Hazard, Fabregas also named to FIFA shortlist

Chelsea have a few players already in the running to be named to the FIFA World XI -- Thibaut Courtois made the shortlist in goal and Filipe Luis and Branislav Ivanovic got there as defenders -- but now they have another pair on the list. Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard have both been nominated as potential midfielders for the 2014 squad, which leaves the Blues with 40 percent of England's representatives. Here's the full shortlist:

Xabi Alonso (Bayern Munich); Angel Di Maria (Manchester United); Cesc Fabregas (Chelsea); Eden Hazard (Chelsea); Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona); Andres Iniesta (Barcelona); Toni Kroos (Real Madrid); Luka Modric (Real Madrid); Mesut Ozil (Arsenal); Andrea Pirlo (Juventus); Paul Pogba (Juventus); James Rodriguez (Real Madrid); Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich); Yaya Toure (Manchester City); Arturo Vidal (Juventus).

Where is Nemanja Matic? I have no idea, but he certainly deserves to be on the list over, say, Mesut Özil. I'd be a bit surprised if Fabregas made the team itself, since he had a tough time of things during the tail end of the 2013-14 season at Barcelona, but he does deserve to be here after his scintillating start with Chelsea. And Hazard is Hazard.