After twice finishing runner-up, Ronaldo has won the arm-wrestle between the two best players on the planet to overtake Messi as the Guardi...
After twice finishing runner-up, Ronaldo has won the arm-wrestle between the two best players on the planet to overtake Messi as the Guardian’s No1
Cristiano Ronaldo was voted No1 by 74% of the Guardian’s experts.
Here it is then. After the slow reveal, the final flutter of the veil to the floor. The Guardian’s top 100 footballer’s in the world 2014 is now published in its entirety, the final step the unmasking of a top ten that contains few surprises, but which provides all the same a fascinating reflection of the footballing year.
Once again the big story is the same old story. The two-man arm-wrestle at the summit of international football’s individual awards has this year turned decisively Cristiano Ronaldo’s way. This is of course a well-seasoned and largely irresolvable debate, with battle lines drawn along club lines, issues of style, and even a skewed and incoherent sub-debate about natural and “manufactured” high-grade creative footballers (which still isn’t clear to this observer).
What is certain is that taking the year as a whole Ronaldo has been the single dominant figure, a phenomenal influence in the world’s champion club team, with 56 goals in 51 matches overall, along with league title, Champions League and Club World Club medals for Real Madrid.
And here at least his supremacy is a clear consensus rather than an argument to be made. As a reminder, the top 100 list is a product of 73 judges drawn from 28 countries, with Hernán Crespo, Didi Hamann, Slaven Bilic and Gilberto Silva among the expert panel.
At the end of which Ronaldo is now No1 in the world, as voted by 74% of those involved. It has been a steady reeling in of top spot. In 2012 Messi was the No1 pick by a 100% monopoly vote. Last year Messi was No1 by a 60% majority. This year Messi got just 12% of the vote, despite continuing to perform miracles of incision in La Liga and being enthroned (dubiously, and instantly disowned by Messi himself) as player of the 2014 World Cup finals.
With this in mind there is a kind of paradox here. Much has been made in recent years of the ascent of the Champions League, usurping even the World Cup as football’s dominant stage. Ronaldo’s elevation to No1 on the Guardian list would seem to chime with this, a player who had an excellent opening seven minutes of the World Cup finishing above the dominant influence in the beaten finalists. But look more closely and arguably only six of the top 20 players – Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Diego Costa, Ángel Di María, Thibaut Courtois, Karim Benzema - are there in main part because of their exploits in the Champions League. Against this seven of of the top 15 played in the World Cup final, while the Bayern Munich team thrashed 4-0 at home by Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final contained, according to this list, five of the top 12 players in the world. That may have been the club football result of the year, but the presence of Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller and Philipp Lahm in the top nine here is a reflection of the indelible glory of Germany’s collective triumph in Brazil.
Elsewhere the top ten is divvied up between the world’s top three club sides, with Sergio Agüero at No11 the closest thing to an outsider in this company and English football’s only year-round representative in the top 15. The Premier League does show some strength in depth, however, emerging from a position of near-irrelevance in the upper reaches to provide the most players overall once again, with 31 compared to 25 from La Liga (22 from Barcelona and Real Madrid), 15 from Germany (12 from Bayern Munich) and 14 from Serie A.
Spanish was still the dominant nationality, with 14 players from the departing world champions, against 11 from the newly enthroned Deutsch Nationalmannschaft. Further down, and despite exiting the World Cup as perhaps the meekest of all 32 finalists, it appears the English are coming! Sorry Colombia, Belgium, France and Holland. You may have reached the World Cup quarter finals, but none of you can beat England’s six players in the world’s top 100. The highest placed Englishman is Wayne Rooney at No43, a fair reflection of a fine goalscoring and creative year for club and country. While there is a first sight of Jack Wilshere, Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling, who is the youngest man on the list, Steven Gerrard’s position as the 80th best payer in the world is, it seems safe to say, an example of the distorting effects of a weighty reputation and tribute to Liverpool’s fine form in the spring.
