Lionel Messi retains his crown as the world’s best footballers in 2013

Lionel Messi has retained the top spot in this year’s Guardian’s choice of the world’s top 100 footballers, which also sees Franck Ribéry, Gareth Bale and Luis Suárez make impressive leaps into the top ten.

The second annual list by the Guardian enlisted the former Italy international Alessandro Nesta as the lead judge in a panel of 15 experts (up from 11 last year). The former England women’s coach, Hope Powell, and retired USA goalkeeper, Kasey Keller, joined the selection of Guardian journalists on the panel.

So how exactly did they go about ranking players for the top 100? Stephen McMillan explains:

We asked each judge one simple question: who have been the 40 best players in the world in 2013? They ranked their answers in order, from 1-40. We awarded 40 points for a No1 choice, 39pts for No2, and so on down to one point for their 40th choice.

The results, which have been unveiled in a countdown from December 20, are now published in full. You can see the top 100 listed in the table below with both this year’s ranking and that of 2012. The spreadsheet also includes details of the points awarded to each player on the list.

Ronaldo remains in second place while Zlatan Ibrahimovic has climbed two places to third. There have been some impressive leaps into the top ten; Ribéry up 24 places to fourth, Gareth Bale up 33 places to seventh and Suárez jumps from 21st place in 2012 to ninth in 2013.

Bayern Munich and Barcelona are the top represented clubs on the list with 11 players each, while Real Madrid have nine players in the top 100 – one fewer than last year. Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund have eight and seven respectively. Manchester City, who had eight players in last year’s list, now have six in the top 100.

Only four British players make this year’s selection; Gareth Bale in seventh, Wayne Rooney 28th, Aaron Ramsey 49th and Frank Lampard in 88th. As last year, Spanish, Brazilian and German players dominate the list.

Despite so few British players making the list, the Premier League remains the best represented league in the top 100 with 29 players (up from 27 in 2012) and is followed by La Liga with 26. The Bundesliga is the third most represented league with 18 players in the list.

At just 19, Paris Saint-Germain’s Marquinhos is the youngest player to be featured on the list beating Stephan El Shaarawy who made the top 100 last year aged 20.

The full breakdown by nationality, club, position and points scored can be found in the downloadable spreadsheet. We’ve also got numbers on the leagues that have been represented in the 2013 and 2012 list.

What do you think of the top 100? Who would you have voted for given the chance? We’d love to read your comments below.

 

