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IFFHS World’s Best Man Player

Sport	Association football
Awarded for	Best performing man player of the calendar year
Presented by	International Federation of Football History & Statistics
History
First award	1988
Editions	5
First winner	Marco van Basten
Most wins	Marco van Basten Robert Lewandowski (2 awards each)
Most recent	Lionel Messi (1st award)
Website	www.iffhs.com

The IFFHS World’s Best Player is a football award given annually from 1988 to 1990, and since 2020, to the world’s best player. The award is given by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS).

Men’s winners[edit]

List of winners[edit]

From 1991 until 2009, FIFA continued this distinction named «FIFA World Player of the Year»; this award was later replaced by the FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2010, and The Best FIFA Men’s Player in 2016.^[1]

Year	Rank	Winner	Club(s)	Points
1988	1st	Marco van Basten[2]	Milan	101
2nd	Diego Maradona	Napoli	92
3rd	Ruud Gullit	Milan	71
1989	1st	Marco van Basten[3]	Milan	132
2nd	Franco Baresi	Milan	62
3rd	Ruud Gullit	Milan	57
1990	1st	Lothar Matthäus[4]	Inter Milan	–
2nd	Diego Maradona	Napoli	–
3rd	Salvatore Schillaci	Juventus	–
2020	1st	Robert Lewandowski[5]	Bayern Munich	95%
2021	1st	Robert Lewandowski[6]	Bayern Munich	150
2nd	Lionel Messi	Barcelona Paris Saint-Germain	105
3rd	Jorginho	Chelsea	40
2022	1st	Lionel Messi[7]	Paris Saint-Germain	275
2nd	Kylian Mbappé	Paris Saint-Germain	35
3rd	Karim Benzema	Real Madrid	30

Statistics[edit]

Winners (1988–present)

Player	Wins	Years
Marco van Basten	2	1988, 1989
Robert Lewandowski	2020, 2021
Lothar Matthäus	1	1990
Lionel Messi	1	2022

Wins by club

Club	Total	Players
Milan	2	1
Bayern Munich	2	1
Inter Milan	1	1
Paris Saint-Germain	1	1

Wins by nationality

Nationality	Total	Players
Netherlands	2	1
Poland	2	1
Germany	1	1
Argentina	1	1

Continental winners[edit]

Bold indicates the World’s Best Man Player winner.

Year	Confederation	Winner	Club(s)
2020	UEFA	Robert Lewandowski[8]	Bayern Munich
CONMEBOL	Lionel Messi[9]	Barcelona
CONCACAF	Alphonso Davies[10]	Bayern Munich
CAF	Sadio Mané[11]	Liverpool
AFC	Son Heung-min[12]	Tottenham Hotspur
OFC	Chris Wood[13]	Burnley
2021	UEFA	Robert Lewandowski[14]	Bayern Munich
CONMEBOL	Lionel Messi[15]	Barcelona Paris Saint-Germain
CONCACAF	Alphonso Davies[16]	Bayern Munich
CAF	Mohamed Salah[17]	Liverpool
AFC	Son Heung-min[18]	Tottenham Hotspur
OFC	Chris Wood[19]	Burnley
2022	UEFA	Kylian Mbappé[20]	Paris Saint-Germain
CONMEBOL	Lionel Messi[21]	Paris Saint-Germain
CONCACAF	Alphonso Davies[22]	Bayern Munich
CAF	Sadio Mané[23]	Liverpool Bayern Munich
AFC	Son Heung-min[24]	Tottenham Hotspur
OFC	Chris Wood[25]	Burnley Newcastle

The World’s Best Man Player of the Century (1901–2000)[edit]

Top 10 players^[26][27]

Rank	Player	Nationality	Points
1	Pelé	Brazil	1705
2	Johan Cruyff	Netherlands	1303
3	Franz Beckenbauer	West Germany	1228
4	Alfredo Di Stéfano	Argentina  Spain	1215
5	Diego Maradona	Argentina	1214
6	Ferenc Puskás	Hungary	810
7	Michel Platini	France	722
8	Garrincha	Brazil	624
9	Eusébio	Portugal	544
10	Bobby Charlton	England	508

