The 200 best players in the world: New order

Time for some new order:




The 200-151 revisited:

200: Theo Walcott - Arsenal - England
199: Lorik Cana - Sunderland - Albania
198: Sergei Semak - Rubin Kazan - Russia
197: Ezequiel Lavezzi - Napoli - Argentina
196: Carlton Cole - West Ham - England
195: Diego Capel - Sevilla - Spain
194: Shaun Wright Phillips - Manchester City - England
193: Cristian Zapata - Udinese - Colombia
192: Kolo Toure - Manchester City -Côte d'Ivoire
191: Tranquillo Barnetta - Bayer Leverkusen - Switzerland
190: Stiliyan Petrov - Aston Villa - Bulgaria
189 Alberto Zapater - Genoa - Spain
188: Anatolij Tymoshchuk - Bayern München - Ukraine
187: Nikola Zigic - Valencia - Serbia
186: Mauro Zarate - Lazio - Argentina
185: Yossi Benayoun - Liverpool - Israel
184: Alberto Aquilani - Liverpool - Italy
183: Amauri - Juventus - Brazil
182: William Gallas - Arsenal - France
181: Craig Bellamy - Manchester City - Wales
180: John Obi Mikel - Chelsea - Nigeria
179: Bojan Krkic - Barcelona - Spain
178: Martin Demichelis - Bayern Munich - Argentina
177: Daniel Agger - Liverpool - Denmark
176: Yuri Zhirkov - Chelsea - Russia
175: Tim Cahill - Everton - Australia
174: Clarence Seedorf - Milan - Holland
173: Alessandro Nesta -Milan-Italy
172: Luca Cigarini - Napoli - Italy
171: Philippe Mexes - Roma -France
170: Lucio - Inter - Brazil
169: Walter Samuel - Inter - Argentina
168: Darijo Srna - Shakhtar Donetsk - Croatia
167: Bruno Alves - FC Porto - Portugal
166: Diego Lugano - Fenerbahce - Uruguay
165: Simon Kjaer - Palermo - Denmark
164: Paul Scholes - Manchester United - England
163: Felipe Melo - Juventus - Brazil
162: Riccardo Montolivo - Fiorentina - Italy
161: Pavel Pogrebnyak - VBF Stuttgart - Russia
160: Klaas Jan Huntelaar - AC Milan - The Netherlands
159: Ronaldinho - AC Milan - Brazil
158: Lukas Podolski - FC Köln - Germany
157: Dirk Kuyt - Liverpool - The Netherlands
156: Aly Cissokho - Lyon -France
155: Sebastian Giovinco - Juventus - Italy
154: Aaron Ramsey - Arsenal - Wales
153: Arda Turan - Galatasaray - Turkey
152: Pepe - Real Madrid - Portugal
151: Sergio Busquets - Barcelona - Spain
150: Pedro - Barcelona - Spain
149: Sergio Ramos - Real Madrid - Spain
148: Marouane Fellaini - Everton - Belgium

Now I didn't waste too much time on this but I did feel like at least I had to put some kind of improvement of the order out there. As these things go some people were too high and other people way too low. But as new players I felt like had to be on the list kept surfacing the more messed up the lower part of the list became. This at least makes good on that somewhat.

It's obviously still close between a bunch of people and on another day it would look different. The highest ranked people on this "new order" would probably still squeeze ahead of quite a few people still to come and players like Sergio Ramos (as feared) and especially the Barcelona boys Pedro/Busquets (as specialist as it has become clear they are) and Fellaini like I've already mentioned several times, should (now) have been ranked way higher.

When I finally do get to a player I feel Fellaini shouldn't have been ranked ahead of I'll try to remember and mention it!

Anyway on to doing more write ups. Working on them as we speak and there should be another update some time tomorrow.

The 200 best players in the world: 143 - 139

No marathon writeups in this update and I'm just itching to get to the top 100. I can feel it!


The list:

200-195
200: Alberto Zapater - Genoa - Spain
199: Nikola Zigic - Valencia - Serbia
198: Sergio Ramos - Real Madrid - Spain
197: Lucio - Inter - Brazil
196: John Obi Mikel - Chelsea - Nigeria
195: Sergio Busquets - Barcelona - Spain
194-193
194: Philippe Mexes - Roma -France
193: Anatolij Tymoshchuk - Bayern München - Ukraine
192-189
192: Theo Walcott - Arsenal - England
191: Aaron Ramsey - Arsenal - Wales
190: Pepe - Real Madrid - Portugal
189: Sergei Semak - Rubin Kazan - Russia
188
188: Alberto Aquilani - Liverpool - Italy
187-185
187: Clarence Seedorf - Milan - Holland
186: Diego Capel - Sevilla - Spain
185: Yossi Benayoun - Liverpool - Israel
184-182
184: Riccardo Montolivo - Fiorentina - Italy
183: Kolo Toure - Manchester City -Côte d'Ivoire
182: Yuri Zhirkov - Chelsea - Russia
181-177
181: Martin Demichelis - Bayern Munich - Argentina
180: Marouane Fellaini - Everton - Belgium
179: Cristian Zapata - Udinese - Colombia
178: Tim Cahill - Everton - Australia
177: Paul Scholes - Manchester United - England
176-173
176: Arda Turan - Galatasaray - Turkey
175: Ezequiel Lavezzi - Napoli - Argentina
174: Klaas Jan Huntelaar - AC Milan - The Netherlands
173-170
173: William Gallas - Arsenal - France
172: Shaun Wright Phillips - Manchester City - England
171: Pavel Pogrebnyak - VBF Stuttgart - Russia
170: Darijo Srna - Shakhtar Donetsk - Croatia
169-167
169: Bojan Krkic and Pedro - Barcelona - Spain
168: Ronaldinho - AC Milan - Brazil
167: Tranquillo Barnetta - Bayer Leverkusen - Switzerland
166-163
166: Stiliyan Petrov - Aston Villa - Bulgaria
165: Amauri - Juventus - Brazil
164: Dirk Kuyt - Liverpool - The Netherlands
163: Bruno Alves - FC Porto - Portugal
162-160
162: Lorik Cana - Sunderland - Albania
161: Carlton Cole - West Ham - England
160: Lukas Podolski - FC Köln - Germany
159-155
159: Felipe Melo - Juventus - Brazil
158: Craig Bellamy - Manchester City - Wales
157: Simon Kjaer and Daniel Agger - Palermo and Liverpool - Denmark
156: Alessandro Nesta -Milan-Italy
155: Aly Cissokho - Lyon -France
154-152
154: Walter Samuel - Inter - Argentina
153: Diego Lugano - Fenerbahce - Uruguay
152: Mauro Zarate - Lazio - Argentina
151-148
151: Sebastian Giovinco - Juventus and Luca Cigarini - Napoli - Italy
150: Taye Taiwo - Marseille - Nigeria, Rod Fanni - Rennes and Benoit Tremoulinas - Bordeaux - France
149: Domenico Criscito - Genoa - Italy
148: Fernando Llorente - Atletic Bilbao - Spain
147-144
147: Juan Roman Riquelme, Juan Sebastian Veron, Lucho Gonzalez, Pablo Aimar and Javier Pastore - Argentina
146: Alexis Sanchez - Udinese - Chile
145: Tom Huddlestone - Tottenham - England
144: Gerard Pique - Barcelona - Spain


143:

Hey it's the Portuguese central midfielder special:

Miguel Veloso



and

Joao Moutinho

both Sporting Lissabon - Midfield



+

Raul Meireles

also central midfielder but FC Porto



Because I almost never get to see football from Portugal, these are definitely not the three players I'm most qualified to talk about, so if there are any fans or experts on Portuguese football reading, your views on these players would be very welcome.
Just please no talk of Javi Garcia or other central midfielders from Liga Sagres that I haven't seen much being much better or much more deserving. Spare me!

Anyway, from seeing these three over the years I'm of course confident that they're very good. I'm also aware that they're generally regarded as such.

In some ways even though there are quite a few differences in what they offer I think they all battle for central midfield playing time on the national team as well.

On the defensive side of things Meireles unquestionably is the number one. He has successfully operated the FC Porto defensive midfield for years now and he also looks to be Portugal's first choice in that position come World Cup time with most of the previous rivals for that spot getting too old.

One that could have been a rival is actually Miguel Veloso but from what I understand he never really became quite good enough defensively. What Meireles and him do have in common though is their excellent range of passing.

