FourFourTwo’s Best 100 Football Players in the World 2016

Welcome, welcome to the 10th edition of the Top 100! 

100. Ousmane Dembele

When FFT’s Top 100 list for 2015 was released this time last year, Dembele had appeared in a grand total of three first-team matches since turning professional at Rennes; the fact that the teenager has made the cut this time around is therefore testament to the remarkable progress he’s made in the last 12 months.

A return of 10 goals in 19 Ligue 1 appearances in the first half of 2016 helped Rennes to an 8th-place finish in Ligue 1 and earned the 19-year-old Frenchman a five-year contract with Borussia Dortmund, who reportedly paid €15m to bring the talented forward to Signal Iduna Park. Dembele has featured in 11 of the 12 Bundesliga encounters BVB have contested this season at the time of writing, while he’s also been a regular starter in the Champions League, causing problems for European as well as domestic full-backs with his speed, trickery and direct dribbling. – GL

99. Petr Cech

It was obvious to everyone why Jose Mourinho didn’t want Cech hopping across London to Arsenal in the summer of 2015 – but even he, like Roman Abramovich who’d promised the Czech his move, knew that the Blues’ long-serving goalkeeper of 11 years didn’t deserve to rot on the bench.

Unsurprisingly, the now-34-year-old has proved just why Arsenal fans were so thrilled to sign him after a typically reliable debut campaign in which he kept the most clean sheets of any Premier League goalkeeper (16), saved the third-most shots overall and had a higher save percentage than anyone else (76%) – including from shots within the box (72%). The Gunners may have fallen flat in the title race as soon as late-February, but their shortcomings were hardly Cech’s fault.

His Euro 2016 was disastrous – Czech Republic lost two of their three group games and finished bottom – and Cech promptly retired from international football after the tournament as his country’s all-time caps holder (121). He's still a class act, though – on and off the pitch. – JB

98. Blaise Matuidi

Matuidi may have added another Ligue 1 winner’s medal to his collection with PSG – the fourth of his career – and appeared in all seven of France’s matches at Euro 2016, but the all-action midfielder hasn’t had everything his own way in 2016. The 29-year-old struggled at times during the Euros, with many Bleus supporters calling for him to be dropped from the hosts’ starting line-up, while he’s also been in and out of the PSG team under new boss Unai Emery this season.

Nevertheless, Matuidi remains one of European football’s most complete midfield players, boasting an excellent blend of technical and physical qualities. It’s also worth bearing in mind that the ex-Saint-Etienne star's occasional benching this term is probably a result of Emery’s desire to grant him greater rest periods rather than a reflection of his showings at club level. – GL

97. Hakim Ziyech

For Eredivisie followers, it's baffling that Ziyech hasn't received more attention and praise: the 23-year-old has been the best player in the Dutch top flight for the last two years. On his slim shoulders he carried an underperforming Twente – with the KNVB investigating them for the Doyen controversy and relegation looming – and guided them to safety. Ziyech's goals counted for 35 per cent of Twente’s overall total and he was the reference point around whom the whole team functioned.

Many foreign clubs showed some interest in the summer but none made a definitive move, so when Ziyech was the subject of a late bid from Ajax, he made the move – a step up, even if a small one. Not renowned for his stamina, the Moroccan has adapted commendably to the high-intensity football Peter Bosz prefers, and has established himself as the kind of influential figure he was at Twente, even among better team-mates. Defences tend to play deeper against Ajax than he's used to, but this has posed little problem for Ziyech, whose prolific creativity puts him among the elite in terms of numbers.

The likes of Dortmund and Wolfsburg will be back should he maintain his impressive form, while even bigger teams may begin to turn their heads towards the svelte playmaker. – PR

Next: Banished by Chelsea, brilliant elsewhere

96. Joao Mario

Equally effective in the centre or on the right, the ever-elegant Mario blossomed into the magnificent footballer Sporting’s coaches always believed he would become in 2016. Combining intelligence, faultless technique and a tireless work-rate, Mario was the driving force behind Sporting’s strongest tilt at the Portuguese title for 15 years – the Lisbon club broke its points record, only to be pipped at the post by Benfica.  

Mario’s frustration at missing out on silverware at club level was offset by playing a major role in his country’s historic Euro 2016 triumph. The midfielder featured in each of Portugal’s seven matches, saving his best until last with a superb display in the final as the Seleção stunned the hosts at the Stade de France.

A lucrative move to Inter followed, where the 23-year-old has stood out as one of the few bright spots in the Italian club's turbulent start to the season. – TK

95. Mohamed Salah

Know this, chuckling Chelsea fans and parochial English cynics: in 2016, Salah has scored or assisted 27 goals in 34 Serie A games for Roma. As a winger in a traditionally defensive league, that’s some ratio.

Many Brits know Salah only for unexpectedly rocking up at Stamford Bridge aged 21, having scored in Basel’s two Champions League wins over Chelsea. Foreshadowing his signing of Juan Cuadrado – whose arrival, incidentally, saw Salah loaned to Fiorentina in exchange – Jose Mourinho then had immediate buyer’s remorse and decided to pretend Salah didn’t exist.