The Best Man Player of the Decade (2011–2020)[edit]

Confederation	First	Second	Third
World[28]	Lionel Messi	Cristiano Ronaldo	Andrés Iniesta
UEFA[29]	Cristiano Ronaldo	Sergio Ramos	Manuel Neuer
CONMEBOL[30]	Lionel Messi	Neymar	Dani Alves
CONCACAF[31]	Keylor Navas	Javier Hernández	Clint Dempsey
CAF[32]	Mohamed Salah	Sadio Mané	Riyad Mahrez
AFC[33]	Son Heung-min	Keisuke Honda	Salem Al-Dawsari
OFC[34]	Chris Wood	Winston Reid	Marco Rojas

The Best European Player (1956–1990)[edit]

On 24 April 1990, before the 1990 FIFA World Cup, IFFHS gave out an award for the best European player taking into consideration players who were voted in the shortlist of the France Football’s Ballon d’Or from 1956 until 1989.^[35]

Top 10 players

Rank	Player	Nationality
1	Franz Beckenbauer	West Germany
2	Michel Platini	France
3	Johan Cruyff	Netherlands
4	Eusébio	Portugal
5	Gerd Müller	West Germany
6	Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	West Germany
7	Luis Suárez	Spain
8	Bobby Charlton	England
9	Alfredo Di Stéfano	Spain
10	Raymond Kopa	France

[edit]

Phase 1 (48 players)[36] Player Nationality Majed Abdullah  Saudi Arabia Mohamed Aboutrika  Egypt Roberto Baggio  Italy Franz Beckenbauer  Germany David Beckham  England Bhaichung Bhutia  India Oleg Blokhin  Ukraine Cha Bum-kun  South Korea Antonio Carbajal  Mexico Bobby Charlton  England José Luis Chilavert  Paraguay Tanju Çolak  Turkey Johan Cruyff  Netherlands Ali Daei  Iran Alfredo Di Stéfano  Argentina Landon Donovan  United States Mahmoud El Khatib  Egypt Eusébio  Portugal Luís Figo  Portugal Garrincha  Brazil Paco Gento  Spain Ryan Giggs  Wales Ruud Gullit  Netherlands Hao Haidong  China Sun Jihai  China Nwankwo Kanu  Nigeria Rabah Madjer  Algeria Diego Maradona  Argentina Lothar Matthäus  Germany Stanley Matthews  England Roger Milla  Cameroon Gerd Müller  Germany Hidetoshi Nakata  Japan Pelé  Brazil Michel Platini  France Ferenc Puskás  Hungary Lucas Radebe  South Africa Ronaldo  Brazil Wynton Rufer  New Zealand Hugo Sánchez  Mexico Juan Alberto Schiaffino  Uruguay Marco van Basten  Netherlands George Weah  Liberia Jasem Yaqoub  Kuwait Lev Yashin  Russia Zico  Brazil Zinedine Zidane  France Dino Zoff  Italy