I'm kinda guessing here but it could be that Veloso because of Moutinho so far in their careers being the more attacking midfielder type of the two has used a lot of time playing the deeper midfield role where his range of passing was really useful, while Moutinho kind of like a Deco excels in the short passing game where both his movement and technique are really good.

Technically Veloso is very good as well and has nice ball control. He is also very good on set pieces and likes to move himself in position to cross the ball as well.

He has been connected with a number of big clubs and it would be really interesting to see if he is good enough to hold a defensive midfield role in a stronger league. I think if he was to move to England we would see what perhaps is already taking place this season at Sporting, a more attacking role for Veloso with less defensive responsibility, and a good chance for him to really put his considerable skills to use in the final third.

On the other hand if he was to move to Italy I could definitely see him in a deep-lying play-maker role with defensive positioning as part of the job description but also with protection from more outright defensive midfielders doing a lot of the dirty work, moreso than perhaps in Portugal, he could then really focus on being a play-maker.

Moutinho other than being a skilled attacking midfielder also has good work rate and teamwork and just like with Veloso it would be really interesting to see what kind of success (or failure) he would have in one of the strongest leagues.

142:

Bacary Sagna

Arsenal

Right back - France



Sagna rivals any fullback on this list defensively where he is as good as it gets.

He is both fast and strong enough + a good tackler to make him very hard to beat one on one and he also consistently helps out the central defenders. For an attacking team like Arsenal his defensive contributions (yes he is another one of those defenders who I would say has a great range of command) are invaluable.

It's when we start talking about going forward that we get to what's stopping him from climbing a lot higher. On the one hand his fantastic stamina makes sure that he is always there as a passing option on the right and I think that he has a decent, perhaps improved, cross too. But unlike a lot of fullbacks on this list he doesn't really become a weapon offensively. Like get into positions where his crosses could become really dangerous or make piercing runs into the penalty area.

Of course it could just be if that were to happen, Arsenal would be left with only 2 or 3 people defending and with plenty of attacking talent coming from other places, what they need most of all is an excellent defender, and in Sagna they certainly got that.

In some games though with fullbacks generally becoming such an important part of the attacking game they really could use more of an attacking contribution from out there as well.

Especially if a lot of the attacking players have their main strengths central, and I do think that's why (and I know resting plays in as well) we've seen someone very attack minded like Eboue recently (at the time of writing) get starts at right-back against certain park-the-bus type of opponents.

141:

Eljero Elia

Hamburger SV

Winger/Forward - Netherlands



Elia was named Dutch football talent of the year in 2009 and with some terrific performances for his new club Hamburg, both scoring and assisting goals, he has perhaps already established himself as one of the most exciting attacking players in the world.

He has also been rewarded with call ups to the national team and looks likely to go to the World Cup, where he might even end up starring since of course the likes of Arjen Robben and Robbie Van Persie both have quite the history of injuries.

In playing style you could say that Elia is quite similar to Robben. He has great acceleration, pace and dribbling ability and though definitely not on the nearly unstoppable level that Robben can take those things to, I have noticed at least one thing I like more in Elia's game than Robben's, a nice unselfishness that's resulting sometimes in some really nice passes basically anywhere on the pitch, including central in tight space, which I think is a very good sign. There is definitely creativity in Elia's game which makes you wonder just how good he is on the brink of becoming. Or already is.

As far as weaknesses go other than the obvious defensive ones where he doesn't offer much at all, I would say he could become a lot stronger and get even better balance. Someone like Robben for an example is crazy strong which I'm not sure a lot of people notice and can be almost unmovable unless you foul him.

Talent wise it could be argued that Elia should be even higher. But of course as far as him really proving he is an excellent player it could be argued he should be lower.

I've definitely seen too many good things from him to fear that his limit is say Ryan Babel but I'm also a little hesitant in elevating someone to the top 100 when outside of the relative weak Eredivisie, he doesn't have a full Bundesliga season under his belt yet.

140:

Marko Marin

Werder Bremen

Winger - Germany



Hey it's the German Giovinco, kind of, except of course little Marko plays all the time for his club team and is on the national team as well :(

At only 168 cm (5'6) Marin is quick and extremely agile and his quick turns with the ball using his good control can be a nightmare for defenders. There is no doubt especially when coming from the wing that Marin is one of the best dribblers on the list and if in transition he maintains very good speed running with the ball.

One thing I'm not sure of yet regarding him is his general passing skills. Obviously he is not bad but for an example when it comes to crossing his dribbling and pace can bring him so far into enemy territory that more so than just electing to cross the ball it often ends up in combinations with teammates in and around the area.

His energy over 90 minutes is also very impressive and something that has perhaps improved this season where he sees less substitutions.

Again the weaknesses are pretty obvious. He is very small and though strength will likely still improve he can't be expected to be much of a presence defensively.

139:

Giuseppe Rossi

Villarreal

Forward - Italy



American born Rossi is a very skilled player who not long ago I would have ranked higher, but he's been struggling a bit this season which is perhaps his first bad one in his still young career.

He is a player with excellent technique in most areas. Very good ball control, at times exquisite passing and he has a great shot.

The negatives I think are that he has shown himself pretty limited to a role of second striker.

As a wide forward his effectiveness is too reduced to being around the penalty area, he offers almost nothing further back, and as a main striker he lacks power and maybe some pace plus work rate to really be a serious goalscoring threat without a partner that he can cooperate closely with through his great technique.

Without the ball he has never quite become good enough and often falls through on the work that's needed in both of these positions, if we're talking highest level.

Where he is excellent though is in the middle of where things happen in the final third, preferable in a functioning possession game (that could easily be the problem for Villarreal where the standard has really fallen) where he'll get lots of touches. The more the merrier. Then good things happen and even without much space at all he has great ability to be effective whether it's a great pass, shot or dribble.

If you look at ability alone he has a very good case for the World Cup. Even if it's close between several players. Not long ago he was certain. But his limitations tactically and a possible Italy comeback from Francesco Totti, who still does most things just a little bit better than Rossi, could easily prevent it.

The 200 best players in the world: 148 - 144

Another update featuring not least 5 Argentinians sharing one ranking, and no that won't happen again.

There will be a couple of more spots shared by two players and then in the top 100 it's all one player per spot. I swear!

That five player shared spot took quite a bit of time to write and it also includes all kind of talks about Argentina and Messi, so the following writeups are a little shorter.

I've also decided that either when the list is done or maybe when I get to 100, to fix the 200-144 order. For reasons already touched upon, and perhaps already predicted back in the introduction, the lower ranked order has become pretty messed up.

The list so far:

200-195
200: Alberto Zapater - Genoa - Spain
199: Nikola Zigic - Valencia - Serbia
198: Sergio Ramos - Real Madrid - Spain
197: Lucio - Inter - Brazil
196: John Obi Mikel - Chelsea - Nigeria
195: Sergio Busquets - Barcelona - Spain
194-193
194: Philippe Mexes - Roma -France
193: Anatolij Tymoshchuk - Bayern München - Ukraine
192-189
192: Theo Walcott - Arsenal - England
191: Aaron Ramsey - Arsenal - Wales
190: Pepe - Real Madrid - Portugal
189: Sergei Semak - Rubin Kazan - Russia
188
188: Alberto Aquilani - Liverpool - Italy
187-185
187: Clarence Seedorf - Milan - Holland
186: Diego Capel - Sevilla - Spain
185: Yossi Benayoun - Liverpool - Israel
184-182
184: Riccardo Montolivo - Fiorentina - Italy
183: Kolo Toure - Manchester City -Côte d'Ivoire
182: Yuri Zhirkov - Chelsea - Russia
181-177
181: Martin Demichelis - Bayern Munich - Argentina
180: Marouane Fellaini - Everton - Belgium
179: Cristian Zapata - Udinese - Colombia
178: Tim Cahill - Everton - Australia
177: Paul Scholes - Manchester United - England
176-173
176: Arda Turan - Galatasaray - Turkey
175: Ezequiel Lavezzi - Napoli - Argentina
174: Klaas Jan Huntelaar - AC Milan - The Netherlands
173-170
173: William Gallas - Arsenal - France
172: Shaun Wright Phillips - Manchester City - England
171: Pavel Pogrebnyak - VBF Stuttgart - Russia
170: Darijo Srna - Shakhtar Donetsk - Croatia
169-167
169: Bojan Krkic and Pedro - Barcelona - Spain
168: Ronaldinho - AC Milan - Brazil
167: Tranquillo Barnetta - Bayer Leverkusen - Switzerland
166-163
166: Stiliyan Petrov - Aston Villa - Bulgaria
165: Amauri - Juventus - Brazil
164: Dirk Kuyt - Liverpool - The Netherlands
163: Bruno Alves - FC Porto - Portugal
162-160
162: Lorik Cana - Sunderland - Albania
161: Carlton Cole - West Ham - England
160: Lukas Podolski - FC Köln - Germany
159-155
159: Felipe Melo - Juventus - Brazil
158: Craig Bellamy - Manchester City - Wales
157: Simon Kjaer and Daniel Agger - Palermo and Liverpool - Denmark
156: Alessandro Nesta -Milan-Italy
155: Aly Cissokho - Lyon -France
154-152
154: Walter Samuel - Inter - Argentina
153: Diego Lugano - Fenerbahce - Uruguay
152: Mauro Zarate - Lazio - Argentina
151-148
151: Sebastian Giovinco - Juventus and Luca Cigarini - Napoli - Italy
150: Taye Taiwo - Marseille - Nigeria, Rod Fanni - Rennes and Benoit Tremoulinas - Bordeaux - France
149: Domenico Criscito - Genoa - Italy
148: Fernando Llorente - Atletic Bilbao - Spain