Even when we lauded Salah at No.100 last year, it was more in hope than expectation. However, he’s only improved since, adding a consistent goal threat to his direct dribbling game. He’s also shooting for Russia 2018: two early wins, Salah scoring in each, have put Egypt in a great position to reach only their second post-war World Cup ahead of serial attendees Ghana. – H. Davies

94. Ever Banega

His transfer might not have generated as many headlines as moves involving Paul Pogba, Gonzalo Higuain or Mats Hummels, but Banega had as strong a claim as anyone to be recognised as the summer’s finest signing when the window closed at the end of August.

After starring in Sevilla’s third consecutive Europa League success – the Argentine ran rings around Liverpool in the final – Inter secured the string-puller’s signature without paying a penny when his contract at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan expired. He’s had a mixed start to his career at San Siro, though, starring on some occasions but struggling on others, and was dropped by new boss Stefano Pioli for November’s derby draw with Milan.

As a wonderfully creative player who’s capable of dictating his team’s tempo and feeding attacking team-mates in dangerous positions, it surely won’t be long before Banega is bossing Serie A midfields. – GL

Next: Age is just a number

93. Jonas

Looking back now, it's incredible to think that the 32-year-old goal machine was picked up on a free by Benfica to little fanfare back in summer 2014. After 31 goals in his debut season, he managed to better that total with 36 strikes in all competitions in the following campaign.

His prolific scoring played a huge role in propelling Benfica to another title, but the silky-skilled Brazilian brings far more than just goals to the table. Astute positional awareness allied to a wonderful touch makes him a strike partner any centre-forward would love to play with, as attested by the abundance of goals netted by compatriot Lima and Greek marksman Kostas Mitroglou while playing alongside him.

Jonas was deservedly named Primeira Liga Player of the Year in 2015/16, with a call-up for Brazil capping a remarkable renaissance for a player who seemed finished when he was released by Valencia two years ago. – TK

92. Juan Mata

"One of the most underrated players in the Premier League," so says Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher of Manchester United's Mata. 

The 28-year-old’s Old Trafford future was cast into serious doubt when the boss who booted him out of Stamford Bridge turned up this summer. How times change: the Spaniard is now flourishing as a regular under Jose Mourinho, with his efforts at club level leading to an international recall after missing out on Euro 2016.

Mourinho sold him once, but he’d be foolish to do so again; despite the inconsistencies of post-Ferguson United, Mata continues to contribute when it matters most. He's scored 10 goals in 2016, three coming in just four appearances in their triumphant FA Cup campaign last season, including the equaliser in the final. He's also undoubtedly a big game player: in his 43 appearances against the ‘Big Six’ since 2011 he's scored 13 times and contributed 10 assists.

Falling 18 places in the rankings this year after a difficult 2015/16, Mata's place perhaps belies his individual performances; he was collateral damage of Louis van Gaal’s turgid tactics and United’s disappointing season overall. – H. Drudge

91. Julian Brandt

Fans of the German national team have their fair share of gifted young players to get excited about, but Bayer Leverkusen’s 20-year-old winger is one of the most talented members of the next generation.

The blond, Bremen-born Brandt became the youngest player since Gerd Muller (who else?) to score in six consecutive Bundesliga games when he scored against Stuttgart, Wolfsburg, Cologne, Eintracht Frankfurt, Schalke and Hertha Berlin in March and April, while his performances throughout the year had him nominated for the Golden Boy award won by Renato Sanches.

Brandt is the perfect player for Roger Schmidt’s high-intensity style of play: a strong runner who’s most dangerous when cutting infield from the left flank onto his right foot, the four-time Germany international possesses terrific technique and creativity in abundance. – GL

90. Romelu Lukaku

Lukaku divides opinion – to some he’s a fine all-round striker who deserves his upward move away from Everton; to others he’s far from the finished article who should stay grounded for his own good.

But of course he’s not the finished article – the Belgian's still only 23, for crying out loud. That's easily forgotten given that Lukaku started his first-team career as a 16-year-old with Anderlecht and has remained firmly in the public consciousness ever since with high-profile and (mostly successful) stints at Chelsea, West Brom and Everton.

The facts, then: he’s one of only five players to score 50 Premier League goals before his 23rd birthday; plus, he boasts a goals-per-game record virtually in line with Robbie Fowler, Les Ferdinand and Didier Drogba, and significantly better than the likes of Dwight Yorke, Nicolas Anelka and Kevin Phillips.

Euro 2016 was disappointing by his standards, even after a very quiet end to 2015/16 with Everton, but life is good again under Ronald Koeman in 2016/17: after 10 games of the new campaign he’d already plundered seven goals. “His potential is greater and higher than Everton as a final destination," said his own manager in November. But where from here? – JB

89. Kalidou Koulibaly

After an unimpressive debut season in Naples, the arrival of new manager Maurizio Sarri seemed to spell bad news for Senegal's boisterous centre-back. With Napoli bemoaning their worst defensive record since 1997/98 (a season when they finished bottom), Koulibaly was shelled with criticism.

However, the incoming boss dismissed suggestions he would be looking for defensive reinforcements. Over the next nine months Napoli produced one of their finest seasons in recent memory, with Koulibaly hugely influential in a backline that conceded just 32 goals – their best defending since last winning the league in 1990.

A turbulent summer featuring non-stop transfer talk of a £50m move to the Premier League has unfortunately been followed by a stalled start to the season by both Napoli and Koulibaly, while Sarri admitted during pre-season that his leading defender was still prone to "dumb errors". Far from the finished product, the 25-year-old has signed a new five-year contract, though, and there's no doubting his place in the Partenopei's foreseeable future. – BC

88. Adrien Rabiot

If coming on against Real Madrid in the Champions League last year was Rabiot’s coming-out party, the curly-haired midfielder has since been strutting around and showing everyone why he's so highly rated in 2016.

