The 2025 FIFPRO Best XI: Glamour, Gears, and a Global Fatigue Tale

The 2025 FIFPRO Best XI and the fatigue debate

FIFPRO, the International Federation of Professional Footballers, officially unveiled the 2025 Best XI on Monday, celebrating the top eleven players of the period.

The federation’s official site published the roster of players who earned the highest vote shares to make the ideal lineup.

Earlier, FIFPRO released a list of 26 nominees, with more than 26,000 professional players from 68 countries voting on their own ideal XI for performances spanning July 15, 2024 to August 3, 2025.

The 2025 Best XI includes the following selection:

Goalkeeper: Gianluigi Donnarumma of Paris Saint‑Germain and Manchester City.

Defenders: Nuno Mendes of PSG, Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool, and Achraf Hakimi of Paris Saint‑Germain.

Midfield: Vitinha of PSG, Pedri of Barcelona, Jude Bellingham of Real Madrid, and Cole Palmer of Chelsea.

Attack: Ousmane Dembélé of PSG, Kylian Mbappé of Real Madrid, and Lamine Yamal of Barcelona.

Nomination notes show additional contenders like Alisson Becker, Thibaut Courtois, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Pau Torres, Marquinhos, William Saliba, João Neves, Kevin De Bruyne, Luka Modrić, Rúben Dias, and several others, underscoring the depth of talent across continents.

The list signals a blend of established stars and rising talents, with players anchored across PSG, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool and beyond.

In parallel, FIFPRO highlighted a separate Health and Performance study that points to fatigue risks from heavy schedules, constant travel, and short rests between seasons.

The fifth annual workload-monitoring report notes that no club participating in the Club World Cup this summer gave players the minimum recommended 28 days of rest between seasons, and most began the new campaign with far less than that preparation window.

Chelsea and Paris Saint‑Germain, the two participants in the final, granted only 20 and 22 days of break respectively, with preseason camps lasting 13 days for Chelsea and seven for PSG.

Real Madrid enjoyed less than three weeks for both holiday and preseason, while Manchester City also did not provide ample rest or preparation time.

Compared with major U.S. sports schedules, few other team sports allow such short breaks; international players at top clubs typically receive around three weeks, far from the 14 weeks seen in some American leagues’ finals and 15 weeks in baseball’s World Series participants.

On an individual level, Alessandro Bastoni (Inter Milan), Fabian Ruiz (Paris Saint‑Germain), and Federico Valverde (Real Madrid) logged over 70 matches last season, illustrating the grind behind the star names.

Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich) played 20 straight matches with fewer than five days between, while Achraf Hakimi ( PSG) featured in 69 games last season and may reach 74 this season, stressing the cumulative burden on bodies and schedules.

Nottingham Forest striker and New Zealand international Chris Wood emphasized the need for meaningful recovery time: “It’s crucial for players to have rest that allows the body to adapt and launch anew. We want to play games, and the more we play, the happier we are, but we must look after our bodies long term.”

Wood added that four weeks of rest is essential, with six weeks being ideal to ensure the body is ready for the next campaign. He also noted that the travel burden compounds fatigue, sometimes requiring a 30-hour flight to join the national team after a league match.

He argued that long trips to the Americas, Australia or Oceania demand rapid training resumption after just a few days, hampering recovery and performance.

Wood urged a balanced approach in the future, underscoring that FIFPRO has pressed FIFA for years to address the issue, yet the expansion of international competitions continues.

Last year, FIFPRO formally filed complaints with the European Commission alongside major leagues’ unions, challenging FIFA’s dominance in the market.

The FIFA response stresses that the responsibility for congestion lies with clubs, leagues and confederations, while FIFA maintains a duty to grow the game globally.

FIFPRO, meanwhile, points to lengthy injury lists at Chelsea and PSG and rising match counts for emerging stars like Lamine Yamal as clear signals of fatigue risk.

Darren Burgess, Juventus’ performance director, framed the issue as an “unstable equation” of many matches, limited rest, and short pre-seasons, arguing this combination undermines players’ long-term health and performance.

“The cycle runs on. If not the Club World Cup, then another tournament or another season,” Burgess warned, emphasizing that data from GPS-based monitoring with clubs shows that back-to-back matches after insufficient rest can blunt performance and raise injury risk.

The discussion remains ongoing as players, unions and leagues seek practical steps to harmonize elite competition with sustainable health practices.