2015 FIFPro World XI: Rooney, Terry & Bale Only Brits to Make Short List

FIFPro has announced a 55 player shortlist for the 2015 FIFPro World XI and Wayne Rooney, John Terry and Gareth Bale are the only British-born players that make the cut.

As I watched Jamie Vardy make Ashley Young look like a mug before slotting the ball past David De Gea to score a record breaking 11 consecutive times in the Premier League, I felt a stifled sense of English pride.

It’s a feeling that comes along as often as the breaking of dry twigs in a Floridian swamp. I felt it in 1990 before Stuart Pearce, and Chris Waddle made me feel like a part of me was missing, and I felt it in 1996 when it was Gareth Southgate’s turn to make me cry.

The English national side may have qualified for Euro 2016 with the only 100% record in the competition. Our game may be bristling with youth and vitality. But it’s not a view shared by the rest of the world.