The young left-footer has excelled first for Laurent Blanc and now under Unai Emery, keeping summer signing Grzegorz Krychowiak out of the side for long periods. Rabiot’s long legs make his an able body in defensive situations, while he reads the game well and spreads play with an excellent passing range.

Despite having Blaise Matuidi, Marco Verratti and Thiago Motta as midfield options, it’s Rabiot who's impressed most this season, earning his first full France cap in the process. He has everything you'd want in a modern midfielder, and it won’t be long until he’s the player PSG are building their team around. – AG

87. Filipe Luis

Of all the crimes committed by Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, spending £15.8m on Atletico Madrid defender Filipe Luis in the summer of 2014, then giving him seven league starts (two of which came after the Premier League title had been secured) will always feature towards the top of the misdemeanours. 

 A contender for the best left-back in the world at the time, the Brazilian has been reinvigorated by a return to the Vicente Calderon. A near ever-present as los Colchoneros reached a second Champions League final in three seasons – and featuring in both – the 31-year-old is everything a modern full-back should be: strong in the tackle, defensively astute and excellent going forward. 

Luis’s partnership down Atleti’s left with the rapidly improving Yannick Carrasco is vital to coach Diego Simeone’s counter-attacking strategy and will go a long way to securing silverware in the club’s last season at the Calderon. – AM

Next: The striker who just needed minutes

86. Santi Cazorla

"Have you seen Santi Cazorla? You think I'm small? He's up to here on me and he's brilliant."

Xavi Hernandez, as quoted by Sid Lowe in a 2012 Guardian article.

The relevance is that, like the Barcelona icon, traditional thinking suggests Cazorla should be too small to operate in central midfield. He's slender and slight, technical and creative. He was all of those things in 2016, but most often – and unexpectedly – from deep. The arrival of Mesut Ozil and then Alexis Sanchez seemed to signify the end of his Arsenal career, but Cazorla has instead been repurposed as a line-breaking deep-lying playmaker and recommissioned by Arsene Wenger to guard the side's temperament and direct its attacking focus.

In spite of all the logical caveats, it turns out he was just the right size for that hole. Arsenal have recently found a rhythmic balance that they haven't had for many years, with Cazorla’s broad and brilliant skill set helping them to strike those key notes. – SSB

85. Andrea Barzagli

Every year Andrea Barzagli is written off, and every year he patiently proves everyone wrong. The 35-year-old sees pretenders arrive to take his place in the Juventus backline and swats them away like flies; with his contract extended once again, we can expect that to continue in the next 12 months.

It’s easy to dismiss Barzagli as makeweight in the famous back three (with Gianluigi Buffon behind them) that comprise Juventus and Italy’s defensive unit. It’s easy, but it’s wrong. While the prestige went to Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini, Barzagli was arguably the best – certainly the most consistent – defender in Serie A last season. His unsung good work continued in Italy’s impressive Euro 2016 showing under his old Bianconeri boss, Antonio Conte.

In January 2011, a 7th-placed Juventus paid £300,000 for Barzagli’s services. Since that season, they’ve won five consecutive Scudetti. The two facts aren’t totally unrelated. – H. Davies

84. Javier Hernandez

Now in his second season in Germany, Javier Hernandez’s goalscoring record is the envy of strikers across Europe, having notched 33 times in 58 appearances for Bayer Leverkusen.

His goalscoring pedigree is no surprise; he's Mexico's second-highest goalscorer of all time and, despite leaving Manchester United in September 2014 (initially on loan to Real Madrid), his goals-per-minute ratio remains fourth-best in the Premier League behind Sergio Aguero, Thierry Henry and Ruud van Nistelrooy.

An impressive debut season was followed by an explosive start to 2016/17, with seven goals in his first eight appearances. They may have dried up of late – his last came in the 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund at the beginning of October – but the Mexican may well earn himself another big-money move if he continues on his current trajectory.

Bayer will do their best to cling on to the player they label as their “life insurance”, though, such has been the 28-year-old's effect in North Rhine-Westphalia since his surprise arrival in 2015. – H. Drudge

Next: The Premier League record-breaker

83. Keylor Navas

Real Madrid kept 14 clean sheets in 38 La Liga games last season, conceding just 34 times in a campaign where Keylor Navas made 34 appearances. An Achilles problem ruled the Costa Rica international out of the Copa America Centenario and pre-season, but the ex-Levante goalkeeper has been able to quickly supersede Kiko Casilla once again.

More recently, Navas has been ever-present for Costa Rica and kept three clean sheets in World Cup qualifying clashes with Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States, with his razor-sharp reflexes and strong wrists earning him widespread respect between the sticks.

Quick off his line in one-on-one situations, the armspan of Navas continues to tip the odds of victory further in the favour of Real Madrid and his national side. – SH

82. Jamie Vardy

Forget about the difficult start to 2016/17 for a minute – Vardy was virtually unstoppable last season as Leicester romped to the Premier League title (and romp they did, by a barely believable 10 points), finishing the season with 24 goals and the top flight’s player of the year gong.

