Monday, April 29, 2013

The world's best footballers: the top 100 list

Lionel Messi has taken the top spot in the Guardian's list of the world's top 100 footballers published today. See the full list and how it breaks down by nationality, club and position
Get the data
Explore the interactive of the top 100
More data journalism and data visualisations from the Guardian
Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi has been named the world's best footballer in the Guardian's top 100 footballers list published today. Photograph: Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images
The Guardian's choice of the world's top 100 footballers has been unveiled today with Lionel Messi topping the list at No1.
An 11-strong international panel of experts were asked by Guardian Sport to name their top 30 players in action today and rank them in order of preference. Players were then scored on their ranking by each panellist: a No1 choice allocated 30pts, No2 29pts and so on down to selection No30, given one point.
So how did the Guardian top 100 come about? Sports editor Ian Prior explains:
Compiling such a list requires a certain confidence, some may say arrogance of judgment. Guilty, if so. Not all may agree, but it is a personal belief that these pages are currently home to perhaps the finest collective of football writers and analysts in the English language. From Daniel Taylor to Sid Lowe, Jonathan Wilson to Michael Cox, Richard Williams to Raphael Honigstein, we are blessed with writers whose knowledge covers not only the English game but who offer a genuinely global perspective.
The ranking, which has slowly been revealed in a countdown from the 20 December, is now published in full and the world's top 100 footballers are listed below for you to view.
The choice of Messi at No1, beating Cristiano Ronaldo into second place, is explained below by Sid Lowe:
There was only one name and one position on which all 11 members of the panel were in unanimous agreement; the world No1, Lionel Messi. How could we not choose him?
The debate has moved to another plane: it is not so much a question of whether Messi is the best player in the world right now, as whether Messi might just be the best player there has ever been.
Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Radamel Falcao, Robin van Persie, Andrea Pirlo, Yaya Touré and Edinson Cavani make up the rest of the top 10.
League graphic for top 100 footballers Four English players make it onto the list; Ashley Cole (30th), Wayne Rooney (31st), Joe Hart (65th) and John Terry (86). Despite only a few English players making it onto the top 100, the Premier League is the best represented with 27 players, followed by La Liga with 23. The chart above shows the top five leagues by the number of footballers appearing in the list.
Barcelona is the best represented club with 12 players on the list followed by Bayern Munich and Real Madrid with 10 each. Chelsea and Manchester City each have eight players on the list.
The average age for the footballers appearing on the list is 26 years old. Stephan El Shaarawy, aged 20, is the youngest player in the top 100 whilst Javier Zanetti is the oldest at 39 years old.
So how does the list break down by nationality? 16 of the players are Spanish, 12 Brazilian and 10 German. There are 8 Argentinian players on the list and both Italy and France have seven footballers on the top 100.
If you're wondering which position is the most common amongst the top 100 players then we've also broken that down too: 36 are midfielders, 29 forward, 19 defenders. The full breakdown by nationality, club and position can be found in the downloadable spreadsheet.
The full list of the world's top 100 footballers can be found below along with information on each players club, position, nationality and age. Can you do something interesting with this data?

