A record 5.3 million votes were cast in
selecting the UEFA.com users' Team of the
Year 2012, a 20% increase on 12 months
ago, and the end product is another XI
packed predominantly with Spain-based
talent.
UEFA.com users' Team of the Year 2012
Iker Casillas (Real Madrid CF & Spain), Sergio
Ramos (Real Madrid CF & Spain), Gerard
Piqué (FC Barcelona & Spain), Thiago Silva
(AC Milan/Paris Saint-Germain FC), Philipp
Lahm (FC Bayern München & Germany),
Andrés Iniesta (FC Barcelona & Spain), Xavi
Hernández (FC Barcelona & Spain), Andrea
Pirlo (Juventus & Italy), Mesut Özil (Real
Madrid CF & Germany), Lionel Messi (FC
Barcelona), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid
CF & Portugal)
For the third successive edition, eight Liga
players feature in the Team of the Year, five
of whom were involved in Spain's UEFA
EURO 2012 triumph in Poland and Ukraine.
FC Barcelona and Real Madrid CF provide
four players apiece, with the Catalan club'
contribution headed by Iniesta, who was
chosen by almost three out of every four
users who voted.
Club-mates Piqué, Xavi and Messi also make
the cut, and Messi is joined in attack by
Cristiano Ronaldo, making a record seventh
appearance in a poll now in its 12th edition.
For the first time users were invited to
decide their favoured formation – they
nominated 4-4-2, the system used as a
default for the previous selections.
Ronaldo, like Casillas, is also in the XI for the
sixth year running. Ramos returns for his
second appearance, four years after his
first, but for the fourth member of the Real
Madrid contingent, Özil, this marks a debut.
At 24, the German is the youngest member
of the lineup; another player making his
bow, 33-year-old Pirlo, is the oldest.
A third newcomer, Thiago Silva, completes
the cast list, narrowly edging out Borussia
Dortmund's Mats Hummels for the final
defensive berth. The PSG man is Ligue 1's
first representative since 2007, and if for
the first time there are no Premier League
players, the Spanish Liga's dominance
continues.
The 5.3 million votes were cast by nearly
half a million users, both records,
surpassing 2010 when 400,000 users
made 5 million selections. Some 50,000 of
this year's picks were made directly via the
official UEFA Champions League Twitter
page, an option available for the first time.
The next step will see one member of the
team receive a €100,000 cheque from UEFA
which he will donate to the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The previous editions of the UEFA.com
users’ Team of the Year can be found at:
http://uefa.to/S1lvyL


i prefer FIFA team of the year,what of you??