There weren’t many feelings at the King Power Stadium quite like the one when Vardy was bearing down on goal having left a defender in his wake. It was almost one of relief: Leicester fans simply knew he’d score.

As well as breaking Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Premier League record for goals in consecutive games – 11 over a three-month spell from late August to November – Vardy was crucial in the post-New Year run-in. There was that volley against Liverpool which cracked open a tight game; then, in the home stretch, he netted both goals in a nervy 2-0 win at Sunderland and opened the scoring against West Ham.

It was also the year in which he established himself as an England squad regular, scoring in consecutive internationals against Germany, Holland and Turkey before grabbing another at Euro 2016. Then he turned down Arsenal – one chapter that won’t be written in this rags-to-riches tale. – JB

81. Hugo Lloris

The France and Tottenham captain has had an excellent 12 months, propelling both club and country to near honours. Spurs' title tilt was built on the joint-best defensive record in the division, before France were narrowly beaten by Portugal in the final of Euro 2016.

Still, a nomination for the Ballon d’Or isn’t a bad runner-up prize for the custodian who's yet again helping to solidify his club side's backline. Just forget Tottenham's European jaunts.

Although the Champions League sojourn has been a wasted campaign for Mauricio Pochettino’s men, Lloris emerges with credit – witness his wonder saves against Bayer Leverkusen and some outrageous reactions to thwart Kamil Glik and Monaco on matchday five. The next step for the 29-year-old is leading his team to a major trophy. – GM

80. Carlos Bacca

The exception to the norm at Milan: Carlos Bacca isn't young, Italian nor a product of the Rossoneri youth sector. Yet while the San Siro outfit are looking to rebuild their crumbled reputation around the likes of Gianluigi Donnarumma and Manuel Locatelli, it's the 30-year-old Colombia international who has kept them afloat.

Bacca has bagged 26 goals in his first 55 games, maintaining pace with the strike rate he recorded at Sevilla (49 in 108) despite the team around him struggling to create chances. Simply put, no matter how badly Milan have performed, Bacca has still been finding the back of the net with deadly accuracy. – AD

79. Ilkay Gundogan

The midfielder spent two years out of the FFT100 after his headline-grabbing year of 2013, in which he scored in the Champions League final for Borussia Dortmund. But the 26-year-old has earned a FFT recall after a year in which he's impressed in both Germany and England, either side of a five-month injury lay-off.

Linked with a move away from Dortmund for some time, it said much about Gundogan's talent that Pep Guardiola was prepared to make him his first signing for Manchester City in June, despite the player dislocating his knee cap in training little more than a month previously.

A key man in BVB’s resurgence last season, he's flourished since returning to fitness at City too, combining passing skills with an ability to join the attack and get on the scoresheet. Gundogan even netted four times in the space of four autumn days, bagging a brace at West Brom and then following it up with a double in the unforgettable Champions League win over Barcelona. – CF

78. Kevin Gameiro

The Frenchman has been a regular goalscorer throughout his career, but he kicked on to another level in the second half of 2015/16. Gameiro netted 20 times for Sevilla after the turn of the year, eight of which came in the Rojiblancos’ run to a third consecutive Europa League trophy.

Typically reliable in front of goal, he crucially scored three times in the semi-final against Shakhtar Donetsk, before his equaliser 17 seconds after half-time turned the tide against Liverpool in the Basel-hosted final. The 29-year-old’s form prompted Atletico Madrid to pay €32mn to take him to the Vicente Calderon, where he’s already been among the goals.

A penalty-box predator, the former Strasbourg, Lorient and PSG forward may not score too many spectacular goals, but Gameiro has long understood the value of the tap-in. Even the slightest lapse of concentration in defence will be punished when he's around. – CF

77. Samuel Umtiti

Few players could join Barcelona at 22 and immediately see regular first-team action. Samuel Umtiti, however, doesn’t like to hang around.

The centre-back made his international debut at the Stade de France in the hosts’ Euro 2016 quarter-final (and misplaced none of his 76 passes). He kept his place for the semi, then the final. And all it took for him to get that chance was Adil Rami being banned, Mamadou Sakho being absent, Raphael Varane and Jeremy Mathieu being injured and Eliaquim Mangala being crap.

Umtiti took that chance and is now doing the same at Barcelona. In September, manager Luis Enrique admitted his surprise at how the defender, after only four games, “has adapted very quickly to a position where the club has always had handicaps”. The signs were there: he was superb in Lyon’s flying finish to 2015/16, when 11 wins in 14 games earned them a Champions League place. Nonetheless, Umtiti is progressing even faster than expected. – HD

Next: For me, yes

76. Marcelo

Marcelo remains one of the most unheralded members of Real Madrid’s elite squad, but is nonetheless a key component in it. The Brazilian is one of the longest-serving members at the club – he arrived when he was just 18 – and his contributions have steadily increased over the years. Few young players can deal with the pressure that wearing the famous white shirt brings, but Marcelo has navigated every hurdle along the way.

Now, after 10 years with the club, he’s a resolute presence at full-back and has seen off the challenge from Fabio Coentrao to be los Blancos' undisputed left-back. Over time he has shored up in his defensive work, but it’s in attack where he has become a formidable, vital presence. Some of Madrid’s best moves stem from the 29-year-old, and his vibrancy in Real Madrid’s most recent Champions League triumph underpinned his importance to the team. The same can be said for when he’s with Brazil, for whom he is a key and experienced face helping bring in a new generation. – DC

75. Dele Alli

It’s a little under two years since Tottenham made a low-key £5m move for a promising midfielder plying his trade in England’s third tier. Dele Alli’s January 2015 move to Spurs didn’t make major headlines, but since arriving at White Hart Lane the following summer – having been loaned back to MK Dons just long enough to help them earn promotion to the Championship – he’s had people talking pretty much constantly.

