Happy New Year! It’s January 3rd and that means The List is back! This is the fourth installment of the Footy Blog’s comprehensive list of the Top 100 Footballers in the World, as determined by some of the world’s leading football journalists (Previous installments can be found here). The entire 19-person panel along with bios, and some background on how the names and their order was determined is here. The intuitive carnage continues! Remember; if you’re on Twitter, be sure to include us in on your outrage by using the hashtag #footy100.
70. Marco Reus (Borussia Monchengladbach and Germany) – Currently the target of both Real Madrid and Arsenal, the 22 year-old ‘Gladbach phenom has taken Europe by storm this season with ten league goals in fourteen appearances for the Bundesliga side. He has already been MOTM five times this season alone with his club, and is one of the most promising attacking midfielders on the planet. Expect his star to rise significantly in the coming years.
69. Marcelo (Real Madrid and Brazil) – Another stellar Brazilian full-back in a long line of stellar Brazilian full-backs, Marcelo is integral to Madrid’s left flank, both in defense and attack. He’s been called the best left-back in the world, and his 2010-11 breakout season saw him included in UEFA’s best European XI. Excellent dribbler, as well as distributor.
68. Maicon (Inter Milan and Brazil) – One of the underrated bright lights in Inter’s otherwise disappointing 2011-12 season, the Brazilian right back (or right wing back, if we’re being specific) has put in several dominant performances this year already despite his month-long injury absence with a thigh muscle strain. He is already in disagreement with coach Claudio Ranieri over whether Inter’s glory days are past, a testament to his dogged determination. Some believe his health is directly linked to Inter’s place in the Serie A table.
67. Antonio Cassano (AC Milan and Italy) – The fiery “jewell of Old Bari” has faced his strongest challenge yet this season with a minor stroke, related to a heart condition for which he had to undergo surgery. His return to the AC Milan side will be welcome with his contribution up front unmatched. Cassano of late has emerged as a play-maker extraordinaire, notching up an impressive tally of assists in his time with Milan. The Italian national team waits nervously to see whether he might play a part in Euro 2012.
66. Alexandre Pato (AC Milan and Brazil) – The Brazilian front man has borne weighty expectations for so long that it’s easy to forget he’s still only 22. A fifty million Euro Chelsea (and possibly PSG) target this transfer window, he scored 14 goals last Serie A season, and was integral in helping Milan to their 18th scudetto. This year has seen him struggle with injury, a disappointment considering Cassano’s absence would have given the young Brazilian forward time to shine.
65. Javier Hernández (Manchester United and Mexico) - The 23 year-old Chicharito is a staple for more discerning Man United fans, despite a few recent struggles of late and some time on the subs bench and an ankle injury. Last year he notched an impressive fourteen goals in the league on the club’s way to winning the title, in addition to four Champions League goals, a performance for which he received the Sir Matt Busby Player of Year award. He’s also a force with Mexico, and picked up the CONCACAF Golden Boot award for his play in the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
64. Fábio Coentrão (Real Madrid and Portugal) – Versatile in either left or right-back, as a defensive midfielder, or even as an attacking midfielder, Coentrão has emerged Mourinho’s defensive utility man. His personal ability on the ball gives part of the reason why; he’s one of the club’s best tacklers, in addition to being an intelligent passer and play-maker. At age 23, his career in defense will slowly rise; look to the rest of the world discovering him in earnest during Euro 2012.
63. Thomas Vermaelen (Arsenal and Belgium) – Forced into playing some unfamiliar positions due to Arsenal’s injury pile-up this season (he too succumbed with a calf strain which will force Wenger into shopping the transfer market this month), the 26 year-old Vermaelen has the promise to go down as one of Arsenal’s best central defenders since Tony Adams, Sol Campbell and Martin Keown. As well known for his composure off the ball as a leader as he is on it, Vermaelen is also a keen reader of the game, able to break up plays with one or two simple interceptions.
62. Neven Subotić (Borussia Dortmund and Serbia) – Often compared to his Man United counterpart Nemanja Vidic, the 23 year-old Serbian centre-back was a key reason for Dortmund’s Bundesliga-winning performance last season. He’s been reportedly linked with both Liverpool and Man United this transfer window, and if the club wants to keep hopes alive for a repeat this year, they’d be wise to turn down the money.
61. Didier Drogba (Chelsea and Ivory Coast) – Never write-off the Drogs. Despite question marks over how he would adapt to Andre Villas-Boas’ very un-Mourinho-like tactics, and hounded by rumours he would leave England for a retirement party in MLS, Drogba has returned as a force for Chelsea this year, scoring his 150th goal for the club against Aston Villa in a losing effort. While at 33 his future with Chelsea is uncertain, but his name as one of the club’s most prolific strikers is secure.
Subotic better than Hummels (or Vermaelen) ? Hmmmmm…
Marcelo and Coentrao are better than Ramos? Wow.
Pato below Hernandez?!?! Hmmmmmmmmmmmm!
HOW WILL FOOTBALL BE WITHOUT MESSII.
vermaelen better then marcelo and coentrao wow
way to high for Hernandez too, he’s a poacher that needs service, he’s good but without service he won’t create many goals by himself
Agreed. All he does is score tap-ins off of good service (which obviously still takes skill with finishing, making runs, etc.) however he’s ranked too high on nearly every list I see him on
just because hes a poacher it means hes not good? thats just his style of play? just because he doesnt go through 3-4 defenders dribbling it doesnt mean he shouldnt be in this list. his effectiveness lies in his goal-scoring, not creating chances. theres hundreds of characteristics players possess, not all of them have to be make something out of nothing. nevertheless it doesnt mean they shouldnt take part in these lists.
