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

• Share 1215
• inShare0
• Email

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.
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
Source: Guardian Sport
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