Virgil van Dijk picked two Manchester City players as part of his vote for FIFA's The Best Men's player. The Liverpool centre-back chose Erling Haaland and Rodri - alongside Real Madrid's Vinicius Jr - for who should win the coveted main prize at the Aspire Academy in Doha, Qatar on Tuesday.

Haaland maintained his excellent form and enjoyed a fine year for City. The 24-year-old earned his second Premier League Golden Boot in just two seasons at the end of the 2023/24 season, grabbing 27 top-flight goals and 38 across all competitions.

Meanwhile, Rodri's inclusion into the Best FIFA Men's World XI follows a memorable 12 months for the Spanish midfielder. He was crowned the Ballon d'Or winner in October after helping City win their fourth straight top-flight title and Spain win Euro 2024 in the summer.

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However, Vinicius ended up coming out on top to win FIFA's The Best Men's player. He received 48 votes, compared to second-place Rodri's 43 and was recognised for a special year. In fact, Vinicius helped Real win the Champions League and La Liga, scoring 24 goals and adding 11 assists in 39 matches last season.

Jude Bellingham took third spot with 37 votes, Dani Carvajal was fourth on 31, while Lamine Yamal (30) was fifth. Lionel Messi (25), Toni Kroos and Erling Haaland (18 each), Kylian Mbappe (14) and Florian Wirtz (8) completed the top 10.

Despite Liverpool enjoying a successful final season under Jurgen Klopp, none of their players were included in the FIFA The Best XI 2024. Emiliano Martinez was in goal, William Saliba, Antonio Rudiger, Carvajal and Ruben Dias make up the back four, Bellingham, Kroos and Rodri complete the midfield, while Lamine Yamal, Vinicius and Haaland are up front.

Van Dijk's Liverpool are back in action as the Reds make the trip to Southampton in the Carabao Cup. Speaking ahead of the game, Arne Slot said: "It's always been my philosophy since I'm a manager to try to win the game in the end. But it's definitely also that our players have this same mentality – long, long before I came here. It's probably also the mentality of the club, it's the mentality of the players.

"Maybe that's also one of the reasons why they brought me in, because it's also my mentality to try to win every game, even if you are in a situation, like you said, where you can accept a draw as well. But it's the mentality we have together and that's why we are in this moment of time happy with each other."