There have been nutmegs (loads of them), and wonder goals – most notably his Goal of the Season contender at Crystal Palace – and the little moments of aggression that have enraged opposition fans and players, too.

“I like to just go out there and be myself,” Alli told FFT earlier this year. “Sometimes I get carried away with things, but I’m young and I’ve still got a lot to learn. Hugo Lloris has been a great influence on me at Tottenham and he’s spoken to me about it, too. He told me not to let that aggressive side fall out of my game, so I’m just going to keep being myself.”

Still, if he can focus more on the skill and less on the sh*thousing, he could become one of the Premier League and world’s best. – JM

74. Roberto Firmino

Firmino’s old Hoffenheim team-mates can barely believe that the scrawny young Brazilian who pitched up in Sinsheim almost five years ago is the same brilliant forward who’s now thriving at Liverpool in his second Premier League season.

It’s not that the now-25-year-old wasn’t good – it just took him a while (two-and-a-half seasons) to properly get going after arriving from Figueirense in January 2011. But that featherweight teenager is no more, replaced by a versatile and brilliant Brazil international who is part of Jurgen Klopp’s fearsome front three at Anfield.

Firmino has shone as a false nine in tandem with Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mané, having kicked on in the second half of last term with nine goals in his last 14 games (starting with a brace against Arsenal). This season has been even better: Firmino plundered five goals in his first 10 games and had a direct hand in six more. On song the trio are practically unstoppable – much like Firmino’s progression right now. – JB

Next: Italian football's most controversial character

73. Claudio Marchisio

Claudio Marchisio is, without question, the unsung hero behind the success that Juventus have enjoyed over the past five seasons. While the likes of Paul Pogba, Arturo Vidal and Andrea Pirlo each moved on to new challenges, the Turin native remained, becoming an even more vital part of the team under Max Allegri than he was under predecessor Antonio Conte.

Formerly an energetic box-to-box midfielder with a knack for scoring important goals, Marchisio has reinvented himself as a defensive anchor and adept passer, ensuring the Bianconeri maintain a high tempo when in possession. A torn ACL meant he missed the start of the current season, and Juve struggled to reach their usual high standards without the tactical intelligence and calming influence of the criminally underrated 30-year-old. – AD

72. Harry Kane

Tournament years are often defined by their marquee competitions, but the Tottenham striker should be grateful we’re broadening our analysis a little wider.

Having rattled in 25 Premier League goals in 2015/16 – four more than he managed in his breakout season – Harry Kane travelled to Euro 2016 tipped to be among the competition’s top scorers. Yet a jaded-looking 23-year-old failed to find the net as England crashed out at the last 16 stage. Roy Hodgson, already the England manager before last, may regret his curious decision to make the 6ft 2in Spurs goal machine take corners.

Yet with his club side, the Chingford-born hitman has proven himself to be among the very best forwards that the Premier League has to offer. His goals, including an incredible bending effort against arch-rivals Arsenal in March, helped Spurs to a 3rd-place finish – their best in over 25 years.

An early-season injury slowed his progress in 2016/17, but he still managed to become the 11th-fastest player to reach 50 Premier League goals. He returned just in time to score his fifth goal in five league matches in November, before netting a dramatic late brace against West Ham. – JM

71. Mauro Icardi

“Just focus on the football” would be perfect advice for both Mauro Icardi and his growing band of critics. The fallout from the love-triangle spat with former team-mate Maxi Lopez and his wife Wanda Nara was bad enough, but he's now also developed a knack of upsetting Inter supporters – both in person and via his controversial autobiography.

Yet all that simply detracts from the fact that the Nerazzurri skipper remains a deadly striker who loves performing in big games. Icardi has repeatedly proven to be the one player that Juventus's vaunted defence cannot shackle (seven goals in eight matches to date), and his overall Serie A record of a strike every other game stems directly from his incredible accuracy in front of goal. Deadly, destructive and always in the headlines – just not always for the right reasons. – AD

70. Marco Reus

Reus owes somebody in Warsaw a very big cake. The German forward’s career is forever stalling becasue of injury: at 27, when he should be in his prime, Reus is battling to make up for lost time; lost Champions League finals; lost World Cups and European Championships.

So, what he really needed after a six-month layoff was an obliging opponent. And Legia Warsaw were very obliging in November – no more so than goalkeeper and deserving cake recipient Radoslaw Cierzniak, who helped Reus to net a hat-trick in his first game since May as Borussia Dortmund won 8-4 (yes, 8-4).

Reus and his BVB chum Mario Götze are in the same boat and paddling furiously against the tide, albeit for different reasons: Reus, starting again after signs last season he could return to his best, and Götze, starting again having been cowed by his time on Bayern Munich’s bench. Will one or both make this list next year? They may need to help each other along the way. – HD

69. Renato Sanches

Rarely can an 18-year-old have enjoyed such an impactful start to his senior career. Making his Benfica debut in November 2015, Sanches revitalised a struggling side to such an extent that he was never out of the team again.

