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Cristiano Ronaldo

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter

PREMIERSHIP clubs from the Southern and Central Regions with players affiliated to the Footballers Union of Zimbabwe joined other professional footballers from around the globe to vote for the 2014 Fifa FIFPro World XI.

According to fifa.com, the Fifa FIFPro World XI is chosen by over 50,000 professional football players from all over the world, who vote for the best player in each position that is a goalkeeper, four defenders, three midfielders and three strikers.

Fifty-five players will be shortlisted from which the world’s best 11 footballers will be revealed during the Fifa Ballon d’Or 2014 awards to be held on January 12 in Switzerland.

From 2005 to 2008, FIFPro organised its own World XI player award, with the same selection system.

Speaking from Hwange yesterday, Fuz secretary-general Paul Gundani said 10 Premiership clubs, Triangle, Dynamos, Caps United, Harare City, FC Platinum, Shabanie Mine, Bantu Rovers, Highlanders, How Mine and Hwange as well as Ngezi Platinum and Gunners from the Zifa Northern Region Division One Soccer League have voted for their Fifa FIFPro World XI.

“As Zimbabwe we were given 500 ballots and to date we’ve 12 clubs that have cast their votes. The voting process started last week and Triangle players were the first to select their best 11. What we’ve done is to go to areas where we’ve players affiliated to the organisation. After Hwange we’ll have players from the Zifa Southern Region Division One Soccer League voting as well before heading to Harare where ZPC Kariba will select their Fifa FIFPro World XI at the weekend,” said Gundani.

Fuz will then send the ballots to the International Federation of Professional Footballers (Fifpro) head office in The Netherlands next week.
In selecting their best 11, FIFPro members look at players’ contribution to their team and titles won in the 2013-14 season.  Also, they look at the most consistent players, the ones who have performed at a high level throughout the year.

“Our footballers follow top leagues and everyone is excited about being part of the selection process. Hopefully this process will also motivate other players to join the union whose mandate is to stand for footballers’ rights. Besides luring new members, we also hope that through this process up-and-coming Zimbabwean footballers will aspire to play in top leagues so that one day we vote for our own who excel in world football,” Gundani said.