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.

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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.