His boundless energy and strength stood out as his force-of-nature style of play catalysed his team. It enabled Benfica to sensationally overturn an eight-point deficit and snatch the Portuguese title from bitter Lisbon rivals Sporting, in addition to him starring in a commendable Champions League run.

A big-money move to Bayern Munich was completed before the season was up, but Sanches wasn't done yet. He only made the Euro 2016 squad because Bernardo Silva was injured days before the announcement, but six weeks later he was wildly celebrating Portugal’s first-ever trophy having played a significant role in its conquest, so much so that he was named the Young Player of the Tournament. All before turning 19. – TK

68. Radja Nainggolan

Turning down a mega-money move in your peak years isn’t always the done thing in football, but Nainggolan’s decision to shun the advances of Chelsea this summer is testament to the steady progress he’d made over two-and-a-half years at the heart of Roma’s midfield.

The Belgian may have caught the eye with those two fearsome strikes at the Euros – his goal against Wales was a particularly bloodthirsty treat – but those highlight-reel moments bely an MO that expounds the dirty work.

Nainggolan has built his reputation on his capacity to cover ground like a roadrunner and an appetite for a full-blooded tackle (24 bookings over the last two seasons is some haul). In an era where Vine-friendly moments of tekkers can be a cheap shortcut to eminence, his no-frills attritional style is a welcome throwback. And those Chelsea rumours just won’t go away. – AH

67. Franck Ribery

Now 33 years old and into his 10th season as a Bayern Munich player, Ribery has enjoyed something of a renaissance in 2016: 12 of his 13 Bundesliga appearances last term came after the turn of the year, while the fact that he’s been included in Carlo Ancelotti’s XI five times in the German top flight since August means he’s on course to make more league starts this season than he did in the 2014/15 and 2015/16 campaigns combined.

Granted, the Frenchman’s best days are behind him and he’ll do well to keep the likes of Arjen Robben, Douglas Costa and Kingsley Coman out of the team in crunch matches to come, but those who had written Ribery off have been made to reconsider their position. The ex-Marseille winger is still full of energy and remains difficult to stop when he’s in full flow, something the Hertha Berlin defence can attest to after Ribery turned them inside out before slotting the ball past goalkeeper Rune Jarstein in September. – GL

Next: Forget Maradona

66. Arjen Robben

A career blighted by injuries and corresponding ‘what if’s, Robben’s 2016 wasn't much different to the narrative of recent years: unplayable when fit, yet unfit for long periods.

When Robben made his return to PSV with Bayern in October, he departed to a standing ovation and reminded everyone in his homeland that we’ve yet to see a Dutch footballer as skilled since his emergence. Even at 32, the winger’s every stride hinging on hamstrings that have seen much wear and tear, Robben has the ability to be the best player in a Bayern side that is hardly lacking in quality.

Yes, it’s possible that if he wasn't as fragile, he could have established himself as a threat to the Messi-Ronaldo duopoly. But for him to be as prolific and influential as he is when fit and firing – for club and country – shows the mark of a man who should go down in history as one of the very best footballers of this generation. – PR

65. Julian Weigl

When watching him in action, it can be difficult to believe that Weigl is still only 21. Borussia Dortmund’s midfield metronome plays with a maturity and intelligence that belies his tender years, with the former 1860 Munich man having established himself as one of his side’s most valuable components in the last 12 months.

A fine passer of the ball, Weigl is the player who sets the tempo for Dortmund in his deep-lying role in the engine room. He’s also a key contributor in the defensive phase of the game, regularly winning possession back for BVB with tackles and interceptions that invariably come about as a result of his astute positional play.

Weigl’s reward for a superb debut year at Signal Iduna Park was a place in Germany’s Euro 2016 squad, and while he was an unused substitute in each of the world champions’ six encounters in France, there’s little doubt that he’ll be a national team regular for years to come. – GL

64. Marek Hamsik

Where once there was Diego Maradona in Naples, there's now Hamsik. The Slovakian midfielder may not be capable of the same magical feats as the iconic Argentine, but his loyalty and consistency are quickly ensuring him a similar place in the hearts of Napoli supporters.

The southern Italian club have seen Edinson Cavani and Gonzalo Higuain leave the Stadio San Paolo in recent years, but their mohawked captain remains – and they love him for it. Yet this isn't blind faith: Hamsik is routinely a match-winner for Maurizio Sarri’s men, as his 2015/16 tally of eight goals and 11 assists highlights.

Meanwhile, Slovakia's Euro 2016 may have ended in the last 16 but Hamsik was their best player, and proved it with a stonking winner against Russia. – AD

Next: Class act for a decade

63. Thibaut Courtois

Following Chelsea’s shambolic title defence and Belgium’s defeat by Wales in the Euros, Courtois' stock arguably hit an all-time low in 2016. With the goalkeeper constantly flirting with Real Madrid throughout the summer like two lovers encouraging each other to make the first move, his standing with the Chelsea faithful fell too.

The Blues' slow start this term forced Antonio Conte's switch to a back three, though, which led to six consecutive clean sheets from the start of October to the end of November. Courtois, as a result, spent more time twiddling his thumbs than saving shots. "At half-time [against Everton] I did some extra warming up," the keeper admitted following Chelsea's 5-0 rout.