Data summary

The world's top 100 best footballers

Click heading to sort table. Download this data
No
Name
Position
Club
Nationality
Age at Dec 20 2012
1 Lionel Messi Forward Barcelona Argentina 25
2 Cristiano Ronaldo Forward Real Madrid Portugal 27
3 Xavi Midfielder Barcelona Spain 32
4 Andres Iniesta Midfielder Barcelona Spain 28
5 Zlatan Ibrahimovic Forward PSG Sweden 31
6 Radamel Falcao Forward Atletico Madrid Colombia 26
7 Robin van Persie Forward Man Utd Netherlands 29
8 Andrea Pirlo Midfielder Juventus Italy 33
9 Yaya Toure Midfielder Man City Ivory Coast 27
10 Edinson Cavani Forward Napoli Uruguay 25
11 Sergio Aguero Forward Man City Argentina 24
12 Iker Casillas Goalkeeper Real Madrid Spain 31
13 Neymar Forward Santos Brazil 20
14 Sergio Busquets Defender/midfielder Barcelona Spain 24
15 Xabi Alonso Midfielder Real Madrid Spain 31
16 Thiago Silva Defender PSG Brazil 28
17 Mesut Ozil Midfielder Real Madrid Germany 24
18 David Silva Midfielder/forward Man City Spain 26
19 Bastian Schweinsteiger Midfielder Bayern Munich Germany 28
20 Gianluigi Buffon Goalkeeper Juventus Italy 34
21 Luis Suarez Forward Liverpool Uruguay 25
22 Sergio Ramos Defender Real Madrid Spain 26
23 Vincent Kompany Defender Man City Belgium 26
24 Gerard Pique Defender Barcelona Spain 25
25 Philipp Lahm Defender Bayern Munich Germany 29
26 Willian Midfielder Shakhtar Donetsk Brazil 24
27 Marco Reus Forward Borussia Dortmund Germany 23
28 Franck Ribery Midfielder Bayern Munich France 29
29 Manuel Neuer Goalkeeper Bayern Munich Germany 26
30 Ashley Cole Defender Chelsea England 32
31 Wayne Rooney Forward Man Utd England 27
32 Juan Mata Midfielder Chelsea Spain 24
33 Thomas Muller Forward Bayern Munich Germany 23
34 Mario Götze Midfielder/forward Borussia Dortmund Germany 20
35 Karim Benzema Forward Real Madrid France 24
36 Cesc Fabregas Midfielder Barcelona Spain 25
37 Oscar Midfielder Chelsea Brazil 21
38 Fernandinho Midfielder Shakhtar Donetsk Brazil 27
39 Javier Mascherano Defender/midfielder Barcelona Argentina 28
40 Gareth Bale Defender Tottenham Wales 23
41 Javier Zanetti Defender/midfielder Internazionale Argentina 39
42 Daniele De Rossi Midfielder Roma Italy 29
43 Dani Alves Defender Barcelona Brazil 29
44 Petr Cech Goalkeeper Chelsea Czech Republic 30
45 Mats Hummels Defender Borussia Dortmund Germany 24
46 Carles Puyol Defender Barcelona Spain 34
47 Angel Di Maria Midfielder Real Madrid Argentina 24
48 Carlos Tevez Forward Man City Argentina 28
49 Didier Drogba Forward Shanghai Shenhua Ivory Coast 34
50 Giorgio Chiellini Defender Juventus Italy 28
51 Marcelo Defender Real Madrid Brazil 24
52 Stephan El Shaarawy Forward Milan Italy 20
53 Toni Kroos Midfielder Bayern Munich Germany 22
54 Samuel Eto’o Forward Anzhi Makhachkala Cameroon 31
55 Jordi Alba Defender/midfielder Barcelona Spain 23
56 Mario Gomez Forward Bayern Munich Germany 27
57 Arturo Vidal Midfielder Juventus Chile 25
58 Eden Hazard Midfielder Chelsea Belgium 21
59 James Rodriguez Midfielder Porto Colombia 21
60 Marouane Fellaini Midfielder Everton Belgium 25
61 Ramires Midfielder Chelsea Brazil 25
62 David Villa Forward Barcelona Spain 31
63 Klaas Jan Huntelaar Forward Schalke Netherlands 29
64 Nemanja Vidic Defender Man Utd Serbia 31
65 Joe Hart Goalkeeper Man City England 25
66 Arjen Robben Midfielder/forward Bayern Munich Netherlands 28
67 Mario Balotelli Forward Man City Italy 22
68 Mathieu Valbuena Midfielder Marseille France 28
69 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Forward St Etienne Gabon 23
70 Robert Lewandowski Forward Borussia Dortmund Poland 24
71 Hernanes Midfielder Lazio Brazil 27
72 Pedro Forward Barcelona Spain 25
73 Santi Cazorla Midfielder Arsenal Spain 28
74 Christian Eriksen Midfielder Ajax Denmark 20
75 Ezequiel Lavezzi Forward PSG Argentina 27
76 Joao Moutinho Midfielder Porto Portugal 26
77 Mario Mandžukić Forward Bayern Munich Croatian 26
78 Patrice Evra Defender Man Utd France 31
79 David Luiz Defender Chelsea Brazil 25
80 Luka Modric Midfielder Real Madrid Croatia 27
81 Victor Wanyama Defender/midfielder Celtic Kenya 21
82 Mapou Yanga-M'Biwa Defender Montpelier France 23
83 Hulk Forward Zenit St Petersburg Brazil 26
84 Darijo Srna Midfielder Shakhtar Donetsk Croatia 30
85 Emmanuel Mayuka Forward Southampton Zambia 22
86 John Terry Defender Chelsea England 32
87 Kwadwo Asamoah Midfielder Juventus Ghana 24
88 Leonardo Bonucci Defender Juventus Italy 25
89 Javier Pastore Midfielder PSG Argentina 23
90 Henrikh Mkhitaryan Midfielder/forward Shakhtar Donetsk Armenia 23
91 Moussa Dembele Midfielder Tottenham Belgium 25
92 Hatem Ben Arfa Midfielder/forward Newcastle France 25
93 Samir Nasri Midfielder Man City France 25
94 Shinji Kagawa Midfielder Man Utd Japan 23
95 Wesley Sneijder Midfielder Internazionale Netherlands 28
96 Pepe Defender Real Madrid Portugal 29
97 Marek Hamsik Midfielder Napoli Slovakia 25
98 Javi Martinez Defender/midfielder Bayern Munich Spain 24
99 Diego Forlan Forward Internacional Uruguay 33
100 Paulinho Midfielder Corinthians Brazil 24


Download the data

DATA: download the full spreadsheet

No comments:

Post a Comment