adminlaunched yesterday.
He has, however, picked only ONE Englishman — Chelsea’s Ashley Cole.
Bale, who plays for Tottenham — arch rivals of Wilshere’s Arsenal — swept the board last season with three player of the year awards: Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year, PFA Young Player and the Football Writers’ Association award.
Wilshere has justified his selections by basing them on a team unit, not especially on individual brilliance.
He argues that both sides have copious amounts of pace and movement.
The selection of Mario Balotelli on the bench for the European team may come as a surprise — but Wilshere must have seen something when facing up against the Italian during their Barclays Premier League encounters.
Wilshere has left out Bale because he couldn’t bring himself to pick a Spurs player, an indication of the rivalry between the clubs.
The omission of Sweden star Zlatan Ibrahimovic will also come as a shock to some fans.
Fans All Star Football (FAS) offers football supporters the chance to pick their fantasy squads from the best players from Europe and the Rest of the World. Once the voting has been completed, fans will then get a chance to take part in a competition by trying to match a panel of international experts’ selections.
To stop it from getting too complicated, you can only select a team with the formation 4-4-2.
Separately to the Fans All Star Global Vote, those who participate will have the opportunity to prove they know best by pitting themselves against two undisputed football legends, in the FAS Competition.
Fans have a chance to win £50,000 by matching the squads chosen by the Fans All Star official experts — former England manager Glenn Hoddle and Argentina World Cup winner Ossie Ardiles. To do this, supporters will need to purchase further bundles of votes and submit additional squads.
Wilshere only included one Englishman but former England manager Hoddle, who has been touted as a potential coach of the Under 21s, admitted that he would find it difficult to include any English players.
He said: ‘‘It is a slight problem. My heart is ruling my head sometimes. I can’t sit here now and be 100 per cent sure that there will be any in my side.
‘‘It’s a sad state of affairs. It would be easy to say Rooney, Gerrard, the likes of Ashley Cole or Joe Hart. There are possibilities so it’s not like we’ve got no one but there are a lot of good players out there and at the moment and we haven’t got all those options.
‘‘I’m tinkering and will try and get one in there somewhere along the line. It would be nice to have three or four but there are so many good players, the competition is tough.
‘‘But it does worry me where our English players are going to get the opportunity to progress.’’
But he and fellow Spurs legend Ossie Ardiles were in agreement that Bale would have made their teams.
Ardiles said: ‘He’s been absolutely superb. I hope Spurs will keep him and I know he’s very happy playing for Spurs. Maybe he will move, but he doesn’t need to because he’s young. To go to somewhere like Real Madrid is not easy.’
And Hoddle added: ‘‘The way he’s played this year, if there’s anyone better outside of Messi or Ronaldo I haven’t seen him. The challenge for him now is to maintain that level. Personally I think he should stay at Tottenham. If you make a big move, you have to be happy off the pitch and he doesn’t have to rush.
‘‘Off the pitch is where he’s settled. If your family is not settled off the pitch, you won’t be able to do your job on the pitch. The form he’s in now, he won’t just pick that up and take it with him to Real Madrid or Barcelona.
‘‘If stays in England, and maybe goes to Manchester United or Manchester City, then that’s not a problem. It’s even closer to Wales, if you get my point,” he said. — Mailonline.
Online Reporter