Question marks remain about his command of the penalty box, but his shot-stopping and cat-like reflexes means he's still one of the best in his position. – BC

62. Thiago Silva

The Brazilian was disappointed not to be involved in this year's Rio Olympics, but that was perhaps the best thing that could have happened to Thiago Silva. Well, that and David Luiz leaving PSG for Chelsea.

With the league done and dusted by the time New Year rolled around, the ex-Milan centre-back pushed on and demonstrated his skills as a deep-lying playmaker at the start of 2016. He's been in fine form so far this season too, proving he's still one of the best defenders in Europe, while new Brazil boss Tite has restored him to the Seleção squad.

A partnership with Marquinhos looks much stronger than the Thiago Silva-David Luiz equivalent, and the former is now able to concentrate fully on his own defending. – AG

61. Xabi Alonso

The effortless manner in which Alonso plays the game means it’s not at all surprising that he remains one of world’s foremost central midfielders at the age of 35. Now in his third campaign at Bayern Munich, the former Real Madrid and Liverpool lynchpin hasn’t lost any of his magnificent passing ability, nor the intelligence to find space and evade opposition markers. 

The man himself perfectly summarised his role – which is virtually unchanged since his early days at Real Sociedad – in June. “When we win the ball, my job is to get it from the defence to the attackers in the best possible way, [so they can] go one-on-one or have a good position to make the last pass,” he told Sports Illustrated. “You won’t see me like Luka Modric, dribbling through guys. That’s hard for me. The pass – that’s more natural for me.” – GL

60. Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Remember: the FFT Top 100 covers a 12-month period. That includes twice as many league games from last term as this season.

With that in mind, Mkhitaryan’s meagre two starts in 2016/17 – Jose Mourinho being oddly reluctant to play the £27m signing – are comfortably outweighed by the playmaker’s phenomenal 2015/16. After all, Mkhitaryan was named Player of the Year by 235 Bundesliga pros surveyed in German magazine Kicker and came third in the official players’ vote. How quickly we forget. How quickly Jose forgets.

The Armenian was reborn under Thomas Tuchel in his final Borussia Dortmund campaign. Mkhitaryan scored or assisted – and this isn’t a typo – 55 goals in 52 games, which is frankly obscene. Operating sometimes behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but more commonly drifting in from the right, Mkhitaryan showed he’s a true raumdeuter, a space investigator, and one who knows where the goal is.

If that’s not enough, he speaks seven languages fluently and his dad was called Hamlet. – HD

59. Raphael Varane

Les Bleus may have reached the final of Euro 2016, but there must be a nagging thought in the minds of Frenchmen everywhere: what if Varane had played against Portugal instead of being ruled out of the tournament through injury? Would the Real Madrid man have been on hand to close down Eder’s shot? Could he have helped the hosts win the competition?

Didier Deschamps is certainly delighted to have his defensive general back, while in the Spanish capital Varane is finally holding down a place in the starting XI. After starting 23 times in La Liga last term he's become an integral part of Zinedine Zidane's table-topping outfit this season, matching Pepe for interceptions and clearances. – AG

58. Joshua Kimmich

It’s been quite the year for Kimmich, who has spent 2016 as a centre-back under Pep Guardiola, a right-back under Joachim Low and a midfield goal-getter under Carlo Ancelotti.

The youngster established himself as a key squad member at Bayern Munich under Guardiola last term, belying his diminutive frame to make the transition from midfield to defence – a positional switch from which Guardiola had previously reaped the benefits when Javier Mascherano dropped into the back four at Barcelona.

Then came a call-up to Germany’s squad for Euro 2016 and a place in the starting line-up to face Northern Ireland in the world champions' third game. Despite playing out of position at right-back, Kimmich flourished to such an extent that he stayed in the side, while he even earned a place in the team of the tournament.

Returning to Bayern for the new season, he was soon restored to his more favoured midfield role under new boss Ancelotti and went on a goal spree – netting eight times in 11 games. At 21 it’s likely that he'll only continue to improve from here. – CF

57. Raheem Sterling

“Keep your head up. I know you’re a good player. You’re a big part of my plans. As long as you work for me, I’ll fight for you.”

Sterling could have sunk without a trace in 2016/17. The winger – still only 21, even with 200 first-team appearances to his name – had endured a transitional first season at Manchester City followed by a difficult Euro 2016, which included dog’s abuse from vocal England fans and a character assassination in the media that was nothing short of disgraceful.

But those words from incoming City boss Pep Guardiola changed everything. As Sterling told FFT: “It was a massive boost. I said to myself that if I come back, work hard and forget what everybody else thinks, I know what I can do.”

Sterling registered five goals and six assists in his first 10 games under Guardiola. October ushered in a fallow period, but it shouldn’t last. All he needs is a Pep talk. – HD

Next: Serie A's goal and assist king

56. Alexandre Lacazette

If 2015 was good for Lacazette, this year he's taken his game to another level. The 25-year-old forward ended last season with 15 goals in 19 games, helping Lyon finish second in Ligue 1 and ending PSG’s unbeaten run.