There are some notable points of interest elsewhere. James Rodríguez is the highest new entry at No15, reflection of a fine World Cup and the sheer pleasure of watching a new creative star emerge. The highest climber is Eden Hazard, up 84 places to No16 despite not winning a trophy, looking below par at the World Cup, scoring 16 goals all year and being criticised by his manager for his part in Chelsea’s Champions League elimination by Atlético Madrid in May.
Indeed, Hazard’s total eclipse of one of his former team mates is perhaps the best illustration of the snakes and ladders aspect of elite club football. Spare a thought for Juan Mata, the biggest casualty on the list. Last year Mata was tucked in at No30 and ready, aged 25 and with a World Cup coming, to push on. On New Year’s day he started for Chelsea ahead of Oscar and Willian in a 3-0 defeat of Southampton. On January 25 he moved to the champions of England for £37m, becoming the sixth most expensive player in English transfer history. Currently he has scored 11 goals in his last 20 Premier League games. And yet after all that he has disappeared completely from the list this year, receiving in the process just one (one!) vote from a total of 2,920 cast.
Beyond the players there also is a clustering of uber-managers at the peak of the list: every single player in the top 20 has been coached at some time by at least one of Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti. This is another symptom, of course, of the general stratification of talent towards that select cartel of top clubs. Indeed, if there is anything missing from the top end here it is the presence of any real bolters, any players from left-field, no special place in the judges’ collective heart for Diego Godín or Arda Turan or Granit Xhaka, or Charlie Austin or simply a player or two from beyond the leading leagues.
If the top 25 looks more or less set, the most divisive part of the list remains as ever that subjective, occasionally infuriating hinterland beyond the elite. Ronaldo may or may not be better than Messi this year. But has Thiago Silva been better than Koke? Is Robin Van Persie really 45 places better than Gervinho? Is Aaron Ramsey ahead of Isco? What exactly is Andrés Iniesta doing in the top 30? The answer to all of these questions and more may or may not be evident after studying this list. But 73 judges, nearly 3000 votes and a year of elite level competition in the making, it is perhaps as close as we’re going to get.
Cristiano Ronaldo was voted No1 by 74% of the Guardian’s experts.
Here it is then. After the slow reveal, the final flutter of the veil to the floor. The Guardian’s top 100 footballer’s in the world 2014 is now published in its entirety, the final step the unmasking of a top ten that contains few surprises, but which provides all the same a fascinating reflection of the footballing year.
Once again the big story is the same old story. The two-man arm-wrestle at the summit of international football’s individual awards has this year turned decisively Cristiano Ronaldo’s way. This is of course a well-seasoned and largely irresolvable debate, with battle lines drawn along club lines, issues of style, and even a skewed and incoherent sub-debate about natural and “manufactured” high-grade creative footballers (which still isn’t clear to this observer).
What is certain is that taking the year as a whole Ronaldo has been the single dominant figure, a phenomenal influence in the world’s champion club team, with 56 goals in 51 matches overall, along with league title, Champions League and Club World Club medals for Real Madrid.
And here at least his supremacy is a clear consensus rather than an argument to be made. As a reminder, the top 100 list is a product of 73 judges drawn from 28 countries, with Hernán Crespo, Didi Hamann, Slaven Bilic and Gilberto Silva among the expert panel.
At the end of which Ronaldo is now No1 in the world, as voted by 74% of those involved. It has been a steady reeling in of top spot. In 2012 Messi was the No1 pick by a 100% monopoly vote. Last year Messi was No1 by a 60% majority. This year Messi got just 12% of the vote, despite continuing to perform miracles of incision in La Liga and being enthroned (dubiously, and instantly disowned by Messi himself) as player of the 2014 World Cup finals.