147:

A bunch of veteran Argentinian playmakers + a young one.

Juan Roman Riquelme - Boca Juniors



Juan Sebastian Veron - Estudiantes

and

Pablo Aimar - Benfica




Lucho Gonzalez - Marseille


Filming, not Aimar and Veron, but someone's finger!

And finally the kid

Javier Pastore - Palermo



Riquelme and Lucho have been on the list all along. Then one after another (of the others) entered the picture and I had to stop when I suddenly found myself researching "El Burrito" Ariel Ortega as well! Who I haven't seen play in years and these days apparently have alcohol rehab clauses in his contracts...

The biggest reach of this group could be Juan Sebastian Veron and incidentally he is the only one likely to play for Argentina at the World Cup.

When I first saw that he was an integral part of Diego Maradona's Argentina at 35 years of age I had a difficult time seeing any positives and I'm still very skeptic thinking it's a huge step backwards when considering the superior Argentinians out there, players who are still to come on this list, but to be fair to Veron he is actually playing pretty well.
Likely he is still too high on this list though and something of a reach but when I felt Pablo Aimar had to be included Veron just had to come along too. Otherwise he would feel left out!


As I remember it, back in the day for Sampdoria, his first club in Europe, Veron was quite the attacking midfielder and very dynamic one at that (completely unlike now) making great forward runs and looking very strong while doing it. I remember one of the very first descriptions I read of him in an old Goal magazine was that this guy was like a powerful race track horse with all his running.
Behind that description must have been tireless Serie A fan Kristian Borrel who was the only worthwhile thing about it in and who I just want to add on a further sidenote I will always be grateful to for his massive Serie A previews where he went through the defense, midfield, attack and coaching on every single team. I definitely didn't agree with everything but it was rare (and still is in a language I can understand anyway) to see something so thorough that also offered opinion and ambitiously tried to analyze tactics,coaches and players.

Anyway those early Veron impressions didn't really offer much of a glimpse of any great passing or playmaking coming coming from him but it's possible Sampdoria at the time played very direct mostly counter attacking and that's the reason the game he since became so known for got masqueraded.
Interestingly I think to a lesser extent it could be argued that there were similar circumstances at play years later when he was seen as something of a flop at Manchester United.

At his next club Parma (where he was a key player in wining a back then very strong UEFA Cup. Sometimes arguably stronger than the Champions League) and certainly the following seasons at Eriksson's Lazio (where he was perhaps THE key player in winning the Scudetto) and for the national team at the same period, was where we saw the "real" Veron.
A player with a very good work-rate who was a great distributor in midfield.

I think the best description I can come up with of my impression of him at the time was that due to his running he was always in good position to get the ball and when he got it he would always make some kind of good pass. I think if you compare him to prime Riquelme or Pablo Aimar it wasn't as much in the final third where he would consistently create or dictate, that's what Manchester United was looking for him to do and he could do that some but not enough at a high enough level like those other two and definitely not dribbling at great speed like Pablo Aimar, or anything like that, but conducting possession in midfield, the longer the possession (and from deeper) the better almost, that's where he would excel.

Now when I see him, though he has slowed down some, I still see decent work rate and movement making sure he is an passing option and the passing skills and ball control is obviously still there.
There is just less pace, and there wasn't even that much to begin with, and generally his play just isn't very dynamic. Maybe that wouldn't be a problem if he was still playing from deep in midfield and just covering ground there but from what I've seen his current role for Argentina is very much as an attacking midfielder and he just isn't much of a threat there at all, himself, when space is tight.
I think it's great in theory that whoever the skill players for Argentina will be up front (of the many still to come on this list only Messi is certain) can have Veron as an ever present wall almost that they can play against and have the ball bounce back, but it does leave them with huge responsibility to make great runs and create almost any dynamic themselves.

Apparently in South America these days Veron does a lot more. He's been South American player of the year twice while in his 30s and I can see he has a pretty good goal scoring record for his club team, but from what I've seen so far on the national team there isn't much more than solid passing coming from him.
No decisive passes or runs in narrow space and I'm not sure that's enough from an attacking central midfielder for a wannabe World Cup contender.

Not helping is that Messi for Maradona's Argentina is more of a second striker operating centrally than he is for Barcelona, paradoxically resulting in fewer goals. For Barcelona Messi has space to create on his own. There are two more forwards and there are dynamic midfielders. For Argentina the midfielder is non dynamic Veron and there is only one more forward. Instead there are a couple of wingers, one of those Di Maria on the left could be a good forward in 3-forward line but on the right (English first division star!) Jonas Gutierrez spends way too much time occupying the space Messi could fill so much better.
Basically the less Messi finds himself playing with his back to the goal, the better. It's when he is facing the goal that virtually anything is possible! Taking away any amount of time Messi is facing the opposition goal just can't be a good thing.
20 something years ago similar was the case with Maradona himself, now here he is messing Messi up, WHY?


Unlike Veron, one that was always very dynamic, and I'm largely guessing still is (or he wouldn't be on the list) is Pablo Aimar.
In his heyday he was the important creative spark for Rafa Benitez Valencia side that won two La Liga titles and the Uefa Cup.

Then darker times followed struggling with fitness but he still had at least one season for Zaragoza where together with compatriots Diego Milito and Andres D'Alessandro under the attacking guidance of Victor Sanchez, where he once again was spellbinding.

Still only 30 a lot of indications suggest that Aimar is having one of those spells or close to it at least once again (but sadly maybe for the last time so this is kinda a reward) at Benfica, this time with players such as Di Maria, Ramirez and Saviola, who currently are showing some of the best attacking football in Europe.

With his great speed and ball control even in the tightest of spaces Aimar is exactly the kind of player who can make such an attack click.

As far as more traditional playmaking ability goes when it comes to passing he is different than Riquelme and Veron, in that he has so much better acceleration and is such a dribbling threat, that his passing is mostly short and direct in quick combination attempts with others meant to take advantage of just that.

His obvious weaknesses are everything physical. At similar height Messi for an example is a powerhouse compared to Aimar.

That's not a problem that Lucho Gonzalez has. He is probably the least talented of these Argentinian playmakers. So much so that you could say when comparing him directly to them actually calling him a playmaker is a stretch.

He can't be the flashy spark that is Pablo Aimar at his best or control a team like Riquelme or Veron, but he is more of a complete player who is a very good attacking midfielder.
He has good technical ability including great passing skills plus the very good work rate (that puts the others to shame) and pace that makes him a threat without the ball making runs coming from behind. He also has a really good shot.

This season is his first at Marseille and with probably more defensive duties than what he was used to at Porto where he was El Comandante leading them to league glory, it's not like he has taken everyone at Stade Velodrome by storm through (the perhaps anticipated) attacking contributions, but unlike the others where if that didn't happen they wouldn't have much value at all, with Lucho Gonzalez you still get a really good team player.

Joining these veterans is 20 year old Javier Pastore . He is the rare extremely talented Argentinian player who IS NOT getting the new Maradona tag thrown at him or even the latest disturbing trend, the new Messi tag. No instead, and I'm not really sure if it's any better, Pastore is often referred to as the new Kaka!