Phase 2 (48 players)[37] Player Nationality Franco Baresi  Italy Gabriel Batistuta  Argentina Dennis Bergkamp  Netherlands Zbigniew Boniek  Poland Roberto Carlos  Brazil Petr Čech  Czech Republic Kenny Dalglish  Scotland Edgar Davids  Netherlands Alessandro Del Piero  Italy Didier Drogba  Ivory Coast Samuel Eto’o  Cameroon Enzo Francescoli  Uruguay Gheorge Hagi  Romania Thierry Henry  France Oliver Kahn  Germany Kaká  Brazil Kevin Keegan  England Mario Kempes  Argentina Miroslav Klose  Germany Ronald Koeman  Netherlands Philipp Lahm  Germany Michael Laudrup  Denmark Younis Mahmoud  Iraq Paolo Maldini  Italy Rafael Márquez  Mexico Pavel Nedvěd  Czech Republic Mohammed Noor  Saudi Arabia Jay-Jay Okocha  Nigeria Abedi Pele  Ghana Jean-Marie Pfaff  Belgium Andrea Pirlo  Italy Carles Puyol  Spain Raúl  Spain Frank Rijkaard  Netherlands Rivaldo  Brazil Romário  Brazil Ronaldinho  Brazil Paolo Rossi  Italy Karl-Heinz Rummenigge  Germany Peter Schmeichel  Denmark Andriy Shevchenko  Ukraine Hristo Stoichkov  Bulgaria Davor Šuker  Croatia Francesco Totti  Italy Carlos Valderrama  Colombia Ruud van Nistelrooy  Netherlands Robin van Persie  Netherlands Xavi  Spain

Women’s winners[edit]

IFFHS World’s Best Woman Player

Sport	Association football
Awarded for	Best performing woman player of the calendar year
Presented by	International Federation of Football History & Statistics
History
First award	2020
Editions	3
First winner	Pernille Harder
Most wins	Alexia Putellas (2 awards)
Most recent	Alexia Putellas (2nd award)
Website	www.iffhs.com

List of winners[edit]

Year	Rank	Winner	Club(s)	Points
2020	1st	Pernille Harder[38]	VfL Wolfsburg Chelsea	–
2nd	Wendie Renard	Lyon	–
Lucy Bronze	Lyon Manchester City
2021	1st	Alexia Putellas[39]	Barcelona	135
2nd	Sam Kerr	Chelsea	35
3rd	Sam Mewis	Manchester City North Carolina Courage	30
2022	1st	Alexia Putellas[40]	Barcelona	115
2nd	Beth Mead	Arsenal	55
3rd	Wendie Renard	Lyon	30

Statistics[edit]

Winners (2020–present)

Player	Wins	Years
Alexia Putellas	2	2021, 2022
Pernille Harder	1	2020

Wins by club

Club	Total	Players
Barcelona	2	1
Chelsea	1	1
VfL Wolfsburg	1	1

Wins by nationality

Nationality	Total	Players
Spain	2	1
Denmark	1	1

Continental rankings[edit]

Bold indicates the World’s Best Woman Player winner.

Year	Confederation	Winner	Club(s)
2020	UEFA	Pernille Harder[41]	VfL Wolfsburg Chelsea
CONMEBOL	Marta[42]	Orlando Pride
CONCACAF	Tobin Heath[43]	Manchester United
CAF	Asisat Oshoala[44]	Barcelona
AFC	Saki Kumagai[45]	Lyon
OFC	Rebekah Stott[46]	Melbourne City
2021	UEFA	Alexia Putellas[47]	Barcelona
CONMEBOL	Marta[48]	Orlando Pride
CONCACAF	Sam Mewis[49]	Manchester City North Carolina Courage
CAF	Asisat Oshoala[50]	Barcelona
AFC	Sam Kerr[51]	Chelsea
OFC	Ria Percival[52]	Tottenham Hotspur

The World’s Best Woman Player of the Century (1901–2000)[edit]

IFFHS gave out an award decided by votes which was conducted with the participation of journalists and former players (no further details given).^[53]

Top 10 players^[54]

Rank	Player	Nationality	Points
1	Mia Hamm	United States	442
2	Michelle Akers	United States	411
3	Heidi Mohr	Germany	250
4	Carolina Morace	Italy	230
5	Sissi	Brazil	212
6	Linda Medalen	Norway	181
7	Liu Ailing	China	165
8	Kristine Lilly	United States	160
9	Heidi Støre	Norway	141
10	Pia Sundhage	Sweden	129

The Best Woman Player of the Decade (2011–2020)[edit]

