The year of 2020 was far from Lionel Messi's finest as a professional footballer.

Barcelona's greatest ever player failed to win a single trophy and was also the subject of a much publicised transfer saga after declaring he wanted to leave the Blaugrana in the summer.

In the end, he stayed and Messi still managed to record some pretty decent goal and assist numbers in 2020.

The 33-year-old contributed to 50 goals (26G, 24A) last year across all competitions with Barcelona, which was the second-most of any player in Europe's top five leagues, behind Robert Lewandowski.

However, in the eyes of French magazine L'Equipe, a half century of goal contributions is not quite enough to secure a spot in their '2020 World XI'.

Messi in action with Barcelona

The Barcelona superstar misses out in attack, as do Liverpool's dynamic duo Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane.

Let's take a look at the team chosen by the publication...

L'Equipe's 2020 World XI

L'Equipe's Team of 2020

Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Thiago Alcantara and Manchester City's £108m-rated midfielder Kevin De Bruyne are the four Premier League stars to make the cut.

Bayern Munich are - unsurprisingly - the most represented team in the XI after winning the treble in 2019/20, with Lewandowski, Joshua Kimmich, Alphonso Davies and Manuel Neuer all featuring.

Due to Messi missing out, Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos is the sole representative from La Liga.

The same applies to Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar, as the two global icons are the lone rangers from Serie A and Ligue 1 respectively.

Neymar in action with PSG

All in all, it's a pretty solid XI named by L'Equipe. However, it does seem odd that Messi has been left out, especially at the expense of Neymar.

Don't get us wrong, the Brazilian was electric during PSG's run to last season's Champions League final, but injuries and the postponement of the Ligue 1 campaign restricted his game time in 2020.

As a result, Messi contributed to 19 more goals than Neymar (19G, 12A) last year, which means he probably warranted a spot in L'Equipe's team over his former Barcelona teammate.

We detect a little bit of Ligue 1 bias from the French magazine...