They're similar in build and one can hope it's only a matter of time before Pastore starts using that better and adds more physical elements to his play. The potential is certainly there and there really is no reason to play like you're 170 when you're actually just short of 190!

More good news for Pastore is that when it comes to passing and general creativity he is actually showing things that Kaka mostly doesn't have in his game.
From standing still positions he can actually make plays and shows many signs of good vision.

Standing still is also a problem though. To become a great player he needs more tempo in his game and has to make better runs both with and without the ball. He will probably never be the fastest of guys and it's not realistic to expect that he can somehow add the burst of speed that a big guy like Kaka somehow has (or had uh oh) but simply by becoming stronger and get better balance, I think could do wonders if added to his extraordinary technical skills.

In many ways it's extremely impressive what he can do standing still while under pressure and again it's the size/skill combination that does it but it's when he hopefully starts doing it more while on the move that he'll become a great player.

He was actually called up for Argentina's recent friendly against Germany but didn't get to debut and isn't likely to go to the World Cup either. Nor do I think he should but with Maradona you just never know.

Last but not least we have Boca Juniors legend Juan Roman Riquelme.

They really don't make them like Riquelme anymore. He is an old school passing maestro number 10 80s style who doesn't do anything when his (and in Riquelme's case I really do mean HIS) team isn't in possession and when they have the ball lots of the play will go through him and his impulses on the given day.

He's been back in Argentina for a few years now and it's a long time since I've seen him play so I really don't know what his level is currently. It's possible he should be even higher and it's possible he should be much lower.

What I do know is that his game relies less on athleticism than almost anyone and even if he's declined in those areas it's not the greatest loss.

I do think it's important that he at least has a work rate meaning good movement when his team is in possession.
When at his best for Villarreal that added a good goalscoring dimension to his game. It wasn't just awesome free kicks and penalties and before their fallout he was like a fish in water (not just making it better) but benefiting from Pelligrini's flexible possession system.

Riquelme is pretty slow, lazy and not strong at all. But he is a superb technician with great passing skills and radar vision to go with it making him one of the best playmakers of his generation and in many ways the last one of his special kind standing.
He was never willing to make any tactical sacrifices, change his role or playing style or try to improve even to fit in with how the game has been changing. A unique player.

146:

Alexis Sanchez - Udinese

Winger - Forward

Chile


Sanchez despite great displays here and there hasn't really made his mark just yet in Serie A. Partly due to injuries and partly having to adjust. In South America though, even at only 21, he has already been a sensation and star for quite few years, and could if things go well for Chile become one of the stars at the World Cup.

It's for Chile you really see the best of him and occupying the right wing where he fits right into coach Bielsa's tactics.
With his explosiveness (few are faster on the first meters) and skill (in Sanchez case cannonball of a player is a very fitting description) he is a constant threat going forward in their fast paced passing game and through his strength and great energy he is a very needed weapon defensively in a pressing game so high up the pitch, featuring tons of individual defending, that it can sometimes look like full court pressure in basketball!

It's possible that's something that will get punished at the World Cup but it's definitely fun to watch and so different from what you usually see in Europe. Perhaps especially from national teams not as fine tuned (very needed to even attempt this I think) as club teams.

Sanchez playing for Chile is one of the things I'm most looking forward to at the World Cup and hopefully in Serie A as well next season Udinese will have a better platform for Sanchez to really take the league by storm like he's so been threatening to do for a while.

145:

Tom Huddlestone - Tottenham

Midfielder

England



Huddlestone is someone who I didn't notice until this season and hopefully I'm not getting fooled in putting him on the list. My instinct actually says put him higher but I'm gonna show some restraint.

In short what I'm seeing is someone who can become a very good midfield general, if he isn't already. That is an extremely valuable thing to have in your possession if you're a football team.

Huddlestone is very strong physically and his passing, especially if you were to hand out style points, is nothing short of majestic.

With Huddlestone and Jack Rodwell for Everton (not slow like Huddlestone and who I would also have liked to include but he just hasn't played enough yet) the England central midfielders still to come on the list face serious competition very soon.

144:

Gerard Pique - Barcelona

Defender

Spain



Ranking the Barcelona defenders is pretty hard. The team concedes fewer goals than anyone but most of that of course is through the (ball!) control they have of almost every single match they play.

Their defenders don't even have that much defending to do, or at least less than everyone else, and when you finally do see them actually defend it can easily be them struggling to defend with most of the team caught forward. Or themselves since they push up so high.
As much as that can make them look worse than they actually are, the superb defensive record on paper on the other hand can make them look better.

Pique is big and strong with superb technique, good passing is a must for a Barcelona defender of course.
I think he is strong man to man, with still a little way to go positionally, and good health and lack of blunders (+ in some ways starting for both the best club and national team in the world) is what seals the deal in making him the top ranked central defender so far!

The 200 best players in the world: 151-148

The 200-150 rankings saw so many changes and running adjustment that looking at it now some of the order almost hurts my eyes...

To take it from the start, Sergio Ramos and Sergio Busquets are the first couple of players I did injustice.

Ramos and the various reasons for and against I already discussed at length in his write up but the combination of perhaps exaggerating against a little bit too much and simply comparing him to later entries, means I think, that he absolutely should be higher. Maybe even somewhere in this entry ranked say 148.

Busquets despite the occasional flashback to still not belonging at Barca level this season has such a good passing game and is decent enough defensively that he should also be higher. I would say around the 140 mark where we will see some players that he is comparable with.

Some of the central defenders also seem a little low but at least when it comes to those I don't really mind their internal order.

The most noteworthy jump any player would make though would be Marouane Fellaini.


Unfortunately right now he is injured which could hurt his ranking a little bit but before that he was so excellent that I would have him probably flirting with top 50 or 40.

Thankfully I don't see anyone else where I feel like I've made that big of a mistake but there are of course other players that I would like to move down some or up some.

Walcott, Wright Phillips, Lavezzi and Barnetta are too high. In Walcott's case I regret him making the list, even if my write up at least is pretty precise and to the point.
There are just too many flaws. In some ways he only ended up ranked cause I suddenly felt that I couldn't include the now sadly injured Aaron Ramsey and not the more proven Walcott, but then again I did do right and rank him behind Ramsey thankfully, so I should just have taken the full consequence of the holes in his arsenal and left him out entirely.

Srna is another one who should be a little higher. Pedro and Zhirkov quite a bit higher. Zhirkov around this entry and Pedro probably all the way up to the 120s where there are some comparable players.
At least with these two I have the excuse of them at the time of list-making either just not playing enough or uncertainty, in Pedro's case, if he was really good enough to continue to play. Quite a bit of that uncertainty is now gone therefore Pedro especially should be higher.

Anyway the list so far:

200-195
200: Alberto Zapater - Genoa - Spain
199: Nikola Zigic - Valencia - Serbia
198: Sergio Ramos - Real Madrid - Spain
197: Lucio - Inter - Brazil
196: John Obi Mikel - Chelsea - Nigeria
195: Sergio Busquets - Barcelona - Spain
194-193
194: Philippe Mexes - Roma -France
193: Anatolij Tymoshchuk - Bayern München - Ukraine
192-189
192: Theo Walcott - Arsenal - England
191: Aaron Ramsey - Arsenal - Wales
190: Pepe - Real Madrid - Portugal
189: Sergei Semak - Rubin Kazan - Russia
188
188: Alberto Aquilani - Liverpool - Italy
187-185
187: Clarence Seedorf - Milan - Holland
186: Diego Capel - Sevilla - Spain
185: Yossi Benayoun - Liverpool - Israel
184-182
184: Riccardo Montolivo - Fiorentina - Italy
183: Kolo Toure - Manchester City -Côte d'Ivoire
182: Yuri Zhirkov - Chelsea - Russia
181-177
181: Martin Demichelis - Bayern Munich - Argentina
180: Marouane Fellaini - Everton - Belgium
179: Cristian Zapata - Udinese - Colombia
178: Tim Cahill - Everton - Australia
177: Paul Scholes - Manchester United - England
176-173
176: Arda Turan - Galatasaray - Turkey
175: Ezequiel Lavezzi - Napoli - Argentina
174: Klaas Jan Huntelaar - AC Milan - The Netherlands
173-170
173: William Gallas - Arsenal - France
172: Shaun Wright Phillips - Manchester City - England
171: Pavel Pogrebnyak - VBF Stuttgart - Russia
170: Darijo Srna - Shakhtar Donetsk - Croatia
169-167
169: Bojan Krkic and Pedro - Barcelona - Spain
168: Ronaldinho - AC Milan - Brazil
167: Tranquillo Barnetta - Bayer Leverkusen - Switzerland
166-163
166: Stiliyan Petrov - Aston Villa - Bulgaria
165: Amauri - Juventus - Brazil
164: Dirk Kuyt - Liverpool - The Netherlands
163: Bruno Alves - FC Porto - Portugal
162-160
162: Lorik Cana - Sunderland - Albania
161: Carlton Cole - West Ham - England
160: Lukas Podolski - FC Köln - Germany
159-155
159: Felipe Melo - Juventus - Brazil
158: Craig Bellamy - Manchester City - Wales
157: Simon Kjaer and Daniel Agger - Palermo and Liverpool - Denmark
156: Alessandro Nesta -Milan-Italy
155: Aly Cissokho - Lyon -France
154-152
154: Walter Samuel - Inter - Argentina
153: Diego Lugano - Fenerbahce - Uruguay
152: Mauro Zarate - Lazio - Argentina

