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Today’s My Favourite XI has been kindly submitted by Charlie Anderson, a multi-talented man who doubles up as the UK blogosphere’s voice of Scandinavian football and Twitter muse @lucianosays. Charlie’s team is a varied affair, covering England, Scandinavia, Selhurst Park and, of course, a few giants of the European game.

Previous Favourite XI: Ollie Irish
Next Favourite XI: Freddie Shires

Goalkeeper: Julián Speroni (Crystal Palace)

Speroni joined Crystal Palace from Dundee in 2004 following the team’s promotion to the Premier League. After a difficult start to his Palace career (to whit, conceding a penalty after rugby-tackling the Blackburn striker to whom he had just lost the ball) the Argentine was dropped in favour of betrousered Hungarian Gábor Király. Király departed in 2007 and Speroni went on to win the club’s Player of the Year award in each of the following three seasons. Don’t tell anyone, but he’s probably the best keeper in the Championship.

Right Back: Tony Hibbert (Everton)

It’s an unfashionable thing, but I like full-backs who can defend. I like that Hibbert, patient and unassuming, has spent his entire career at Everton, doing a perfectly serviceable job when required. I like that he’s never scored a goal or been anywhere near the England squad. If people started noticing him, it’d sort of ruin it. Mind you, he almost lost his place in this team after a reckless venture into the opposition penalty area the other week.

Left Back: Trond Erik Bertelsen (Viking)

Perhaps the main reason for my interest in Nordic football is that the players generally have a natural grasp of concepts like shape and space – what Arrigo Sacchi referred to as “knowing-how-to-play-football”. Bertelsen has come to symbolise this for me. He’s unglamorous and technically limited but he gets the job done and, like many Nordic players and coaches, he understands a little bit about how football works.

Centre Back: Tony Popovic (Retired)

In Australia’s group game against Brazil at the 2006 World Cup, Popovic was part of a back three responsible for putting the shackles on Adriano and Ronaldo. On forty minutes, Popovic went off injured. On forty-nine minutes, Ronaldo set up Adriano to open the scoring. Coincidence? Probably. But this certainly wasn’t: the greatest backheel of our time.

Centre Back: Jos Hooiveld (Celtic/FC Copenhagen)

His transfer to Celtic hasn’t really worked out – though there’s still time – but Hooiveld’s personal tour of northern Europe has otherwise been very successful. Since joining FC Copenhagen on loan in January, the Dutch defender has now won the league in Denmark, Sweden (with AIK) and Finland (with Inter Turku). His has been the kind of Nordic footballing journey of which the rest of us can only dream.

Defensive Midfield: Aki Riihilahti (HJK Helsinki)

Riihilahti came to Selhurst Park from Vålerenga in 2001 and became one of Palace’s best players of the decade. His five-year spell included the playoff triumph of 2004 and the subsequent Premiership season. Injuries prompted a departure in 2006, but Riihilahti has since won back-to-back league titles with HJK in his native Finland.

Central Midfield: Paul Scholes (Manchester United)

Is there anything that hasn’t been said about Paul Scholes? Almost certainly not. But there’s a reason why a litany of great footballers have cited him as their favourite player.

Central Midfield: Xavi Hernández (Barcelona)

Different people admire different things in football and its players. Some prize loyalty, others appreciate technical excellence. Others still admire winners, and some want players to stand up to statistical scrutiny. Helpfully, Xavi is the best under any of these criteria.

Attacking Midfield: Michael Laudrup (Retired)

Laudrup! A semi-mythical figure, like the Abominable Snowman but with more through-balls. His ankles were like the wheels of a supermarket trolley, spinning to unfeasible angles as he skated across the turf, caressing pass after improbable pass over, through and around the unworthy defences of Europe. Rules of geometry and anatomy simply did not apply to Michael Laudrup.

Attacking Midfield: Juan Román Riquelme (Boca Juniors)

A brilliant player but a tragic one, in that he’s the last we’ll see of his kind for at least a few years. That Riquelme is the last of the old-style playmakers loads every display of dilettantish genius with great historical gravity. His substitution in the 2006 World Cup quarter-final seemed to suck all the air out of Argentina’s campaign. Even if they’d won, they’d simply be another team who had won without Riquelme. And where is the beauty in that?

Striker: Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United)

He prefers creating goals to scoring them, so it seemed somehow wrong when he started scoring for fun this season, and being actually praised by pundits. Fast-forward to May and he’s being criticised for scoring too many hat-tricks, and his gorgeously-orchestrated symphony of a goal against Blackburn Rovers will be overlooked in the Goal of the Season competition in favour of the Rooney Redemption Narrative. Order is restored.

Substitutes:

Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United)

A ridiculous specimen, all pointy angles and flailing limbs. His arms, like his career, seem to go on forever. Somewhere amid the Venn diagram of a scarecrow, Mr Tickle and a windmill lies Edwin van der Sar. And yet he’s perfectly suited to top-level goalkeeping. Van der Sar proves that it’s not about reflexes and agility – though even at 40 he displays these in abundance – but anticipation, positioning and communication.

Moritz Volz (St. Pauli)

The fold-up bike owner and David Hasselhoff enthusiast becomes the second player from the early 2000s Fulham side, one of my favourite teams, to take their place in this XI.

Ricardo Carvalho (Real Madrid)

An effortlessly smooth, syrupy defender. The best centre-back in the last decade of English football.

Clint Dempsey (Fulham)

There’s something unmistakably American about Dempsey’s wiry athleticism, but he’s a well-rounded technical player too. An underrated player and one of Major League Soccer’s best exports.

Günter Netzer (Retired)

Since reading Uli Hesse’s Tor! I’ve been fascinated by Netzer. Or, rather, by the idea of Netzer. I want him in this team so I can see for myself how he played.

Matthias Sindelar (Retired)

If only there were more footage of him. To watch der Papierene in the flesh must have been to watch history unfold.

Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

I will never forget Landon Donovan’s goal against Algeria. I watched it on a tiny screen on my laptop, because my housemates were using the television to watch England bore Slovenia into submission. Oh, it was incredible:

Tags: Aki Riihilahti, Clint Dempsey, Dimitar Berbatov, Edwin van der Sar, Gunter Netzer, Jos Hooiveld, Juan Roman Riquelme, Julian Speroni, Landon Donovan, Matthias Sindelar, Michael Laudrup, Moritz Volz, Paul Scholes, Ricardo Carvalho, Tony Hibbert, Tony Popovic, Trond Erik Bertelsen, Xavi