Top 10 players in the world

[ardee]

It's not like Rooney's been a world beater for last few years

In PL alone, I can almost think of 10 players who are either better than or at least comparable to him:

RVP
Yaya Toure
Suarez
Tevez
Aguero
Mata
Cazorla
Bale
Kompany
Wilshere

I think the only PL players who deserve to be in top 10 are RVP and Yaya Toure.

I hate Manchester United, but come on man, you're SO reaching with some of those.

I'd say only RVP is clearly better. Tevez, Cazorla, Bale, Kompany, Wilshere, no chance.

Suarez, Aguero, Toure and Mata (if he continues in this vein) have an argument.

[cgf]

Over the past calendar year I'd go with

Messi
Ronaldo

Iniesta
Falcao
Pirlo
Toure

RVP
Ibra
Kompany
Reus

I really think Marco Reus has had an incredible season and a half, first leading Gladbach to a CL place, and then taking Dortmund from CL failures to the group stages' most impressive team. It's a stretch and there's a lot of other players that are probably more deserving, but what he's accomplished over the past season n a half is astounding and he's been the best in the Bundesliga over that time. What's scary is he's still only 23 and getting better.

[5DOM]

It's not like Rooney's been a world beater for last few years

In PL alone, I can almost think of 10 players who are either better than or at least comparable to him:

RVP
Yaya Toure
Suarez
Tevez
Aguero
Mata
Cazorla
Bale
Kompany
Wilshere

I think the only PL players who deserve to be in top 10 are RVP and Yaya Toure.

I hate Manchester United, but come on man, you're SO reaching with some of those.

I'd say only RVP is clearly better. Tevez, Cazorla, Bale, Kompany, Wilshere, no chance.

Suarez, Aguero, Toure and Mata (if he continues in this vein) have an argument.

While I don't really feel strongly about Bale and Wilshere as I already admitted, I disagree with you on Tevez, Cazorla and Kompany who IMO are comparable to Rooney. But you do agree that there are at least 5 players in PL alone who are on Rooney's level? That hardly makes him a lock for top 10 in the world IMO and that was my point anyway.

I would definitely have Messi, Ronaldo, Xavi, Iniesta, Falcao, RVP, Zlatan, Pirlo and Yaya Toure ahead of Rooney, and I am not convinced that Rooney's the best of the rest which includes the likes of the 4+ PL players we just talked about, Reus, Ribery, Busquets, Silva, Neymar, Cavani, Casillas, Buffon, Cech, Thiago Silva and of course Yilmaz.

[J-Mezzy]

Yilmaz










Messi
Ronaldo

Everyone else

[MonkeyBallZJr]

It's not like Rooney's been a world beater for last few years

In PL alone, I can almost think of 10 players who are either better than or at least comparable to him:

RVP
Yaya Toure
Suarez
Tevez
Aguero
Mata
Cazorla
Bale
Kompany
Wilshere

I think the only PL players who deserve to be in top 10 are RVP and Yaya Toure.

I hate Manchester United, but come on man, you're SO reaching with some of those.

I'd say only RVP is clearly better. Tevez, Cazorla, Bale, Kompany, Wilshere, no chance.

Suarez, Aguero, Toure and Mata (if he continues in this vein) have an argument.

While I don't really feel strongly about Bale and Wilshere as I already admitted, I disagree with you on Tevez, Cazorla and Kompany who IMO are comparable to Rooney. But you do agree that there are at least 5 players in PL alone who are on Rooney's level? That hardly makes him a lock for top 10 in the world IMO and that was my point anyway.

I would definitely have Messi, Ronaldo, Xavi, Iniesta, Falcao, RVP, Zlatan, Pirlo and Yaya Toure ahead of Rooney, and I am not convinced that Rooney's the best of the rest which includes the likes of the 4+ PL players we just talked about, Reus, Ribery, Busquets, Silva, Neymar, Cavani, Casillas, Buffon, Cech, Thiago Silva and of course Yilmaz.