151:

Sebastian Giovinco

Juventus - Attacking midfielder

Italy



and

Luca Cigarini

Napoli - Midfielder

Italy



Two of Italy's best young players also have two very fitting nicknames, Giovinco is the "Atomic Ant" and Cigarini's team-mates at Napoli these days refer to him as the "Beautiful Mind".
Previous Cigarini nicknames include Toscanini and the Professor!

Those nicknames imply quite a difference between the two and more about those differences later, but first of all let us get out of the way the one thing they unfortunately have in common: limited playing time.

Giovinco especially is seeing so little that against all instincts I almost removed him entirely and Cigarini isn't an every single day starter either.

There are many reasons for that, tactical and so on, but the main one and the only one having to do with these two not being good enough (yet?), are excellent teammates who just happens to also be players who will either be significantly higher ranked or in some cases even be among the top ranked on this list, excellent players playing similar positions.

For Giovinco there is even added hindrance in that even if he is arguably better than another certain someone competing at his position, that certain someone just happens to be much loved club legend and team captain Alessandro Del Piero.
Tough obstacles for a young player who in person actually looks even tinier than his official 164cm (5 ft 4+¹⁄₂) measurement.

But they're just too skilled to be left out I feel. So skilled I think, that they'd be fully ready to step in and likely become key players and major stars on a lot of other teams. Not just in Serie A but they're a couple players I could easily see instantly become major stars and key contributors for various La Liga or Bundesliga teams.

Beautiful mind/Toscanini Luca Cigarini is something of a midfield passing maestro able to create and read the game. He is a technical wizard with vision and can make quality passes in midfield or in the final third, long or short. I don't even think he is below average defensively or anything. He has a good work rate, is rather disciplined when it comes to position (but maybe not enough) as well as being a decent tackler while obviously not being physically imposing or anything like that. But he is not your average fragile made out of porcelain genius playmaker.

I think that when he doesn't play for Napoli their attack can become a little too stereotypical and in Bergamo, Atalanta who cashed in on or him before this season, Cigarini is severely missed and one of the reasons I think that they look to be on their way down to Serie B.

As far as improving goes what comes to mind is his rather limited ability to create for himself and maybe lack of dictating the game even moreso through his passing. A lot of that is the style of play of the team though and so far Cigarini has only found himself on teams playing quite direct which considering his impressive range of passing isn't a bad thing anyway, but still it would be interesting to see him on team with more prolonged possession.

Giovinco is all about pace and dribbling. His low center of gravity, acceleration and great technique gives him an ability to go past defenders like very few others these days and I won't hesitate at all calling him one of very best at dribbling in the world!

The negative of course is his lack of strength which means once a good defender has physical contact the best Giovinco can often hope for is a freekick.

Another great quality is that the little fellow has dynamite feet. He has a very good quick release shot and deliver crosses full of impact.

Being perhaps the physically weakest player on this whole list there is a clear limit to what he can do defensively but I really am impressed with his workrate and last season I noticed when playing on the wing how he went from being almost literally nothing but air defensively, to a hardworking little ant often in good position defending his zone.

Things to improve could be his general passing game and decision making even it's already better than what the likes of comparable dribblers Zarate and Lavezzi are capable of.


150:

Taye Taiwo - Marseille

Nigeria



Rod Fanni - Rennes

France



and

Benoît Trémoulinas - Bordeaux

France



Fullbacks

And here we have a Ligue 1 fullback special. Taiwo and Tremoulinas operating on the left and Rod Fanni who plays on the right.

Taiwo has arguably been the best fullback in French football for a couple of seasons now. He is very athletic and in both defense and attack is a powerful presence that's a tough match-up for anyone.
He also has a very powerful shot that's quite the spectacle.

Tremoulinas doesn't have Taiwo's strength but has quick feet and mind as well as being skilled technically when going forward (good ball control and passing) where for French champions Bordeaux he has a very effective two-way, companionship almost, going on the left with Wendel.
It's just difficult to prevent one of them doing something useful like for an example Tremoulinas getting a quality cross in and if they're stopped it's often with a foul resulting in a dangerous set piece.
Tremoulinas impressively has a league leading 7 assists in Ligue 1 so far this season.

On the defensive front Bordeaux under Laurent Blanc's superb guidance is arguably the best organized team defensively in Europe and I haven't noticed any weak points coming from the way of Tremoulinas.
Man against man supposedly his lack of strength could get exposed, but if he is rarely caught out of position or on his heels, defending is a whole lot easier and I just haven't seen that a lot from him, if at all even. Something he also deserves credit for. He really does seem to consistently bring quality (finesse even) to attack and defense without missing much beat at all.

When defending, instead of raw strength, Tremoulinas uses great quickness, defensive instincts and discipline as his contributions to what's a great defensive team.

Rod Fanni unfortunately is a player I don't even know that much about or have a clear impression of simply because I haven't seen him play very often.

He is something of a last minute entry that I had originally decided against for the reasons above but when making this a shared placing between Taiwo and Tremoulinas I suddenly remembered Fanni who is a player I strongly suspect is around the same level.
That's of course a little weak but I don't like the idea of players at whatever position ranked somewhat high being very comparable in terms of ability and position to various players not even making the list. I want as a little as that as possible and by including Fanni I do believe there indeed is a little less...

Anyway from what I've seen of Fanni he is another guy who is very athletic and good technically, at least when it comes to ball control. I'm actually not sure about his general passing game.
He is currently the second choice right-back for France behind Arsenal's Bacary Sagna. Not bad!


149:

Domenico Criscito

Genoa - defender/midfielder

Italy




Maybe unfairly just ahead of the others mainly because of his versatility.

Based on the last part of the previous season where his club Genoa impressively finished 5th in Serie A with as many points as Fiorentina in 4th, as well as the start of this season where Genoa were pretty much my favorite team out of anyone to watch, I was ready to catapult Criscito much higher. He just looked very good.
Since then with Genoa being much more up and down and Criscito joining in on all that instability, I've had a really difficult time placing him.

Criscito is someone who is good at just about anything almost anywhere on a football pitch but not particular great at anything either. He can play positions in both defense and midfield. He has a great work rate currently in full flow as a left wingback/midfielder. He is a good marker and tackler. Passes the ball well and there is nothing wrong with his ball control or pace. There really is no weakness. And all of those attributes can be put to good use deep in his own half, in midfield or the final third.

The only complain I can come up with, other than nothing is excellent, would be lack of serious threat coming from him on attack. That's also the one thing that might still mean veteran Fabio Grosso might very well keep his left-back starting job for Italy a little while yet.
Pirlo making a deep pass to Grosso is still so much better than what Criscito has to offer. I thought I saw improvement from him there early in the season and was just about ready to have him in or around the top 100, it was after all the only part of his game I'd hesitate calling good, but unfortunately it's still the case that without and especially with the ball his runs just aren't up to the level of a lot of very good wide players who really do excel in that area.
It's a shame cause he is definitely a better overall player than someone like Grosso and other specialists at whatever, he just lacks specialties in his own game to really become special, so to speak!

Hopefully something will improve. I should note that shortly after I had been so impressed with his play, on the forward front as well, he did suffer an injury and missed some time, so who knows if that played in.

