Cristiano Ronaldo Shockingly Didn't Make Europe's Official Best XI This Season

Cristiano Ronaldo isn’t included in the official list of Europe’s best XI this season.

While soccer is on hiatus, sports analytics company Opta, which provides relevant data for 30 sports in 70 countries across the globe, recently revealed an official list of best XI players from Europe’s top five leagues (via Onefootball.com).

According to the statistical analysis, below is the list of best XI players of the 2019/20 season.

• Goalkeeper

Alisson (Liverpool)

• Defence

Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)

Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)

Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich)

• Midfield

Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund)

Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)

Thomas Müller (Bayern Munich)

Ángel Di María (Paris Saint-Germain)

• Forwards

Ciro Immobile (Lazio)

Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)

Lionel Messi (Barcelona)

The list includes several expected names such as Lionel Messi, Jadon Sancho and Kevin De Bruyne. However, one name seems missing – Ronaldo.

The Portuguese superstar started the season with a bang and incredibly broke multiple records. However, most statistical analysis suggests that the five-time Ballon d’Or winner was not too impressive after all.

In another recent compilation made by Whoscored.com, the analytical website built a best XI line-up according to their shirt numbers (1-11) in the truest possible sense. In it, the 21-year-old Kylian Mbappe saw himself dethroning Ronaldo as the best no. 7 player this season.

Undeniably, Ronaldo will always be one the greatest players to ever grace the pitch. However, his numbers show that he has yet to improve some of the holes in his game.

Stats revealed that in terms of converting shots from distance, the 35-year-old shockingly hit rock bottom over the past three seasons. While Ronaldo is still one of the most active long-range shooters today, currently ranked 7th across Europe's top five leagues in terms of shots from outside the box, with a total of 43 attempts, he has never scored a single goal from the said efforts. In his 43 Serie A appearances, the striker shot 105 attempts from distance but still has not hit the back of the net even once.

A more obvious weakness in Ronaldo’s game is issues with free-kicks. “CR7” hasn't scored a free-kick in club since the 2017 FIFA Club World Cup final and the closest one he had was a deflected strike in a pre-season friendly. Sports scientist Dr. Rajpal Brar recently analyzed Ronaldo’s free-kick issues and speculated that the constant misses is caused by “the psychological effect" that comes with it.

Brar suspects that the injuries have hindered Ronaldo initially and the “snowballing” of misses have started to affect him psychologically over time.