The International Federation of Professional Football Players (FIFPro) today announced on its website that voting for this year’s ‘World XI’ has begun with some sixty thousand professional players from around the world already receiving their ballots and will begin submitting the names of players they deem worthy of making it into the short-list.

On November 20th, when the trade union holds its congress in Budapest, FIFPro will reveal a list of 55 nominees, among whom could be several Barcelona players – possibly the same protagonists as in the recently released Ballon d’Or list. The final eleven will be voted in during the congress.

This year Barcelona may get to be represented by a lot more players than it did in 2008. Apart from the same three players who was named in last year’s ‘World XI’ – Messi, Xavi and Puyol – other players could make their premiere appearance such as Iniesta, Yaya Toure, Ibrahimovic and Henry.

Though the nominees list won’t be made public until November 20th, everything does point to a fantastic year for the team coached by Pep Guardiola who will again be rewarded with several individual awards.

Last year’s chosen eleven featured Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernandez, Steven Gerrard, Ricardo Kaka, Lionel Messi, Fernando Torres and Cristiano Ronald as the ‘World XI 2008’ – a great honour for any player, knowing that he has been chosen by his peers as being the best among themselves.