{"id":533798,"date":"2025-10-28T18:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/533798\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T18:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:30:09","slug":"germany-spain-take-the-lead-in-2025-nations-league-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/533798\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany, Spain Take the Lead in 2025 Nations League Semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FIFPRO dropped its <a href=\"https:\/\/fifpro.org\/en\/supporting-players\/player-influence\/world11\/2025-fifpro-world-11-finalists-revealed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2025 Women&#8217;s World XI shortlist<\/a> on Monday, with the worldwide organization representing pro footballers taking heat for snubbing more than a few standout athletes.<\/p>\n<p>The 26-player lineup featured zero USWNT players, continuing a two-year streak of the award omitting US athletes, despite the USWNT winning <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/uswnt-vs-brazil-olympics-gold-medal-match-win-recap\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Olympic gold<\/a> at the 2024 Paris Games.d<\/p>\n<p>Reigning <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/arsenal-wfc-wins-champions-league-final-dethrones-barcelona-uwcl-results\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Champions League winner<\/a> and 2025 Euro runner-up Mariona Caldentey also failed to make the cut \u2014 a significant snub considering the Arsenal and Spain attacker <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/spain-star-aitana-bonmati-wins-2025-womens-ballon-dor-for-historic-third-time\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">came in second<\/a> in at the 2025 Ballon d&#8217;Or last month.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, soccer players exclusively vote for the FIFPRO World XI \u2014 the only global football award to do so \u2014 with this year&#8217;s nominations ruled by the <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/england-tops-spain-to-lift-back-to-back-womens-euro-trophies-results\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Euro-winning Lionesses<\/a>, who snagged 11 overall nods.<\/p>\n<p>Spain saw the second-most nominations \u2014 including reigning three-time Ballon d&#8217;Or winner Aitana Bonmat\u00ed \u2014 while goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger (Gotham\/Germany), right back Michelle Alozie (Houston Dash\/Nigeria), attacker Debinha (Kansas City Current\/Brazil), striker Barbra Banda (Orlando Pride\/Zambia), and forward Marta (Orlando Pride\/Brazil) repped the NWSL.<\/p>\n<p>The final Best XI roster will drop on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Full 2025 FIFPRO Women&#8217;s World XI shortlist<\/p>\n<p><strong>Goalkeepers:<\/strong>\u00a0Ann-Katrin Berger\u00a0(Gotham\/Germany),\u00a0Mary Earps\u00a0(PSG\/England),\u00a0Hannah Hampton\u00a0(Chelsea\/England)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Defenders:<\/strong>\u00a0Michelle Alozie\u00a0(Houston Dash\/Nigeria),\u00a0Ona Batlle\u00a0(Barcelona\/Spain),\u00a0Millie Bright\u00a0(Chelsea\/England),\u00a0Lucy Bronze\u00a0(Chelsea\/England), Olga Carmona (PSG\/Spain),\u00a0Ellie Carpenter\u00a0(Chelsea\/Australia),\u00a0Alex Greenwood\u00a0(Manchester City\/England), Leah Williamson (Arsenal\/England)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Midfielders:<\/strong>\u00a0Aitana Bonmat\u00ed (Barcelona\/Spain),\u00a0Ghizlane Chebbak\u00a0(Al Hilal\/Morocco),\u00a0Debinha\u00a0(Kansas City Current\/Brazil),\u00a0Patri Guijarro\u00a0(Barcelona\/Spain), Vicky L\u00f3pez (Barcelona\/Spain), Alexia Putellas (Barcelona\/Spain),\u00a0Ella Toone\u00a0(Manchester United\/England),\u00a0Keira Walsh\u00a0(Chelsea\/England)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Forwards:<\/strong>\u00a0Michelle Agyemang (Arsenal\/Brighton\/England),\u00a0Barbra Banda\u00a0(Orlando Pride\/Zambia),\u00a0Linda Caicedo\u00a0(Real Madrid\/Colombia),\u00a0Athenea del Castillo\u00a0(Real Madrid\/Spain), Chloe Kelly (Arsenal\/England),\u00a0Marta\u00a0(Orlando Pride\/Brazil), Alessia Russo (Arsenal\/England)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FIFPRO dropped its 2025 Women&#8217;s World XI shortlist on Monday, with the worldwide organization representing pro footballers taking&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[172669,172670,98679,86719,2000,299,36,1824,172671,172672,104,812,6536],"class_list":{"0":"post-533798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-2025-nations-league-semifinals","9":"tag-2025-uefa-nations-league","10":"tag-alexia-putellas","11":"tag-claudia-pina","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-france","15":"tag-germany","16":"tag-klara-buhl","17":"tag-laia-aleixandri","18":"tag-spain","19":"tag-sweden","20":"tag-uefa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}