Home

EUROPE vs THE AMERICAS: Midfield sorted, now for the forwards

The all-time XIs are almost complete, but we need to know who to look to for the goals. Will it be Cruyff, Messi, Ronaldinho...

We're into the final stages of our poll to pick the best all-time FC Barcelona line-ups of European and American players. The fans have already chosen the goalkeepers, defenders and midfielders, and now it's time to start thinking about the forward line. We're beginning with the right wingers, with names like Luis Enrique and Carles Rexach among the Europeans, and Leo Messi and Alexis Sánchez opting for the American team.

The teams so far

EUROPE
Goalkeeper: Víctor Valdés
Defenders: Albert Ferrer, Carles Puyol, Gerard Piqué and Jordi Alba
Midfielders: Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernamdez and Andrés Iniesta

Curiously, all eight of the European team that have been picked so far were Spanish internationals. All of them pertain to the amazing era in the first two decades of the 21st century in which Barça have enjoyed their greatest success, with the sole exception of full back Albert Ferrer, the sole representative of the Dream team of the 1990s.

AMERICAS
Goalkeeper: Claudio Bravo
Defenders: Dani Alves, Javier Mascherano, Rafa Márquez and Adriano Correia
Midfielders: Arturo Vidal, Philippe Coutinho and Diego Maradona.

The American team are also predominantly from the 21st century, with the exception of Diego Maradona, who was at Barça in the 1980s. Brazil lead the way with three players, while there are two each from Argentina and Chile and Rafa Márquez flying the flag for Mexico.

Final days

All that remain to be decided by voters on the app are the forwards, and that's your job this week. Once we're done, users will then get to decide which of these two teams would win in a hypothetical match-up. All of this can be done via the Official FC Barcelona App, which you can download if you haven't done so already.

More news here