In a somewhat surprising development, Cole Palmer has been voted in to the FIFPRO World XI by his fellow professionals.
It’s surprising a bit not because Palmer wasn’t and isn’t amazing, or deserving, but
last season wasn’t even his best season for Chelsea! His first year, 2023-24 was better in just about every respect! But I suppose he had not quite had the clout for the votes just yet — he wasn’t even nominated! But now he’s got not only the skills but the reputation, so congrats to the Cold one. Here’s hoping that he return to action soon, and return to his very best soon after as well.
Palmer had 18 goals and 14 assists in all competitions last year (compare to 27+15 the season prior), but did lead Chelsea to a couple trophies, saving some of his best performances for the biggest stages in the finals of the UEFA Conference League and the FIFA Club World Cup. “I like finals,” he said after the latter. And we certainly like that!
Palmer was one of just two players from the Premier League in this year’s World XI: Virgil van Dijk the other. Manchester City’s Gianluigi Donnarumma was voted as the best goalkeeper, but it was for his exploits with PSG. The rest of the World XI is predictably made up entirely of PSG, Barcelona, and Real Madrid players.
2025 FIFPRO World XI (3-4-3):
Donnarumma | Van Dijk, Achraf Hakimi, Nuno Mendes | Jude Bellingham, Palmer, Pedri, Vitinha | Ousmane Dembélé, Kylian Mbappé, Lamine Yamal
On the Women’s side, Chelsea trio Hannah Hampton, Millie Bright, and Lucy Bronze made the World XI. Congrats, all!
