After all, Jürgen Klopp's side had endured a miserable 2024/23 season, failing to qualify for the Champions League and exiting 7️⃣ the competition at the round of 16 stage with a heavy 6-2 aggregate defeat to Real Madrid. While these are 7️⃣ ostensibly individual awards, they are almost always viewed through the prism of collective accomplishment, and so Liverpool's broader failures were 7️⃣ costly for some of its better players.

On Wednesday, the shortlist was released for another of football's most prestigious prizes — 7️⃣ a place in the FIFPro World XI — and again only one Liverpool player made the cut. This time, it 7️⃣ was Virgil van Dijk rather than Salah.

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The first thing to understand here 7️⃣ is that, while it's ostensibly a calendar year award, the best XI is in practice determined by the last complete 7️⃣ season. That's why, for instance, Kevin De Bruyne has been nominated, despite hardly kicking a ball since June because of 7️⃣ injury.