With this in mind there is a kind of paradox here. Much has been made in recent years of the ascent of the Champions League, usurping even the World Cup as football’s dominant stage. Ronaldo’s elevation to No1 on the Guardian list would seem to chime with this, a player who had an excellent opening seven minutes of the World Cup finishing above the dominant influence in the beaten finalists. But look more closely and arguably only six of the top 20 players – Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Diego Costa, Ángel Di María, Thibaut Courtois, Karim Benzema - are there in main part because of their exploits in the Champions League. Against this seven of of the top 15 played in the World Cup final, while the Bayern Munich team thrashed 4-0 at home by Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final contained, according to this list, five of the top 12 players in the world. That may have been the club football result of the year, but the presence of Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller and Philipp Lahm in the top nine here is a reflection of the indelible glory of Germany’s collective triumph in Brazil.
Elsewhere the top ten is divvied up between the world’s top three club sides, with Sergio Agüero at No11 the closest thing to an outsider in this company and English football’s only year-round representative in the top 15. The Premier League does show some strength in depth, however, emerging from a position of near-irrelevance in the upper reaches to provide the most players overall once again, with 31 compared to 25 from La Liga (22 from Barcelona and Real Madrid), 15 from Germany (12 from Bayern Munich) and 14 from Serie A.
Spanish was still the dominant nationality, with 14 players from the departing world champions, against 11 from the newly enthroned Deutsch Nationalmannschaft. Further down, and despite exiting the World Cup as perhaps the meekest of all 32 finalists, it appears the English are coming! Sorry Colombia, Belgium, France and Holland. You may have reached the World Cup quarter finals, but none of you can beat England’s six players in the world’s top 100. The highest placed Englishman is Wayne Rooney at No43, a fair reflection of a fine goalscoring and creative year for club and country. While there is a first sight of Jack Wilshere, Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling, who is the youngest man on the list, Steven Gerrard’s position as the 80th best payer in the world is, it seems safe to say, an example of the distorting effects of a weighty reputation and tribute to Liverpool’s fine form in the spring.
There are some notable points of interest elsewhere. James Rodríguez is the highest new entry at No15, reflection of a fine World Cup and the sheer pleasure of watching a new creative star emerge. The highest climber is Eden Hazard, up 84 places to No16 despite not winning a trophy, looking below par at the World Cup, scoring 16 goals all year and being criticised by his manager for his part in Chelsea’s Champions League elimination by Atlético Madrid in May.
Indeed, Hazard’s total eclipse of one of his former team mates is perhaps the best illustration of the snakes and ladders aspect of elite club football. Spare a thought for Juan Mata, the biggest casualty on the list. Last year Mata was tucked in at No30 and ready, aged 25 and with a World Cup coming, to push on. On New Year’s day he started for Chelsea ahead of Oscar and Willian in a 3-0 defeat of Southampton. On January 25 he moved to the champions of England for £37m, becoming the sixth most expensive player in English transfer history. Currently he has scored 11 goals in his last 20 Premier League games. And yet after all that he has disappeared completely from the list this year, receiving in the process just one (one!) vote from a total of 2,920 cast.
Beyond the players there also is a clustering of uber-managers at the peak of the list: every single player in the top 20 has been coached at some time by at least one of Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti. This is another symptom, of course, of the general stratification of talent towards that select cartel of top clubs. Indeed, if there is anything missing from the top end here it is the presence of any real bolters, any players from left-field, no special place in the judges’ collective heart for Diego Godín or Arda Turan or Granit Xhaka, or Charlie Austin or simply a player or two from beyond the leading leagues.
If the top 25 looks more or less set, the most divisive part of the list remains as ever that subjective, occasionally infuriating hinterland beyond the elite. Ronaldo may or may not be better than Messi this year. But has Thiago Silva been better than Koke? Is Robin Van Persie really 45 places better than Gervinho? Is Aaron Ramsey ahead of Isco? What exactly is Andrés Iniesta doing in the top 30? The answer to all of these questions and more may or may not be evident after studying this list. But 73 judges, nearly 3000 votes and a year of elite level competition in the making, it is perhaps as close as we’re going to get.
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