Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk selected two Manchester City players in his vote for FIFA's The Best Men's player. The Dutch defender picked Erling Haaland and Rodri, along with Real Madrid's Vinicius Jr, as his top choices for the prestigious award at the Aspire Academy in Doha, Qatar on Tuesday.
Haaland displayed impressive goal-scoring form for City last season, bagging his second Premier League Golden Boot in as many years at the end of the 2023/24 season, netting 27 goals in the league and a total of 38 across all competitions. Meanwhile, Spanish midfielder Rodri had a year to remember, winning the Ballon d'Or in October after helping City to clinch its fourth consecutive Premier League title and Spain lift Euro 2024.
Despite these strong contenders, it was Vinicius who ultimately took home the FIFA's The Best Men's player award. He received 48 votes, edging out Rodri's 43, following an exceptional year where he helped Real Madrid secure both the Champions League and La Liga titles, contributing 24 goals and 11 assists in 39 matches last season.
Jude Bellingham came in third with 37 votes, followed by Dani Carvajal with 31 votes, and Lamine Yamal with 30 votes. Lionel Messi (25), Toni Kroos and Haaland (18 each), Kylian Mbappe (14) and Florian Wirtz (8) rounded off the top 10.
Meanwhile, no Liverpool stars made the FIFA The Best XI 2024. Between the sticks was Emiliano Martinez, with William Saliba, Antonio Rudiger, Carvajal, and Ruben Dias forming the defense, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Erling Haaland of Manchester City
(Image: Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
The midfield trio featured Bellingham, Kroos, and Rodri, while the attack boasted Yamal, Vinicius, and Haaland. Meanwhile, Van Dijk's Liverpool is gearing up for its next challenge as the team heads to Southampton for the Carabao Cup quarter-final.
Arne Slot, speaking before the match, spoke about his willingness to win at all costs after his Reds team earned an impressive point against Fulham over the weekend despite going down to 10 men early on: "It's always been my philosophy since I'm a manager to try to win the game in the end. But it's definitely also that our players have this same mentality – long, long before I came here. It's probably also the mentality of the club, it's the mentality of the players.
"Maybe that's also one of the reasons why they brought me in, because it's also my mentality to try to win every game, even if you are in a situation, like you said, where you can accept a draw as well. But it's the mentality we have together and that's why we are in this moment of time happy with each other."