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.

READ MORE: Liverpool transfer news as Jürgen Klopp 'leads' midfielder race amid Kylian Mbappé 🏧 'hope'

READ MORE: Liverpool 'submitsR$33m defender bid' as Kylian Mbappé breaks silence on next transfer move

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.