The 100 best footballers in the world, 2015 edition

[ScousePig]

Is out (well, The Guardian's version), if anyone gives even the tiniest of shits.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2015/dec/21/the-100-best-footballers-in-the-world-2015-interactive

[Baz]

Sterling only 62?

No Emre Can, yet pish like Mo Salah feature?

http://www.reactionface.info/sites/default/files/imagecache/Listing/images/1310428349083_0.png

[SvN]

So many hilarious placings - too many to post. But Rooney at 60 deserves a fucking huge :D

[Davgooner]

Outside the top 10 it's such random shit.

[Lewis]

Robert Lewandowski seems to be terribly overrated at the minute.

[mugbull]

Pogba too, the man's not nearly the most important midfielder for Juventus and still everyone thinks he's the best around. That young player award going to him at the WC was a travesty

[Kikó]

I'm confused how there are so many united players in there considering how average most of them have played this year. But Rooney is a Christmas laugh.

[Giggles]

It's impossible to really rank things like this outside the top 4 or 5.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I'd have Muller at number two and Ronaldo at five. Suarez shits on Neymar, too.

Hazard anywhere near the top 50 has to be some kind of clever Guardian satire.

[Manc]

Ribery relying on his looks for a place. Definitely hasn't kicked a ball this season.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Just noticed Totti at number 96. Might as well include Maldini if we're going to be that romantic towards all things Italian from the 90s.

[Byron]

Just shows how much big clubs hoard players.

St Payet at No. 90 mind you :cool:

[Magic]

The Judges list reads like a who's who of potential corruption in football (apart from the shite journalists, of course).

[Kikó]

I reckon it's Suarez who should be number 1 anyway.

[Jimmy Floyd]

With Neymar I always get the sense that people want him to be the best in the world more than he actually is. He's definitely the junior of the trio I would say.

[igor_balis]

I assume the way they decide these lists is similar to how they decide which relics to upgrade in that Father Ted episode.

[The Merse]

Jamie Vardy :D

Rate him highly, but c'mon...

As for Giovinco ahead of Cazorla, it completely invalids this shit.

[The Merse]

Just noticed Totti at number 96. Might as well include Maldini if we're going to be that romantic towards all things Italian from the 90s.

He's not playing regularly for fucks sake. Last year I'd have approved but whilst he shows his class when he plays now, you can't have him in there when he makes a handful of sub appearances these days.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The actual entry on Totters:


Always a divisive talent, Francesco Totti has had his fair share of critics down the years but provokes such fierce loyalty in his supporters that some celebrate his birthday each September by wishing one another "Merry Christmas". So perhaps we should not be surprised to discover that, while many left him off their lists altogether, one of our panelists defiantly named him as the best player in the world. In truth, he is no longer a fixture of the Roma first XI, but he does remain the club captain and, even at 39, he still has a part to play.

[Boydy]

"It's almost Christmas and we couldn't be arsed to do it properly. We just wanted to go to the pub."

[Vim]

Pogba #11 is just ridiculous. Especially with Marchisio not even in the list. Not sure what Totti is doing on any list, he can't even make the first 11 list for his team.

edit: Just noticed Giovinco. :D GIOVINCO. :face:

[Pepe]

They probably do a 'name the first footballer that comes to mind' around the office and call it a day.

[Spoonsky]

The top 10 seemed pretty good, but Harry Kane thirty points ahead of Jamie Vardy is having a laugh. Mahrez should be far higher as well.

[Giggles]

Kane is in it at all? :D

[Spoonsky]

Kane is in it at all? :D

Squeezed right between Sergio Ramos and Angel di Maria.

[Giggles]

The Guardian.

[Reg]

The surprising thing for me is that Messi only got 74% (http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/dec/24/lionel-messi-best-world-return-form-ronaldo?CMP=share_btn_tw) of the number 1 votes. He's clearly the world's best in my opinion.

The Totti position will have been given a huge bump by that rogue voter that Jim mentioned, but it's still ridiculous. I'm a big fan but nowadays he shouldn't be in the top 500.

Who are the Italians at the Guardian? I can only think of Paolo Bandini.

[CJay]

I find it rather bizarre that they continue to do this. It obviously generates a bit of discussion (mostly laughter), but is there really an appetite for this sort of thing every year? Who honestly cares if some journalists think Kane is the 40th best player in the world, or that Rooney still deserves his place in the top 5000? I can understand putting it in a magazines that teenagers and kids will read - it's the sort of thing they like - but the type of people who read the Guardian surely don't give a toss.

[Kikó]

Let's be honest you can probably rank loosely 10-20 players before you start chucking in random fucks who you remembered because you had sky sports news on. 100 is going to throw out daft players.

[phonics]

Journos picked 40 players by November 1st if you wanted to know how the list was made.

[Reg]

Yep, unless you're a coach or something it's gonna be very difficult to say if the 80th best player is better than the 65th or whatever. (Edit: just read the above, but yeah.)

I quite like skimming things like this and picking the odd player to read about.

[-james-]

Journos picked 40 players by November 1st if you wanted to know how the list was made.

And Jamie Vardy has made the top 70?

That's fucking bizarre. It about made sense given the "hype" over the last month but I'm baffled now.

[mugbull]

You guys aren't being consistent. Messi is the world's best player, yes, but if we're doing it on his 2015 form he's not in the top 10 - he's scored 5 in 10 in La Liga this season. So, obviously, it shouldn't be done solely on 2015 form. But in that case, if we're ranking based on 2015 as well as the last few seasons, Rooney, Hazard, and co still absolutely deserve places in the list, and Hazard deserves a fairly high spot. Yet you guys are deriding the editors for choosing them? Calm the fuck down, this list isn't that bad (as far as lists go).

[Reg]

It is judged on 2015 as a calendar year performance.

[mugbull]

I don't think so, it's World's 100 Best Footballers for 2015, which is a simply a list of the best footballers that uodates every year. Judging based solely on calendar year form won't ever give an accurate depiction of the best footballers.

[Pepe]

Pele for #1.

[John]

Fuck off with the pointless trolling, Mokkers.

[Reg]

Here-


our panel of 123 judges from 49 countries cast their votes in a secret ballot, taking into account only form and achievements over the last year.

[mugbull]

Fuck off with the pointless trolling, Mokkers.

Chill out. Messi's barely played this season. That has to count for something, regardless of how insane his end to last season was.

In any case i think it's pretty dumb to limit it to January 1 - Dec 31 solely. It should be weighted towards 2015, sure, but you can't ignore someone's CV entirely

[mugbull]

Here-

Ok, fair. I think that's the biggest issue with the poll, then

[Clunge]

Auba 27th :D.