My All Time Starting XI- Honorable Mentions

Here are a few players that just missed the cut, not because they were specifically worse than the person in front of them, mainly because they did not have as much of an impact of my younger life then the people that made my list.

• N’golo Kante- Center Defensive Mid- Chelsea FC and France

To be completely honest, he is by far the most deserving player on this list to be in my all time 11. He is the man that never stops smiling. He is the player that gets faster when the 80th minute hits. He has an engine that works for the whole game and he can run over the biggest of players. Standing at a short, yet respectable 5'6", he still can dispossess the Paul Pogba’s of the Premier League. He is also a better finisher than people say he is, scoring one of the most crucial goals of the 18/19 season, banging in the first goal of 2 against the league leaders at the time, Manchester City. He is a special player with a work rate that is admired around the world.

• Mo Salah- Center Forward and Winger- Liverpool and Egypt

Mo Salah has emerged out of the darkness like a lightbulb. Before he hit the peak of the Premier Leagues top scorer for a season, he played a smaller role at different clubs like AS Roma and Chelsea. He has done so much inside and outside of the sport of soccer. He singlehandedly put Egypt back in the World Cup for the first time in 28 years, and if it wasn't for Sergio Ramos injuring him 2 months before his inaugural World Cup, Egypt would have had a much better chance of making it past the group stages in the tournament. His magical left foot and his blistering pace won him the Puskas award for the best goal of 2018, and also finishing 6th in the ballon d’or voting, the competition for the 30 best players in the world during the year, voted on by a committee.

• Robin Van Persie- Center Forward- Netherlands and Feyenoord

RVP is not known for the work he is currently doing for Feyenoord, but the grand accomplishments he has made in the prem for Arsenal and Manchester United. The main reason he made this list was not because I admired the way he plays, like Lionel Messi and Eden Hazard, but because I have endless memories from when he was on the dutch national team. His flying header he scored vs Spain when they trashed through the Spaniards 5–1 in World Cup 2014 was one for the ages. I remember playing with him in Fifa 10–13 with my dad and just crossing it in and seeing it hit the back of the net. I am forever grateful for how he influenced the way I saw a center forward, and I believe he will go down as one of the greats in the Netherlands football association.