A total of eight La Liga players have made the UEFA.com users’ Team of the Year for 2012, for the third year in a row.
Barcelona’s Gerard Pique, Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez and Lionel Messi are joined by Real Madrid’s Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Mesut Ozil and Cristiano Ronaldo in the XI chosen by UEFA’s official website users.
Over 5.3m votes were cast in this public ballot to determine the ideal starting line-up based on the previous calendar year’s performances.
It is the third year in a row that the team is dominated by Spanish based talent. This poll is in its 12th edition.
Ronaldo’s appearance in the attack is his seventh in this team, whilst this year is also his sixth consecutive appearance. Casillas also makes it six years in a row in the team, whilst Ramos’ inclusion is his second, following on from the 2008 Team of the Year. Ozil is a debutant in the team.
Xavi and Messi have now appeared in the Team of the Year in each of the last five editions of the Team of the Year, whilst this is also Iniesta’s fourth consecutive year in the side.
UEFA.com users’ Team of the Year 2012: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid & Spain); Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid & Spain), Gerard Pique (Barcelona & Spain), Thiago Silva (Milan/Paris Saint-Germain FC), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munchen & Germany); Andres Iniesta (Barcelona & Spain), Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona & Spain), Andrea Pirlo (Juventus & Italy), Mesut Ozil (Real Madrid & Germany); Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid & Portugal)