I’ve never been a fan of Marcelo he seems to make too many mistakes.
I’m surprised Vermaelen isn’t higher on the list, very underrated in my opinion. Perhaps his injury problems are his biggest failing
I understand where you’re coming from on this but sometimes it’s just Madrid leaving the guy to hang out to dry.
Alves is tasked with doing similar things for Barca but gets better support at the back.
Really am digging the list but there some things that dont really make sense to me. How is it that coentrao is better than ramos when vs barca coentrao was the definite weak link while ramos was a top preformer? Both players in their secondary positions. Isnt Pepe more inportant to the team then both of them? Does Di Maria appear later on the list or is kaka still considered better even though di maria usually gets picked before him? If so is he a top 60 player? Its real had to say… Isnt Drogba a little bit past it? I really hope Barry isnt on the list. Van bommel is probably better then De jong, so hes better then Macherono. Dannys on the list cuz he had a great year in russia (apperantly:P), so is falco gonna make the list cuz killed it in portugal last year, was probably MOTM afew times.
First off, Coentrao was not a weak link against Barca. He didn’t get forward too often (although nobody really does against Barcelona) but his defending was very good, especially his tackling around the box and he was the one constantly distributing the ball on the counter, not to mention he was playing right back for probably the 2nd time in his entire career having only played it the week before. And if you want to talk about Ramos in the Classico – on the first goal he charged up the field and was literally nowhere near Sanchez when he scored and on the third goal he literally stood there watching Dani Alves and gave him all the time in the world to pick out a perfect cross to Fabregas. Regardless, Coentrao is one of the best left backs in the world (albeit a rather shallow group) and his versatility ranks him ahead of the majority. And yes Falcao is obviously going to be on this list. He was probably a top 20 player in the world with Porto last season. As for Danny, he didn’t “apparently” have a good year in Russia. He was named the best player in the league. That’s like saying Messi “apparently” is the best player in the world.
As mentioned in the opening post, the list of 100 is derived (using a set formula) from each panelists top 30 players. It’s not like they all sat in a room and chose the top 100. Hence the “weird” rankings.
plus, if you think you’re smarter than the men on this list… you’re smoking really good pot
Well. The fact that Nigel De Jong is ranked 70 something means that at least one panelist (maybe more) must have placed him in his top 30 which is quite remarkable. He’s a solid enough defensive midfielder but in the 30 best players in the world? Crazy.
Why is that? For example, if a guy covers and writes about the EPL and rarely watches La Liga, and I watch several La Liga games per week then how is it that he would know more about La Liga than I would?
Marco Reus is the best player out of these 10 players. The kid is an absolute game breaker. He’s facing tough competition to get into the Germany first 11. It’s scary that Germany have this guy and mario goetze on the outside looking in for the starting 11. Talk about supersubs. But I would say it’s about right where he is, this is the first year he has really broken out. I think Subotic is too high on the list. Hummels is a better defender than he is. Maicon has definitely slipped from the ranks, and his rank is about where I think he should be, maybe even a little lower.
but overall, i think the rankings arent that outrageous. But i think everyone has bias’ to the teams that they like.
My word, coentrao is bench compared to marcelo and is still ranked higher? coentrao played many minutes on the beginning because Sahin was injured and the special one needed a cdm with some attacking abilities. Quite frankly, he messes up to many plays and Marcelo is instrumental to Madrid’s team, his amazing combination with ronaldo and benzene on the left blank led to many many goals.
Ramos being below Marcelo is not that surprising because, as mentioned above, Marcelo provides a lot in attack while Ramos is only an aerial threat because his crossing abilities are quite inexistent. But Ramos and Marcelo should be much higher. Di maria better be later on the list, he is leading europe in assist this season and is more valuable than cr7 on madrid at the moment, as shown today when Madrid had a lot of trouble trying to create against a mediocre team in Malaga.
These rankings have been pathetic, Benzema scored 35+ goals last year while creating a lot and Drogba is 61? Chicharito is also overrated, he’s a bench player whose goals are tap-ins most of the time, he provides very little to offence, Ba should even be higher.
Benzema was 93 btw
ummm Benzema scored nowhere near 35 goals last season, Coentrao was not filling in for Sahin he was just rotating with Khedira and Diarra (which he still does) and Di Maria more valuable than Ronaldo? LOL maybe you should just stay away from commenting on Real Madrid altogether.
Benzema stats:
-20 La Liga goals
-7 Copa del Rey
-4 UCL
-4 with france
all in the 2010-2011 campaign..
Clearly he did score 35 goals … look up the stats first.
Really? Sahin was the big move in the summer transfer window because Madrid’s weakness was the inability to get ball back in the midfield and create chances. The ideal pairing was sahin and alonso, but he got hurt and coentrao was good in some games but had way too many mistakes to be considered a regular.
Ronaldo is a better player by all means but if you haven’t noticed, Di maria is more valuable to Madrid’s offence because he has been the best assister in Europe this season, racking up over 13 assist already and his incredible dribbling and deep passes have accounted to five of Ronaldo goals.
This madrid has excelled this season due to the massive improvements of Di Maria and Benzema, plain and simple.
I thought I understood football, at least a little bit, but if scoring goals “provides very little to offense” then I guess maybe I don’t understand at all.
Marco Reus is better than Chicharito .Just saying.
The fact that Robinho is ranked higher than Pato and Cassano, shows either this list is a joke and the judges are crazy. As an AC Milan fan, I’m disgusted. Robinho should be closer to 100.