The world’s top 100 best footballers 2013

2013	2012	Name	Position	Club	Nationality	Age at Dec 20 2013
1	1	Lionel Messi	Forward	Barcelona	Argentina	26
2	2	Cristiano Ronaldo	Forward	Real Madrid	Portugal	28
3	5	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	Forward	PSG	Sweden	32
4	28	Franck Ribery	Midfielder	Bayern Munich	France	30
5	4	Andres Iniesta	Midfielder	Barcelona	Spain	29
6	13	Neymar	Forward	Barcelona	Brazil	21
7	40	Gareth Bale	Midfielder	Real Madrid	Wales	24
8	3	Xavi	Midfielder	Barcelona	Spain	33
9	21	Luis Suarez	Forward	Liverpool	Uruguay	26
10	11	Sergio Aguero	Forward	Manchester City	Argentina	25
11	7	Robin van Persie	Forward	Manchester Utd	Netherlands	30
12	17	Mesut Ozil	Midfielder	Arsenal	Germany	25
13	10	Edinson Cavani	Forward	Napoli	Uruguay	26
14	66	Arjen Robben	Midfielder/forward	Bayern Munich	Netherlands	29
15	25	Philipp Lahm	Defender	Bayern Munich	Germany	30
16	6	Radamel Falcao	Forward	Atlético Madrid	Colombia	27
17	16	Thiago Silva	Defender	PSG	Brazil	29
18	70	Robert Lewandowski	Forward	Borussia Dortmund	Poland	25
19	9	Yaya Toure	Midfielder	Manchester City	Ivory Coast	30
20	19	Bastian Schweinsteiger	Midfielder	Bayern Munich	Germany	29
21	8	Andrea Pirlo	Midfielder	Juventus	Italy	34
22	29	Manuel Neuer	Goalkeeper	Bayern Munich	Germany	27
23	27	Marco Reus	Midfielder/forward	Borussia Dortmund	Germany	24
24	20	Gianluigi Buffon	Goalkeeper	Juventus	Italy	35
25	33	Thomas Muller	Forward	Bayern Munich	Germany	24
26	57	Arturo Vidal	Midfielder	Juventus	Chile	26
27	14	Sergio Busquets	Midfielder	Barcelona	Spain	25
28	31	Wayne Rooney	Forward	Manchester Utd	England	28
29	36	Cesc Fabregas	Midfielder	Barcelona	Spain	26
30	32	Juan Mata	Midfielder	Chelsea	Spain	25
31	NE	Francesco Totti	Forward	Roma	Italy	37
32	18	David Silva	Midfielder	Manchester City	Spain	27
33	67	Mario Balotelli	Forward	Milan	Italy	23
34	34	Mario Götze	Midfielder/forward	Borussia Dortmund	Germany	21
35	NE	Diego da Silva Costa	Forward	Atlético Madrid	Brazil	25
36	37	Oscar	Midfielder	Chelsea	Brazil	22
37	15	Xabi Alonso	Midfielder	Real Madrid	Spain	32
38	42	Daniele De Rossi	Midfielder	Roma	Italy	30
39	24	Gerard Pique	Defender	Barcelona	Spain	26
40	53	Toni Kroos	Midfielder	Bayern Munich	Germany	23
41	43	Dani Alves	Defender	Barcelona	Brazil	30
42	23	Vincent Kompany	Defender	Manchester City	Belgium	27
43	NE	David Alaba	Defender/Midfielder	Bayern Munich	Austria	21
44	NE	Ilkay Gündogan	Midfielder	Borussia Dortmund	Germany	23
45	22	Sergio Ramos	Defender	Real Madrid	Spain	27
46	48	Carlos Tevez	Forward	Juventus	Argentina	29
47	NE	Thibaut Courtois	Goalkeeper	Atlético Madrid	Belgium	21
48	77	Mario Mandzukic	Forward	Bayern Munich	Croatia	27
49	NE	Aaron Ramsey	Midfielder	Arsenal	Wales	22
50	79	David Luiz	Defender	Chelsea	Brazil	26
51	64	Nemanja Vidic	Defender	Manchester Utd	Serbia	32
52	NE	Axel Witsel	Midfielder	Zenit Saint Petersburg	Belgium	24
53	NE	Dante	Defender	Bayern Munich	Brazil	30
54	NE	Giuseppe Rossi	Forward	Fiorentina	Italy	26
55	35	Karim Benzema	Forward	Real Madrid	France	26
56	NE	Gonzalo Higuain	Striker	Napoli	Argentina	26
57	NE	Jan Vertonghen	Defender	Tottenham Hotspur	Belgium	26
58	97	Marek Hamsik	Midfielder	Napoli	Slovakia	26
59	100	Paulinho	Midfielder	Tottenham Hotspur	Brazil	25
60	51	Marcelo	Defender	Real Madrid	Brazil	25
61	80	Luka Modric	Midfielder	Real Madrid	Croatia	28
62	NE	Kevin Strootman	Midfielder	Roma	Netherlands	23
63	39	Javier Mascherano	Defender/midfielder	Barcelona	Argentina	29
64	NE	Hugo Lloris	Goalkeeper	Tottenham Hotspur	France	26
65	44	Petr Cech	Goalkeeper	Chelsea	Czech Republic	31
66	45	Mats Hummels	Defender	Borussia Dortmund	Germany	25
67	73	Santi Cazorla	Midfielder	Arsenal	Spain	29
68	NE	Keisuke Honda	Midfielder	CSKA Moscow	Japan	27
69	NE	Víctor Valdés	Goalkeeper	Barcelona	Spain	31
70	NE	Arda Turan	Midfielder/Forward	Atlético Madrid	Turkey	26
71	NE	Federico Marchetti	Goalkeeper	Lazio	Italy	30
72	47	Angel Di Maria	Midfielder	Real Madrid	Argentina	25
73	NE	Álvaro Negredo	Forward	Manchester City	Spain	28
74	NE	Laurent Koscielny	Defender	Arsenal	France	28
75	NE	Toby Alderweireld	Defender	Atlético Madrid	Belgium	24
76	NE	Marco Verratti	Midfielder	PSG	Italy	21
77	NE	Pablo Zabaleta	Defender	Manchester City	Argentina	28
78	NE	Dario Conca	Midfielder	Guangzhou Evergrande	Argentina	30
79	69	Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang	Forward	Borussia Dortmund	Gabon	24
80	NE	Michu	Forward	Swansea City	Spain	27
81	NE	Miralem Pjanic	Midfielder	Roma	Bosnia-Herzegovina	23
82	NE	Samir Handanovic	Goalkeeper	Inter	Slovenia	29
83	54	Samuel Eto’o	Forward	Chelsea	Cameroon	32
84	NE	Juan Zuniga	Defender	Napoli	Colombia	28
85	NE	Lukasz Piszczek	Defender	Borussia Dortmund	Poland	28
86	NE	Marquinhos	Defender	PSG	Brazil	19
87	NE	Mehdi Benatia	Defender	Roma	Morocco	26
88	NE	Frank Lampard	Midfielder	Chelsea	England	35
89	94	Shinji Kagawa	Midfielder	Manchester Utd	Japan	24
90	NE	Koke	Midfielder	Atlético Madrid	Spain	21
91	NE	Yohan Cabaye	Midfielder	Newcastle Utd	France	27
92	NE	Lucas Moura	Midfielder	PSG	Brazil	21
93	NE	Blaise Matuidi	Midfielder	PSG	France	26
94	NE	Isco	Midfielder	Real Madrid	Spain	21
95	NE	Alexis Sánchez	Forward	Barcelona	Chile	25
96	NE	Asmir Begovic	Goalkeeper	Stoke City	Bosnia-Herzegovina	26
97	NE	Emmanuel Emenike	Forward	Fenerbahce	Nigeria	26
98	NE	Branislav Ivanovic	Defender	Chelsea	Serbia	29
99	98	Javi Martinez	Defender/midfielder	Bayern Munich	Spain	25
100	58	Eden Hazard	Midfielder	Chelsea	Belgium	22

 

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This article titled “The world’s best footballers in 2013: Lionel Messi retains his crown” was written by Ami Sedghi, for theguardian.com on Tuesday 24th December 2013 11.05 UTC