Confederation	First	Second	Third
World[55]	Marta	Carli Lloyd	Dzsenifer Marozsán
UEFA[56]	Dzsenifer Marozsán	Ada Hegerberg	Wendie Renard
CONMEBOL[57]	Marta	Cristiane	Formiga
CONCACAF[58]	Carli Lloyd	Alex Morgan	Megan Rapinoe
CAF[59]	Asisat Oshoala	Gabrielle Onguéné	Ngozi Okobi
AFC[60]	Homare Sawa	Samantha Kerr	Saki Kumagai
OFC[61]	Ria Percival	Abby Erceg	Rebekah Stott

[edit]

Phase 1 (16 players)[62] Player Nationality Michelle Akers  United States Gao Hong  China Mia Hamm  United States Steffi Jones  Germany Kristine Lilly  United States Liu Ailing  China Linda Medalen  Norway Heidi Mohr  Germany Carolina Morace  Italy Perpetua Nkwocha  Nigeria Birgit Prinz  Germany Homare Sawa  Japan Sissi  Brazil Heidi Støre  Norway Pia Sundhage  Sweden Abby Wambach  United States

Phase 2 (16 players)[63] Player Nationality Camille Abily  France Nadine Angerer  Germany Louisa Cadamuro  France Julie Foudy  United States Carin Jennings-Gabarra  United States Nadine Keßler  Germany Hanna Ljungberg  Sweden Aya Miyama  Japan Christie Rampone  United States Hege Riise  Norway Célia Šašić  Germany Lotta Schelin  Sweden Alex Scott  England Kelly Smith  England Hope Solo  United States Sun Wen  China

See also[edit]

• International Federation of Football History & Statistics
• IFFHS World’s Best Club
• IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper
• IFFHS World’s Best Top Goal Scorer
• IFFHS World’s Best International Goal Scorer
• IFFHS World Team
• IFFHS World’s Best Club Coach
• IFFHS World’s Best National Coach

References[edit]

Think of the best players in the world in 2022. Close your eyes and take this one seriously. See anyone special? 

We’ve considered a few things when conjuring our own definitive ranking of every one of the best footballers on Earth right now. Of course, principally, talent. Pure ability is the most valuable currency to our list, while we’ve allowed some leeway, due to injuries or poor collective form of a club. 

There are some players here who have made the list due to historic brilliance – they’re still good players and we want to be as fair as possible, here. 

Then there’s influence and importance. Players towards the top end of this list are sorted not just by how much they can affect games but how much they do. And overall, this is how the list is looking…

Remember, if you don’t agree with the list, let us know at @fourfourtwo (opens in new tab) and tell us why. Are we biased against your team? Have we made a glaring error in leaving off your favourite? And have we not included enough of a certain position?

Let’s whiz through these, then. 

100. Jan Oblak

Atletico Madrid are not what they once were but Jan Oblak’s standing as one of the world’s best goalkeepers is untouched. The Slovenian glovesman is still just 29 and could well retire as one of the best of a generation: he’s already one of his club and country’s most revered footballers of all time. 

99. Granit Xhaka

The redemption of Granit Xhaka is well-discussed but the Arsenal midfielder’s excellent season has merely brought qualities to the fore that we always knew he had. The imperious leadership, rocket shot (nicknamed the Xhakaboom) and incisive left foot have made him one of the Premier League’s best this season – and the renaissance has been exquisite for Gooners. 

98. Frenkie de Jong

You don’t court the world’s best for no reason. Frenkie de Jong burst onto the scene for his technical brilliance and ability to dance through opponents – and he still has that in abundance, despite Barcelona’s fall from grace during his time there. The Dutchman is a beautiful player to watch at his best and still could be one of the best in the world in years to come. 

97. Kai Havertz

Chelsea fans will forever adore him for that goal but Kai Havertz still has so much more to give. Whether he’s a forward, attacking midfielder or winger, we still don’t know yet – and yet his close control combined with his towering figure makes him difficult to defend against when he’s in his pomp. He’ll only go from strength to strength. 

