The Ballon D'or and the FIFA/FIFPro World XI ceremony took place yesterday, and not surprisingly Cristiano Ronaldo won the player of the year award. However, the World XI had some surprises.

The World XI is chosen by over 50000 professional football players from all over the world, who chose their favorites on every position on the team. This year the players chose their favorites from a shortlist of five goalkeepers, twenty defenders, fifteen midfielders and fifteen forwards. The short list looked as follow:

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon, Iker Casillas, Petr Cech, Manuel Neuer and Victor Valdes.

Defenders: David Alaba, Jordi Alba, Dani Alves, Leighton Baines, Jérome Boateng, Ashley Cole, Dante, Mats Hummels, Branislav Ivanovic, Vincent Kompany, Philipp Lahm, David Luiz, Marcelo, Pepe, Gerard Piqué, Sergio Ramos, Thiago Silva, Raphael Varane, Nemanja Vidic and Pablo Zabaleta.

Midfielders: Xabi Alonso, Gareth Bale, Sergio Busquets, Steven Gerrard, Andrés Iniesta, Isco, Mesut Özil, Andrea Pirlo, Marco Reus, Franck Ribéry, Arjen Robben, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Yaya Touré, Aturo Vidal and Xavi.

Forwards: Sergio Aguero, Mario Balotelli, Edinson Cavani, Diego Costa, Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Ramadel Falcao, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robert Lewandowski, Mario Manduzik, Lionel Messi, Neymar, Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Luis Suarez.

Out of this short list of every managers wet dream, the 50000 players had to chose eleven making the World XI 2013 turn out like this:

Manuel Neuer

Dani Alves - Thiago Silva - Sergio Ramos - Philipp Lahm

Franck Ribery - Xavi - Iniesta

Lionel Messi - Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Cristiano Ronaldo

Quite a team with some of the best players in 2013. However, here at Great Dane Football Blog we have some alliterations to the team. First of all, there is no doubt that Manuel Neuer is the right man for the goal. The German has had a tremendous year and was one of the main players behind Bayern Munichs Champions League success as well as he is a safe name on the German international match sheet.

However, there is a different situation in the defend where especially Dani Alves and Sergio Ramos are questionable picks. Bayern Munichs David Alaba would have been the natural choice instead of Dani Alves as well as Mats Hummels deserves to take Sergio Ramos position. Both have had a great year in their respective club with Champions League final and close battle in the Bundesliga. 

Taking a look at the midfield a player as Xavi does not deserve to be on the team. The Barca midfielder have played his worst in ten years and should have been replaced by a player as Bastian Schweinsteiger or even Gareth Bale who was a one of the best players in the Premier League before joining Real Madrid. The attack looks fine though. Three competent strikers who have shown they are worth their monthly pay!

Well, this is only our view... What do you think about this year's World XI?