148:

Fernando Llorente

Athletic Bilbao - Striker

Spain




The tall target-men type of strikers almost have their own internal ranking going on this list and Llorente hereby is the highest entry so far.

He shares qualities with the others when it comes to strength and aerial ability but what makes him the current leader is that I think he has a little bit more acceleration and pace than the others ranked so far at least potentially making him more of a goal scorer able to better get in front of defenders compared to the other ranked big men.
Having said that I do suspect Zigic is be the best goalscorer of all the +190 cm guys (Huntelaar btw is 186) ranked so far, not cause he isn't the slowest out of everyone, he certainly is, just because potentially he is so dominant head and shoulders above virtually anyone, but of course Zigic just isn't playing much, which is a shame.

Technically someone like Pogrebnyak is even better than Llorente when it comes to passing and probably ball control but Llorente is good for his type of player. From the typical position of having his back to the goal he is even able to make good turns and get decent shots in. Better than those ranked so far. Also in his favor when comparing to some of the others is that at 25 years of age he has now been very consistent at a high level basically 3 years in a row now playing in a strong league.
And that with the substantial burden on his shoulders of leading the attack for all Basque Athletico Bilbao. He is also having maybe his best season, if he can keep it up he has an excellent case for a better placing, though I'm not sure if that's a symptom of him or the club improving. Some kind of combination of the two is the most likely I guess. Anyway, no matter what it's not a bad thing.

With 5 recent caps for Spain Llorente is a candidate for the World Cup but of course face very strong competition and will have quite a few Spanish strikers ranked ahead of him on this list. And then there is the absurd number of attacking midfield candidates likely tempting Spain coach Del Bosque to select one less striker.

What Llorente does have going for him though is that he does at least offer something different compared to the others but then again just how much of a need is there for that on current Spain? Probably not a whole lot but I do think it's possible at least that he could still steal the spot from the guy who also just happens to be the next (but ranked quite a few places higher) Spanish striker on this list. At least of those even in the picture (oops potential spoiler)! We shall see.

The 200 best players in the world: 154-152

This update has the final couple of South American central defenders to even make the list and then another South American to whom defending doesn't even exist. Or shouldn't exist perhaps.

Interestingly there aren't even that many central defenders left to come and I have the usual trouble seeing significant difference in quality when comparing them so the inevitable gaps between them occupied by other positions can look a little strange. At least to me!

So because it just looks better, this is how the central defender position has ranked so far (with not THAT many still to come):

1. Diego Lugano (write up below)
2. Walter Samuel (write up below)
3. Alessandro Nesta
4. Daniel Agger
5. Simon Kjaer
6. Bruno Alves
7. William Gallas
8. Christian Zapata
9. Martin Demichelis
10. Kolo Toure
11. Pepe
12. Lucio

There were some dubious bonus points for Demichelis cause of his versatility. Pepe if not for his injury probably would have to be higher. Possibly all the way up just behind Nesta and then Kjaer and Agger should be a little lower. Lucio also up some spots.


The actual list so far:

200-195
200: Alberto Zapater - Genoa - Spain
199: Nikola Zigic - Valencia - Serbia
198: Sergio Ramos - Real Madrid - Spain
197: Lucio - Inter - Brazil
196: John Obi Mikel - Chelsea - Nigeria
195: Sergio Busquets - Barcelona - Spain
194-193
194: Philippe Mexes - Roma -France
193: Anatolij Tymoshchuk - Bayern München - Ukraine
192-189
192: Theo Walcott - Arsenal - England
191: Aaron Ramsey - Arsenal - Wales
190: Pepe - Real Madrid - Portugal
189: Sergei Semak - Rubin Kazan - Russia
188
188: Alberto Aquilani - Liverpool - Italy
187-185
187: Clarence Seedorf - Milan - Holland
186: Diego Capel - Sevilla - Spain
185: Yossi Benayoun - Liverpool - Israel
184-182
184: Riccardo Montolivo - Fiorentina - Italy
183: Kolo Toure - Manchester City -Côte d'Ivoire
182: Yuri Zhirkov - Chelsea - Russia
181-177
181: Martin Demichelis - Bayern Munich - Argentina
180: Marouane Fellaini - Everton - Belgium
179: Cristian Zapata - Udinese - Colombia
178: Tim Cahill - Everton - Australia
177: Paul Scholes - Manchester United - England
176-173
176: Arda Turan - Galatasaray - Turkey
175: Ezequiel Lavezzi - Napoli - Argentina
174: Klaas Jan Huntelaar - AC Milan - The Netherlands
173-170
173: William Gallas - Arsenal - France
172: Shaun Wright Phillips - Manchester City - England
171: Pavel Pogrebnyak - VBF Stuttgart - Russia
170: Darijo Srna - Shakhtar Donetsk - Croatia
169-167
169: Bojan Krkic and Pedro - Barcelona - Spain
168: Ronaldinho - AC Milan - Brazil
167: Tranquillo Barnetta - Bayer Leverkusen - Switzerland
166-163
166: Stiliyan Petrov - Aston Villa - Bulgaria
165: Amauri - Juventus - Brazil
164: Dirk Kuyt - Liverpool - The Netherlands
163: Bruno Alves - FC Porto - Portugal
162-160
162: Lorik Cana - Sunderland - Albania
161: Carlton Cole - West Ham - England
160: Lukas Podolski - FC Köln - Germany
159-155
159: Felipe Melo - Juventus - Brazil
158: Craig Bellamy - Manchester City - Wales
157: Simon Kjaer and Daniel Agger - Palermo and Liverpool - Denmark
156: Alessandro Nesta -Milan-Italy
155: Aly Cissokho - Lyon -France

154:

Walter Samuel

Defender - Inter

Argentina



Samuel is another central defender who has struggled with injuries in recent years but ever since his Roma days where he was a key player in winning a historic Scudetto I've always felt he was one of the best defenders in the world.
He is still plagued by nagging injuries here and there but when he plays, and certainly this season it's been at a consistently high level and I think he deserves to be the highest central defender so far on the list.

In my eyes - ability wise (unlike Nesta) he's seen very little decline, if any at all, other than health, and while not as talented an all around player as some of the earlier ranked defenders, his actual defensive attributes are right up there with the best and it's my impression that there just isn't the occasional mistakes that you see from some of the other excellent defenders ranked so far. He is just a little bit more solid and that's what has put him ahead of the pack, though it's obviously very close.

He is less talented than the likes of Mexes, Pepe, Kolo Toure, Gallas and Zapata but perhaps stronger than all of them, even better or their equal in the air and he makes less mistakes.

His current Inter partner Lucio is at least as strong and better technically (it's very possible he was ranked too low and more or less a victim of Pepe being ranked as low who I definitely felt was ahead of him) but I think Samuel is the better pure defender with more secure marking and no risk taking. Plus more agile and even though he certainly isn't fast not as painfully slow as Lucio is these days on the first meters.

The most comparable central defender in many ways so far is Bruno Alves but here I give the edge to Samuel based on the level of competition faced in Italy and Spain over the years versus the Portuguese league.

So for the time being Walter Samuel is the best central defender on the list. We'll see how long that lasts.

Not very long is my not so bold prediction...

153:

Diego Lugano

Defender - Fenerbahce

Uruguay





Hey what would the list be without a super intense aggressive Uruguayan defender good at making opponents, teammates and referees, not only watch what the **** they're doing, but make strange faces while doing it??





Diego Lugano is the captain of Uruguay with a reputation as perhaps the best defender coming out of South America currently. At least when we're talking central defenders, and yes to my great surprise he really will be the highest ranked South American central defender on this list, according to me resulting in this top 5 right here:

1. Diego Lugano
2. Walter Samuel
3. Christian Zapata
4. Martin Demichelis
5. Lucio

Hmm so just 5?

I would say there is a whole bunch of Brazilian central defenders arguably in that 200-180 range. Juan from Roma when on form is a very classy defender. Alex and Luisao are technically sound powerhouses and Thiago Silva from Milan is very talented.
Lyon captain Cris is the proven veteran while Naldo from Werder Bremen certainly does look the part of a great defender, at times, but also someone that all in all I remain unconvinced by.

If I then look at Argentina I have much tougher time finding other candidates than the two who made it but maybe I'm overlooking someone?

Notorious head-cases Heinze and Burdisso I never really seriously considered and Daniel Diaz (Getafe) though one tough warhorse just isn't talented enough.

