Whilst the Ballon d’Or is the best individual award to be given to a footballer, the FIFPro World XI shows us who was voted into the dream team based on 2013’s performances. Below is a squad brimming with talent and which would petrify any opposition.

GOALKEEPER

Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer is currently considered as one of the best goalkeepers around. He also has the potential to usurp Oliver Kahn’s status as greatest ever German goalkeeper due to his age of 27, which is still quite young when you consider that some of history’s best keepers kept performing into their 40s.

DEFENCE

In left back, we’ve got the treble winners’ captain Philippe Lahm, who has had an exquisite 2013 by leading his club to ultimate success. On the right there is Barcelona’s Dani Alves, who is an ever consistent footballer in his position.

The centre backs, PSG’s Thiago Silva and Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos, are both leaders in their own clubs and are the kind of defenders which others aspire to be, as they perform brilliantly for both club and country.

MIDFIELD

In the middle, we’ve got a plethora of talent as Ballon d’Or contender Franck Ribery is joined by Barcelona duo Xavi and Andres Iniesta. The Frenchman, like Lahm in defence, helped his club to club domination when they delivered the treble to Munich last season, whilst the Spaniards are both amongst the best in the world in their positions.

ATTACK

Any football fan will say that having Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo in attack together would most certainly deliver trophies. Whilst that is probably a well known fact, having an attack spearheaded by Zlatan Ibrahimovic with those players would confirm devastation to any opposition whatsoever. The real shame is that the Swede will not be present in Brazil during the World Cup to further dazzle the millions watching.

Pundits and critics alike, as always, offered their opinion on the dream team, with a number stating that Bayern Munich duo Bastian Schweinsteiger and Arjen Robben deserved to be included more than Xavi and Iniesta, which is fair when considering what the Bavarian club achieved last season. One thing is for sure, no squad in the world would want to come up against these bad boys.