 4-3-3 formation and the three candidates for the Ballon D’or itself- Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Franck Ribery- are all likely to feature in the side.