Then there is the unfortunate case of Gabriel Milito who I think if it wasn't for serious injury causing him to miss the whole of last season (he is only coming back just now) actually would be ranked my number one South American defender. He was excellent for Zaragoza and coming into his own at Barcelona also at a level that I'd say is even higher than Lugano's.


Looking at other candidates from Uruguay we have someone like Martin Caceres, but it's possible that he is even more wild than nutcase Heinze and from what I've seen plays with 100 percent heart and just about zero intelligence, and he hasn't had all that much playing time either.
Hopefully he'll improve his tactics and intelligence, cause he has the natural ability to both become a good central defender and a fullback.

Diego Godin from Villarreal is much more solid and a more classic central defender but still a longshot to make the list I'd say. There are tons of good central defenders around his level.

Chile had a great World Cup qualification campaign and with their non stop action attacking game as well as, almost basketball like full court pressure style defending, will be one of the most interesting teams to watch, but unfortunately I'm not all that familiar with their defenders (but there are Chile players still come on the list!).
There is Isla from Udinese who seems talented and very versatile but as far as defending goes I have no idea if he is even the best Chile has to offer.

It's the same story with Paraguay where I don't know anyone beside Sunderland's Paulo Da Silva.

For Colombia it's been a joy to watch Oscar Cordoba over the years overcome his lack of size with great agility and superb defensive instincts, but in 2010 countryman Zapata was the better candidate.

As far as Diego Lugano goes it's clear that playing in Turkey and before that at Sao Paolo in Brazil it's pretty limited what I've seen of him playing club football over the years. And for the national team it's not like Uruguay is on every week either.
But I have seen Lugano play for them quite a few times and in the Champions League for Fenerbahce I also saw quite a bit of him during their quarter final run in the 07-08 season.

Other than the the obvious intensity and leadership he is a very complete defender. Strong and agile, good in the air and a great tackler. He is also one of those very good defenders who just seem like they control or cover a greater area than most and essentially doing it without ever looking lost. Lugano's defensive work just has a great range to it.

152:

Mauro Zarate

Forward - Lazio

Argentina



The way things are going for Mauro Zarate, incredibly talented but perennial underachiever Alvaro Recoba's career (who Zarate has been compared with) isn't a worst case scenario any longer but more of an unrealistic dream scenario.

Things just aren't going well for Zarate who it needs to be said isn't nearly as talented as Recoba was anyway, but nonetheless Zarate does have that great pace and exciting dribbling ability, as well as a booming shot that can go in from almost anywhere, but any range of passing, decision making, actual creativity or vision is seriously lacking.
And then there are the attributes that he does very much share with Recoba - negative traits like lack of professionalism, below par work rate, lack of fitness and general bad attitude creating trouble on and off the pitch with his already struggling club.

He is still only 22 and the natural talent that he does have won't go away any time soon. Last season it was there for all to see and he was something of a sensation but this season after Lazio spent the big cash on him he's been disappointing and have provided more controversy than he has goals.
Obviously Lazio's various struggles on and off the field that started right from the beginning of this season hasn't helped but neither has Zarate. Quite the opposite.
But if he can improve in one or two areas where he is currently weak he can still become a star. For better team than Lazio as well.

The 200 best players in the world:159-155

It's back!

Look forward to (or don't/no please do) to plenty of updates this month.

Well since the list was away I have of course changed my mind, discovered or rediscovered tons of players, so there have been plenty of alterations. I touch upon this in one of the writeups as well...

For the time being though I'm very satisfied with the upcoming placements (the previous ones in some cases are a very different matter) but of course that won't last forever so before yet another obsessive alteration attack sets in, it's time to just finish this thing, or at least get down to the highest placed players where my opinion is more set.

The list so far:

200-195
200: Alberto Zapater - Genoa - Spain
199: Nikola Zigic - Valencia - Serbia
198: Sergio Ramos - Real Madrid - Spain
197: Lucio - Inter - Brazil
196: John Obi Mikel - Chelsea - Nigeria
195: Sergio Busquets - Barcelona - Spain
194-193
194: Philippe Mexes - Roma -France
193: Anatolij Tymoshchuk - Bayern München - Ukraine
192-189
192: Theo Walcott - Arsenal - England
191: Aaron Ramsey - Arsenal - Wales
190: Pepe - Real Madrid - Portugal
189: Sergei Semak - Rubin Kazan - Russia
188
188: Alberto Aquilani - Liverpool - Italy
187-185
187: Clarence Seedorf - Milan - Holland
186: Diego Capel - Sevilla - Spain
185: Yossi Benayoun - Liverpool - Israel
184-182
184: Riccardo Montolivo - Fiorentina - Italy
183: Kolo Toure - Manchester City -Côte d'Ivoire
182: Yuri Zhirkov - Chelsea - Russia
181-177
181: Martin Demichelis - Bayern Munich - Argentina
180: Marouane Fellaini - Everton - Belgium
179: Cristian Zapata - Udinese - Colombia
178: Tim Cahill - Everton - Australia
177: Paul Scholes - Manchester United - England
176-173
176: Arda Turan - Galatasaray - Turkey
175: Ezequiel Lavezzi - Napoli - Argentina
174: Klaas Jan Huntelaar - AC Milan - The Netherlands
173-170
173: William Gallas - Arsenal - France
172: Shaun Wright Phillips - Manchester City - England
171: Pavel Pogrebnyak - VBF Stuttgart - Russia
170: Darijo Srna - Shakhtar Donetsk - Croatia
169-167
169: Bojan Krkic and Pedro - Barcelona - Spain
168: Ronaldinho - AC Milan - Brazil
167: Tranquillo Barnetta - Bayer Leverkusen - Switzerland
166-163
166: Stiliyan Petrov - Aston Villa - Bulgaria
165: Amauri - Juventus - Brazil
164: Dirk Kuyt - Liverpool - The Netherlands
163: Bruno Alves - FC Porto - Portugal
162-160
162: Lorik Cana - Sunderland - Albania
161: Carlton Cole - West Ham - England
160: Lukas Podolski - FC Köln - Germany

159:

Felipe Melo

Midfielder - Juventus

Brazil



Surely a current starting central midfielder for mighty Brazil belongs on this list?

Felipe Melo is a great physical talent who can first and foremost help his team by making good defensive contributions but who also has the talent to participate on the attacking front, not so much with passing, where this season for Juventus his decision making has looked painful, but through powerful runs complementing the attacking players.

Before the current Juventus fiasco he enjoyed good years in Spain for smaller sides proving himself worthy of bigger things and last season he had a breakthrough season for Fiorentina where he was an important player in securing Champions League qualification and where, despite his current awfulness, it can be argued that his physical presence in midfield is missed.

Fiorentina have, despite plenty of talent and being a very good technical side, been losing more midfield battles this season than they did the last.

It's clear to me that for Dunga's Brazil and Prandelli's Fiorentina, Melo has done great in well defined roles suiting his strengths. For Juventus under inexperienced Ciro Ferrara he found himself in a situation where nothing was working for him or the team.

For Brazil and Fiorentina he looked like a player worthy of a higher placing. For Juventus he looks like someone who shouldn't even be on the list. I'm just gonna go for something in between: 159 it is!

158:

Craig Bellamy

Forward - Manchester City

Wales



Despite him seemingly having been around forever I have to admit it wasn't until very recently that I discovered any kind of appreciation for any of Craig Bellamy's football skills, and it still feels kind of wrong putting him ahead some of the lower ranked players on this list, as well as some of the very good players not even making it.

It's not even his well publicized daft behavior, who cares (I don't)? I just had no idea that he was actually good.
And to rub salt in that "wound" what I'm finally paying attention to now when it comes to Bellamy probably isn't as good as it used to be.
There are various nagging injuries (knees in particular I think) hindering his performances if we're talking game in and game out.

Maybe it's that in the past (and I'm kinda guessing here) that he's often been either a striker with a partner in a 4-4-2 or a winger in that same system (after all the most popular by far in England during Bellamy's active career), and those two roles didn't really show me (only paying half attention anyway) the full extent of his talent.

On the wing in a 4-4-2 he'll still be fast and work hard, though still not that good defensively and not really the kind of distributor for people in and around the box that you typically come to expect from an EPL winger in a 4-4-2.
Then as a striker in a 4-4-2 he isn't a great goal scoring presence in the box and neither his physicality or passing skills are quite good enough in narrow space playing more central.

