Messi, Salah, Haaland, no Ronaldo: The world's best XI as voted by fans

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are still two of the world’s very best players, but even their most ardent of fans would admit that a new era is upon us.

For many, many years during those two icons’ pomps, drawing up the best XI in the men’s game was pretty straightforward with the likes of Sergio Ramos, Dani Alves and Andres Iniesta appearing just as frequently as them.

However, now that we live in a heady time where Messi and Ronaldo are no longer Ballon d’Or favourites nor head and shoulders above the rest in FIFA ratings – shock horror – it’s never been clearer that it’s not so easy anymore.

Seriously, think about it, even drawing up the best world XI in your head right now isn’t as easy as you think it might be.

Do Ronaldo and Messi even still make the cut? Do you have Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back? Is Alisson Becker still the best goalkeeper? Does Karim Benzema start up front or does Erling Haaland?

These are the sorts of tricky questions that you’ve got to answer on your way to making a decision because it’s no longer as simple as copying and pasting over the latest combined XI of Barcelona and Real Madrid.

But if we’re starting to make you feel stressed, then fear not, because we’re neither putting the responsibility on you or ourselves with today’s deep dive into the best male XI at the moment.

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That’s because we’ve let the people decide by taking a look at the interactive list titled: “The Best Current Soccer Players,” over on Ranker where football fans can vote for who they think is the best in the business.

Informed by over 1.4 million votes by almost 200,000 voters, it truly is one of the