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Years of planning and wooing in an effort to earn the right to host soccer’s biggest event- the quadrennial World Cup culminated in Zurich today when FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter opened the envelopes to reveal Russia and Qatar as the winners based on a vote of the FIFA Executive Committee.

In what has to be considered a bit of an upset, Russia, which has never hosted the World Cup, with the support of powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (in absentia) and plenty of oil money to finance new stadiums, defeated England and combined bids from Spain/Portugal and Netherlands/Belgium to earn the right to be host for 2018.

For the first time in soccer’s history, its biggest event, the quadrennial World Cup, will be hosted by an African nation as South Africa will be the site of the 32-nation tournament.

The football world gathered in Zurich, Switzerland last Monday for the annual FIFA gala to announce not only the FIFA World Player of the Year, but also the FIFA/FIFPro World XI.

With over 50,000 professional footballers from around the world voting for their best starting XI of the last 12 months; there was huge competition for a place in the prestigious team of the year.