So, fast forward to Mark Hughes up and down reign at Manchester City and you'd regularly have Bellamy as a left forward in a 3 man strike force or when (even) more of a left wing in what mostly was 4-2-3-1-like systems.
At some point of course Hughes more or less lost his mind though and went for some of the most unbalanced stuff I can remember from a good team. Most memorable the goal fests against Bolton and Sunderland where despite the impressive work rate from the likes of Bellamy and Tevez, there really were only two people in midfield with defensive duties and who could defend.

Anyways in between all that fun Bellamy really impressed me. He worked extremely hard both ways, was great in transition and consistently put his considerable skills to great use in the final third. Whether through great runs (with and without the ball) finishing or generally doing a good job of complementing the players around him.

157:

Simon Kjær

Palermo



and Daniel Agger

Liverpool



Defenders

Denmark

I think I promised earlier that there wouldn't be more shared spots... But there'll be more, much more!

Well, just a few more, all with some kind of a common theme, and all of course an excuse to include more players, which of course was the original excuse to make this a top 200 list in the first place, instead of say a top 50 or 100. Therefore, the more the better I say!

Of course making it a top a 200 is also what's made it such slow going. Not really the number itself or the accompanying write ups, but the sheer impossibility of putting the 100-150-200 players in perfect order. There is so little between these players and I'm still constantly altering things. Just today looking at the list for the first time in a couple of weeks I found myself spending a good two hours changing stuff around.
Not that anyone goes from 180 something to say number 79 (Fellaini would have an excellent case though-but sadly done is done), then order would be meaningless but 4-5-6 spots here and there, up or down, non stop, enough to drive you crazy! And I won't even go into the number of players first left out then proving they really belong (damn you!), or even worse players who I had either somehow forgotten about or who wasn't even on my original radar bursting out of nowhere playing excellent football!
Of course the slower this gets the more of these will show up... So therefore get on with it!

Well, this is the homer pick I guess. With apologies to Christian Poulsen and Nicklas Bendtner (and perhaps young Ajax phenom Christian Eriksen), who both have not had the best of times for their respective club teams the last year or so (but still I'd claim along with tons of others around the 200 mark of this list), Simon Kjær 20 and Daniel Agger 25 are the two best danish players at the moment and likely the danish national team central defender partnership for many years to come.

They're quite different though. Kjær at just 20 is the virtual mistake free dominating physical defender who'll beat his man when space is tight, on ground or in air, with serious consistency, sometimes non stop, while Agger not as strong physically, and unfortunately injury plagued, uses great instincts and ability (timing/tackling/heading/good acceleration for a defender) to beat his.

Agger is also much superior with the ball where he has great ball control and some good passing skills that he can also put to use going forward (rare for Liverpool/less rare for the national team).
Unlike Kjær though his decision making isn't always good and he will make the occasional big mistake, perhaps a bit like some previously ranked übertalented defenders, have a little too much faith in his own talent sometimes trying the difficult instead of the simple. Something I haven't really seen from Kjær.

What I do think I've seen from both of them though is a good deal of leadership impressively enough, and both so to speak can take charge of defense.

When playing for Denmark I have noticed Kjær struggling at times with positioning, Agger too for that matter, but I mostly put that down to the criminal lack of support they sometimes find themselves without and just general lack of defensive balance (not least when compared to both their club teams) a situation where I think all defenders would struggle.

In many ways it's still early days for Kjær but if you combine the very high level he plays central defender at already, plus the number of European giants already linked to him, it's hard to see him not becoming a star.

With no disrespect at all to recently retired Martin Laursen, his career is almost the worst case scenario here.
Like Kjær currently, Laursen also showed good things for a smaller Italian club, in his case Verona.
Good enough to be transfered to AC Milan for a good bit of money, but due to injuries and serious competition (Maldini, Nesta and Stam for starters) it just didn't happen for him there.

Then sadly there were even more injuries but thankfully Laursen finally did get to show what an excellent defender he could be, at club level as well, even when only relatively healthy, when he had a great final time at Aston Villa.

Kjær's next destination, and it's just a matter of when, almost certainly will be a big club and I guess that's where we'll see how far he can really go.
I don't think it would be unwise to wait though. Maybe at least one more season gaining experience for what's becoming a pretty good team that's even challenging for spots in Europe.

For Agger it's a matter of staying healthy. He has certainly shown that he functions at a high enough level to play for a big club but I do fear that if he doesn't have a good healthy spell soon, then he won't be seen as someone you can really depend on, despite all the talent, and he'll then end up playing somewhere, perhaps less prestigious than Liverpool.

156:

Alessandro Nesta

Defender - AC Milan

Italy



Best

central defender

ever.

At least the best that I've ever seen.

I guess there are a few I can think who could rival his marking and defensive instincts, Fabio Cannavaro and Ciro Ferrara (maybe the best pure man marker, then later adapted great to zone) come to mind, but then Nesta had size and strength (stronger than Jurgen Kohler who is another that come to mind) that they didn't have, as well as all the defensive ability and instincts you could ever imagine. He even rivals their superb agility and Cannavaro's great range of command and he was much better with the ball.
There is also Maldini of course but he was at his greatest at left-back. Thuram is another favorite of mine who deserves mention.

Before the injuries causing him to miss whole seasons in recent years, there were simply no one better than Nesta. For Lazio and early Milan, as well as the Azzurri where his luck has been brutal, following in the unfortunate footsteps of Ferrera, getting injured in 3 World Cups, he was immense and amazing to watch, putting on display after display of flawless defending.

This season surprisingly he's back playing. I honestly thought his career was over and from what I've read it was close.

He is 33 and with a physique, though thankfully not broken, still not nearly capable of what it used to athletically.

Still he's been doing an admirable job on a Milan team currently with a very attacking balance that sees microscopic defensive help from the midfield.

If it wasn't for Nesta with all the ability that remains often holding things together with his partner the talented Silva in and around the penalty area against opponents with a wide open highway towards it, who knows where they'd be in the table? Would rookie coach Leonardo still have his job?

His play has been so impressive that there's been plenty of talk of a comeback to the national team where he's been retired for years now but the latest is that he's turned down that chance.

Staying healthy I'm sure is a big part of that decision and so far he's managed to do just that and while he is definitely not the best defender in the world anymore, he is still kinda up there when healthy, and almost for the glimpses alone that he gives you, of the immense defender that used to rule air and ground, for those alone Nesta just has to be on the list.

155:

Aly Cissokho

Left-back - Lyon

France



Could have been Nesta's team mate at Milan this season where he had signed a pre-contract but some kind of problem with his teeth, that I'm too lazy to look up now, meant that he failed the medical.
Too bad for Milan, congratulations Lyon, is the popular conclusion that it's hard to disagree with.

Cissokho 22 has had something of a meteoric rise from one club and on to the bigger.

20 games for a French third division side before being snapped up Vitoria Setubal in the Portuguese first division and there it only took 13 games before the dominant team in Portugal in recent years, champions FC Porto signed him.
There when everyone (including me) got to see him playing in the Champions League, everyone got kinda interested and the transfer rumors could begin.
Just 13 games was his finishing total for FC Porto before Lyon stepped in and put to good use some of all that money they received in the Benzema transfer and signed Cissokho for around €15 million+20 percent of his next transfer fee.

After that little summarization of Cissokho's young career so far, it almost goes without saying that he is someone who's talent is very obvious and immediate when you first see him.
He is very athletic and strong technically. Man to man defensively he is a beast (and looking at his build he can get even stronger) and on the offensive he is fast enough and skilled enough to make good deliveries and can be pretty hard to stop if he gets into full gear, resembling a winger.
I'm actually surprised he is listed as only 1.83 cm. He seems even taller to me. Maybe it's the lanky build and long legs.

Cissokho really isn't that experienced on the highest level yet but to call him a raw talent or anything like that would be insulting and indicate holes and weaknesses that I'm just not seeing.
There really isn't anything not to like here and it's scary to think that with experience he'll get even better.

He is yet to make his debut for France but has found his way into the squad recently where on his position higher ranked Patrice Evra is the clear first choice.
Personally I think he is a better left-back than likely rival Abidal but Abidal does have versatility going for him. Another French left-back Gael Clichy cause of injuries and poor form (mostly defensively-he is good going forward) is way behind when it comes to going to the World Cup I think but who knows with Domenech.
If Benoit Tremoulinas of champions Bordeaux is even an outsider I don't know, but he is someone who has been been playing great lately, so who knows.