Fabregas, Rodriguez, Di Maria and Schweinsteiger on World XI midfielders short-list

Paris: A short-list of 15 midfielders from whom three will be selected for a World XI was released by soccer's World governing body FIFA on Friday.

The World XI team, which is voted for by tens of thousands of players worldwide, is to be presented at the FIFA Ballon d'Or award ceremony on January 12th.

Angel Di Maria and James Rodriguez

All of those on the list were stars of the 2014 World Cup including top scorer James Rodriguez of Colombia, plus Angel Di Maria of beaten finalists and Bastian Schweinsteiger of the champions Germany. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will feature on the list of strikers to be revealed on December 1st, while candidates for the goalkeeper position and defenders has already been released.

Midfielders short-list: Xabi Alonso (Esp/Bayern Munich), Angel Di Maria (Arg/Manchester United), Cesc Fabregas (Esp/Chelsea), Eden Hazard (Bel/Chelsea), Xavi (Esp/Barcelona), Andres Iniesta (Esp/Barcelona), Toni Kroos (Ger/Real Madrid), Luka Modric (Cro/Real Madrid), Mesut Ozil (Ger/Arsenal), Andrea Pirlo (Ita/Juventus), Paul Pogba (Fra/Juventus), James Rodriguez (Col/Real Madrid), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Ger/Bayern Munich), Yaya Toure (ICoast/Manchester City), Arturo Vidal (Chi/Juventus)