The Barcelona and Arsenal stars have made the cut despite an inconsistent last 12 months for club and country

 Xavi and Mesut Ozil are the surprise inclusions on a Real Madrid and Juventus dominated 15-man midfield shortlist for the Fifa FIFPro World XI.

The pair have endured an inconsistent last 12 months for club and country but still received plenty of nominations from their fellow professionals.

Arturo Vidal, Andrea Pirlo and Paul Poga represent the Juventus contingent, while Toni Kroos, James Rodriguez and Luka Modric are the Madrid players on the list.

Bayern Munich (Xabi Alonso, Bastian Schweinsteiger), Barcelona (Xavi, Andres Iniesta) and Chelsea (Cesc Fabregas, Eden Hazard) all have two representatives, while Manchester United (Angel Di Maria), Manchester City (Yaya Toure) and Arsenal (Ozil) all have one candidate.

The Fifa FIFPro World XI is decided by the players and involves votes from tens of thousands footballers worldwide.

Xavi, Iniesta and Franck Ribery were last year’s World XI midfielders.

Pirlo is the only midfielder to appear on all 10 shortlists since the introduction of the World XI in 2005. He joins goalkeeper and Juventus team-mate Gianluigi Buffon as the second player with 10 nominations.

FULL LIST:

Xabi Alonso (Spain, Bayern Munich) Angel Di Maria (Argentina, Manchester United) Cesc Fabregas (Spain, Chelsea) Eden Hazard (Belgium, Chelsea) Xavi Hernandez (Spain, Barcelona) Andres Iniesta (Spain, Barcelona) Toni Kroos (Germany, Real Madrid) Luka Modric (Croatia, Real Madrid) Mesut Ozil (Germany, Arsenal) Andrea Pirlo (Italy, Juventus) Paul Pogba (France, Juventus) James Rodriguez (Colombia, Real Madrid) Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany, Bayern Munich) Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast, Manchester City) Arturo Vidal (Chile, Juventus)