96. Marco Reus

Now 33, Marco Reus turned the world down to wind up with Dortmund, growing old at BVB in a way that few stars do. in shunning bigger boys, he’s carved out a career as one of the most intelligent and bewitching attackers of his time – and he’s still deadly, excellent to watch and beloved by fans. And not just those in yellow and black.

95. Fabinho

At Monaco, he was one of a pair in midfield – sometimes filling in at right-back when needed. At Liverpool, he’s evolved to become one of the best lone defensive midfielders of the last decade. Fabinho is still the glue in most great Liverpool performances, too.

94. James Maddison

Few deserve their World Cup call-ups more. James Maddison has entered god mode for Leicester City this season, becoming the output machine that has propelled the Foxes up the table and cutting through Premier League defenders like cones in training. He’s been outstanding all season and one of the best playmakers in the world. 

93. Joao Felix

Joao Felix is so phenomenally talented – and yet Atletico Madrid don’t exactly play to his strengths. The Portuguese might seem low on this list for a player who cost over £100m but at 23, Felix still has the world at his feet and is still waiting for the explosive season that Vinicius Junior had last year. 

92. Darwin Nunez

Slowly but surely, Darwin Nunez is finding his feet at Liverpool as one of the most contradictory strikers that the league has to offer. He’s so incredibly powerful that it’s as if he can’t quite reign it in at times; he’s a flat-track bully who can destroy smaller sides and yet even seasoned defenders can’t deal with his movement sometimes. He’ll only grow in stature as he gets to grips with English football. 

91. Theo Hernandez

Plenty of Real Madrid stars have sunk without a trace after being spat out to Italy – yet Theo Hernandez has quietly become one of the best left-backs on Earth at AC Milan. The Frenchman is accomplished in both directions and a major player in Milan’s Scudetto win last season – and still just 25, with room to develop further. 

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Erling Haaland has made a mockery of the Premier League upon his maiden voyage on British soil while Kylian Mbappé continues to dominate for club and country. However, despite their efforts, Lionel Messi’s sustained, relentless success keeps his name in the frame at the age of 35.

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We’ve based our list on a variety of factors. We have taken short-term form into account, but particularly strong or weak 2022/23 seasons are not the ultimate deal-breaker in many cases so that players with a long history of incredible performances aren’t shunted down at the first sign of decline.

Trophies, strength of leagues, raw stats, unquantifiable magic and a host of other aspects have come together to form our criteria for the list, and we know you’re going to wholeheartedly disagree with us.

To whet your appetite even further, to demonstrate the sheer strength of the top 10, Manchester United’s creative behemoth Bruno Fernandes, Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah and trio of young hot-shots Jude Bellingham, Pedri and Gavi have all missed the cut, as well as defensive titans David Alaba and Virgil van Dijk.

More like this

RadioTimes.com brings you our definitive list of the best football players in the world in 2023.

Check our more football features: Best players of all time | Best strikers 2023 | Best midfielders 2023 | Best defenders 2023 | Best goalkeepers 2023 | Best young players 2023 | Best teams in the world 2023

10. Sadio Mané (Bayern Munich)

In hindsight, Mané’s move away from Liverpool really was a stunning switch on many levels. At the time, it was a big deal but many anticipated the likes of Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez to seamlessly fill the cracks left by his departure. It’s no sleight on those two players that they have been unable to do so.

The Senegalese superstar departed from Mohamed Salah’s shadow for Bayern Munich and has proven his talent in a whole new environment, though curtailed by an injury that saw him ruled out for most of the winter.

Mané’s versatility up front nudges him ahead of Salah in our thinking. He loves to cut inside and drift out wide, he is a superb finisher with his feet and a remarkable threat in the air despite his relatively diminutive figure. Mané is a Swiss Army knife forward who can demolish defences in all manner of methods.