Just glanced through this thread and some of it is laughable to say the least. With regards to Rooney he just became the youngest player to score 150 premier league goals. There was a time when he was not that good and was criminally overrated, now that he's actually good and no longer in the shadow of Ronaldo, he's criminally underrated?...

Look I understand he may not be the most skillful or the most aesthetically pleasant player to watch but this guy simply produces both on the stat sheet and off of it. There's tons of players more naturally talented and skillful than Rooney, like Zlatan for one, but would you honestly take Zlatan over Rooney if you were building a team? He's a big game player a much more complete player than the majority on these lists and there's no one in the EPL I would take over him, including RVP. Yes RVP might be a better natural striker, but Rooney has much more to his game and I've seen them enough times to make that statement. The only player I might take over him is a young Scholes

Also I'm not even gonna bother discussing some of the PL players you said were comparable to Rooney...like Bale and Wilshere? c'mon man I expected more from you. Both great young players but nowhere near Rooney's class.

Also just checked, Rooney is leading the EPL in assists, a further statistical indication of his all round game. Playing the number 10 role just as well as the 9.

[5DOM]

First of all, my ranking was mostly based on the players' form from last season, so whether I would build my team around young Rooney or young Zlatan is irrelevant. Same can be said about Rooney being the youngest to score 150 goals. It's a great record that's representative of how brilliant Rooney's been since he first played for Everton 10 years ago, but it was not of great importance to me when making my list. Would I take young Giggs/Scholes/Rooney over players like RVP and Falcao? Absolutely, but that doesn't mean I think those United players are currently better than the two strikers.

I think Rooney was absolutely world class and the 3rd best player in the world after Messi and Ronaldo a few seasons ago, but he's not been anywhere as good as he was then in last two seasons. His stats are still good, but I don't even think Rooney's been the second best player for United this season performance-wise. Rafael while volatile has a good case IMO. A season ago, Valencia was arguably just as important. That said, I didn't focus much on stats anyway because that's unfair on midfielders and defenders and can often be misleading because it depends on so many factors: what league you play in, who you play with, where you play, how many penalty kicks have you taken etc.

Also I did say at least a couple of times that Bale and Wilshere were just fillers more than anything. My point was that there are quite a number of players who can be grouped together with Rooney in the PL alone and I don't think that helps Rooney's case for inclusion in top 10 in the world considering the weak status of the league right now.

[5DOM]

Guardian's Top 100 Footballers (11-100): http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/inte ... nteractive

How they ranked: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... ootballers

I think that leave us with top 10 (in no order) of:

Messi
Ronaldo
Pirlo
Xavi
Iniesta
Yaya Toure
Falcao
RVP
Zlatan
Robben

The list gets worse and worse because of the ranking system, but I got 9 out of 10 right and Neymar wasn't far off

[Foye]

Guardian's Top 100 Footballers: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/inte ... nteractive

How they ranked: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... ootballers

Javier Zanetti at age 39 over Daniele De Rossi? Really?

[5DOM]

Guardian's Top 100 Footballers: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/inte ... nteractive

How they ranked: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... ootballers

Javier Zanetti at age 39 over Daniele De Rossi? Really?

The panel were asked to rank only the top 30, so the vast majority of players should be something like 1 or 2 points off from one another. Basically one vote can get you in the top 100. I think that's how Mayuka got in

[J-Mezzy]

I'm glad they put James in their list, I would argue he is at least top 50 but it is very hard to rank players after the top 20

[5DOM]

1. Messi
2. Ronaldo
3. Xavi
4. Iniesta
5. Zlatan
6. Falcao
7. RVP
8. Pirlo
9. Yaya Toure
10. Cavani

is their final ranking

[J-Mezzy]

Surprised to see Xavi ahead of Iniesta

[cgf]

Judging on Xavi so high and Robben so high, I'm guessing those rankings aren't based off of recent form or the past year.

[5DOM]

Robben's 66, but like I said, the ranking is kind of meaningless after certain point.

[cgf]

He's still above players who have been much better for over a year and a half now.