9. Neymar (PSG)

It will be fascinating to see how Neymar’s legacy evolves over the years to come as his career enters the twilight period. He boasts all the trophies and a corner of YouTube dedicated to his snappy feet, but it still feels like Neymar could have been more than just one of many top players.

Saying that, Neymar has shown signs of evolution in recent times. He dropped deeper into the heart of midfield for Brazil at the World Cup and is likely to set a new personal best for assists across all competitions in a season.

We have to judge Neymar’s ability on what he has shown, not based on what he might have become. Nagging frustrations will always swirl around him, but this shouldn’t detract too much from a sublime footballer capable of unlocking any defence on any given day.

8. Luka Modric (Real Madrid)

Ageless, timeless, majestic. Modric will never get old nor will he retire – we simply refuse to believe it. We are 20 years on from Modric’s professional debut with Zrinjski Mostar in the Bosnian Premier League, more than 800 games into his career, and there are still few players you’d trust more to pull the strings in midfield.

Modric is silk personified. He never looks troubled or over-exerted, he is butter-smooth. A deft touch, a little drop of the shoulder to purchase space an unstoppable artful pass designed to slit through the lines. We’ve all seen it, the opponents he is facing have all seen it before too, but nobody can do anything about it.

The 37-year-old should be in decline, he should be losing his legs and unpredictability should be creeping in, but Madrid’s management of his minutes has been sublime. He will be fit and fresh for those enormous Champions League nights. And he’ll just keep running the show until his curtain call.

7. Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona)

Goals, goals, goals. In a decade of false nines, inside forwards, inverted thingamajigs, Lewandowski has relentlessly flown the flag for natural out-and-out strikers.

In many ways, Lewandowski is a no-nonsense entity. He knows where the ball will flow, he knows the positions to be in and when to be there, he knows all the measurements of the goal frame and will use every inch of it to ripple the net. If the ball falls to one player in a one-on-one situation in world football, Lewandowski is both the most likely player to be in that position and the man you’d want to be there.

Lewandowski is very able when it comes to building attacks and creating chances, but his movement and awareness as the target for others to find means he is at his most ruthless hovering around at the very top end of the pitch.

6. Harry Kane (Tottenham)

The relative mystique of foreign leagues can often inflate a player’s reputation as we are fed their many highlights and rarely see their 4/10s, the days they’d rather not remember, their misses and their failures. The Premier League, in all its hyper-exposed, tribal glory, is often not a place where rival fans can appreciate world class talent when they see it. Surely we’re just about there with Harry Kane?

Kane’s season-end tallies remain consistent around the 30-goal mark with a bundle of assists and uncountable contributions setting him above almost every other striker in the world.

His finishing is exemplary, his positioning to accommodate for a lack of raw pace is second-to-none, though his unique selling point is his uncanny playmaking ability, to pick a pass from deep, to swing a cross in, to play the No.10 and No.9 roles simultaneously and effectively and he has achieved all of this in a team that, with the greatest respect, is simply not at his level and rarely has been near his standard. The post-Kane era is an approaching nightmare for Tottenham.

5. Erling Haaland (Man City)

Building on the point about the over-exposure of the Premier League often resulting in players being judged more harshly, we present to you Erling Haaland. In any given week, you could search for Haaland and discover a pundit claiming he could do more or isn’t being used correctly.

Simply, Haaland has normalised the abnormal. Arguably Haaland’s only flaw in 2022/23 was setting the bar insurmountably high from the very start. Between the start of the season and the end of 2022, Haaland found the net 22 times in just 15 Premier League games. For context, that total would have won the Golden Boot in seven Premier League seasons.

His physicality is unrivalled, his finishing ability – including improvised, instinctive finishing by any means necessary – is staggering and he boasts a turn of pace that few in the Premier League could match. The best bit? We’re mostly likely yet to see Haaland at his absolute peak. The next few years should be explosive.

4. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)

It would be tempting to say Karim Benzema is having the ultimate Indian summer but in reality, he is simply doing what he has always done: lead the line, score goals, win trophies, repeat.

Everything Real Madrid have achieved in the last 14 years has been achieved under Benzema’s watch. He has not always been treated with respect, Real Madrid have tried to replace him with plenty of strikers over the last decade, but nobody has been able to fill the No.9 role quite like him.

Benzema gets through a remarkable amount of dirty work in 90 minutes. He digs deep and acts as a wide/inside forward’s dream, the ultimate pivot point to build attacks around. Benzema is happy playing with his back to goal and that often proves just as dangerous to opponents as bearing down on them directly. Play a ‘one’, make a darting run and you’ll always receive the ‘two’. He is a complete striker finally receiving the praise his play deserves.

3. Kevin De Bruyne (Man City)

Kevin De Bruyne is having a relatively poor season… and has still created 18 goals across all competitions by March. It’s fair to say the Belgian hasn’t dominated our screens as he has done in the past, but like Haaland, he has made extraordinary achievements seem, well, ordinary.

This shouldn’t detract from De Bruyne’s technical ability. He could be the greatest crosser of a ball in Premier League history, while his vision and penchant for a defence-splitting pass combine with frightening effectiveness on a number of occasions.

One of the best aspects of De Bruyne is that he comes with all the trimmings. He’s a lethal set-piece taker, he is unexpectedly physical and genuinely quick off the mark. Without these things, KDB would remain a top, top player, but with them at his disposal, he is a multi-layered box of tricks.

2. Kylian Mbappé (PSG)

Mbappé is a megastar forged by the crucible of the World Cup. It’s an old-school way to achieve greatness given the prominence of the Champions League and Premier League, but Mbappé’s international heroics prove his ability and mentality beyond all reasonable doubt.

Like Neymar, like many before, he has made a mockery of Ligue 1 but his form on the global stage for both club and country puts him out in front. His World Cup final hat-trick will go down as the stuff of legends – a big time performance from a big time player.

Mbappé is often portrayed as a dramatic soap character in the ever-brewing psychodrama between PSG and Real Madrid, a large portion of his mind fixed on off-field politics, but the character he showed throughout the World Cup, his mentality and steely determination to drag his team kicking and screaming to the trophy has elevated him up another notch on the ladder.

He is one of the fastest footballers we’ve ever seen grace the field, with a range of shooting like no other. He can strike the ball on the run or with immense power from a dead standing start, he can finesse shots low into the corners and drill the ball high and rising into the roof of the net. If Mbappé has the ball in your half, you are not safe.

1. Lionel Messi (PSG)

For the first time in over a decade, we sincerely had to ponder our No.1 selection but in the spirit of VAR, we found no clear and obvious reason to rule out Messi from the summit.

There’s no denying Messi has evolved. He has lost a fraction of his blistering pace but his intelligence and manipulation of the football means his control over the result of games remains as strong as ever. He is not an all-action terrier, he won’t pitch in with too much dirty work, but to count that against him is to miss the point entirely.

Messi continues to dominate games – both subtly and explicitly – for club and country. His performances directly inspired Argentina to Copa America and World Cup trophies, while his rich form in the Champions League has carried from Barcelona to Paris.

He is sitting comfortably in double figures for both goals and assists for PSG this term so far, even with Mbappé and Neymar sniffing around the same areas, and remains a match-winner in the biggest occasions.

Messi’s time at the top will come to an end, very conceivably soon, but for now, we can’t find a justification to drop a player with such talent, such influence and impact, with such recent success and fuel left in the tank. The magician reigns supreme.

Lionel Messi remains the undisputed king of the football world, though it would be foolish not to raise an eyebrow as he grows older.

As an individual talent and based on almost two decades of cold, objective data and warm, unquantifiable magic, he is the best. Not only the best right now, but the best of all time.

Do you agree with our list? Of course you don’t! And that’s totally fine, even though you are completely wrong.

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