Although doubts surrounding his future persisted, he remained at OL and started the current campaign with a bang, netting a hat-trick against Nancy on the opening day. Injuries have again played their part, though, and his failure to light up the Champions League has prompted suggestions that the striker has done everything he can at his boyhood club. It's therefore time for Lacazette to make the step up and try his luck elsewhere, otherwise it could be too late to challenge for a place in France's World Cup squad. – AG

55. Miralem Pjanic

 

image: http://images.cdn.fourfourtwo.com/sites/fourfourtwo.com/files/styles/inline-image/public/55_pjanic.png?itok=KeRE2S8b

There's little doubt that Juventus's ability to sign Pjanic in the summer was a major factor in the Bianconeri sanctioning Paul Pogba's sale for a world-record sum. Able to play anywhere in midfield, the Bosnian has already filled in for the injured Claudio Marchisio as a deep-lying playmaker, flanked the Italian after his return and shone in a more advanced role behind the strikers.

Pjanic possesses an excellent range of passing and neat dribbling skills, while his shooting – particularly at set-pieces – has become increasingly deadly. He weighed in with 12 goals and 13 assists for Roma last season, meaning he hit double figures in both for the second successive campaign, and had already added three more goals this term by the time Serie A paused for November’s international break. – AD

54. James Rodriguez

James has had a topsy-turvy time in Spain since joining Real Madrid to great fanfare in 2014. The last 12 months have been particularly underwhelming, with injuries and bad habits on and off the pitch coming to the fore.

There's little doubt the Colombian has regressed in the last two years, cast into the shadows by the likes of Gareth Bale. Regular runs in the first team have been rare, and something needs to change in the next 12 months if he's to kick on once more: James should be mixing it with the Ballon d'Or elite, but instead he's out in the cold at the Bernabeu.

He's suffered with his national team too, taking much of the blame for Colombia's disappointing showing at the Copa America Centenario. James needs to shape up (quite literally – his off-field activities remain dubious) and get back to being the Galactico who shone at the World Cup in Brazil. – DC

Next: Consistency is key

53. Javier Mascherano

After helping steer Barcelona to yet another trophy under Luis Enrique last season, there were whispers during the summer transfer window that Mascherano might be ready to move on.

Rumours can be misleading, however, and Mascherano put pen to paper on a new contract extension at Camp Nou in October, which will see the Argentine through until June 2019. The ex-Liverpool midfielder has been a big-game player for Luis Enrique and his Barça predecessors, missing just one competitive final since joining the club in 2009.

International glory continues to evade the midfielder, however, after Argentina lost out on penalties to Chile in the Copa America Centenario final (again). Mascherano at least netted a high-pressure spot-kick after Lionel Messi missed la Celeste’s first, and he still provides a warrior-like fighting spirit in the engine room which enables him to drag his compatriots towards the finish line despite his advancing years. – SH

52. Angel Di Maria

While Di Maria's early PSG career must have felt like a dream, 2016 has been a strange nightmare. The Argentine lifted the Ligue 1 title, Coupe de la Ligue, Coupe de France and set up Zlatan Ibrahimovic to knock Chelsea out of the Champions League in his first season in France, but he's only scored five times in the league since the turn of the year and has struggled under new boss Unai Emery.

The former Real Madrid forward has still racked up assists and shown plenty of quality, but his influence in the final third has undoubtedly decreased. Without their Swedish talisman Ibrahimovic, PSG need Di Maria to rediscover his best form sooner rather than later. – AG

51. Philippe Coutinho

In a year in which Liverpool have progressed from also-rans to title contenders under Jurgen Klopp, their most influential player has been Coutinho. The Brazilian has long been a fans’ favourite at Anfield, but at 24 he's started to develop a consistency to his game that had sometimes been lacking in the past. He’s also benefited from the form of compatriot Roberto Firmino, with the pair forming a fine double act in a rampant Reds attack.

Coutinho scored seven goals and provided four assists in the second half of last season, while also netting in the final of the League Cup and helping Liverpool to the Europa League final. By mid-November he’d already racked up six goals and six assists in 2016/17, as Klopp's charges topped the Premier League table.

The ex-Inter man's performances at Anfield also earned him a call-up to the Brazil squad for the Copa America Centenario, where he bagged a hat-trick against Haiti. – CF

50. Mats Hummels

Hummels was the latest player to follow the well-trodden path from Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich in the summer, joining Mario Götze and Robert Lewandowski in swapping black and yellow for red and white.

Dortmund supporters were understandably irked at losing yet another of their star men to Big Bad Bayern, but Hummels could hardly be begrudged a move to one of Europe’s elite outfits. After all, the 27-year-old has bounced back from a below-par 2015 and demonstrated exactly why he’s one of the world’s leading centre-halves this year.

“For me, Mats Hummels remains the best defender in Germany because he's the most complete,” Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke told Sport1 in August. “I see him ahead of Jerome Boateng, but it's an open race.”

One thing’s for sure: that’s a rather mean centre-back pairing Bayern have to call upon. – GL

49. Koke

At the age of just 24, Koke has already made more than 200 appearances for Atletico Madrid’s first team and B side, and his importance to Diego Simeone’s machine shouldn't be understated. As Atleti undergo their own evolution, the Spaniard has been afforded the chance to become less peripheral on the international scene too.

Though Koke has been involved with la Roja since 2013, the quality of Spain’s midfield options has made things tough. Under new boss Julen Lopetegui, however, the Atleti midfielder has been first choice throughout this year’s World Cup qualifiers and appears set to make the long-awaited transition to becoming national stalwart under the ex-Porto boss.

Koke chipped in with 14 assists in the league last season but fell short at the final hurdle in Europe. That setback will force the Atletico man to once again show his competitive temperament and kick on under the watchful eye of Diego Simeone in 2016/17. – SH

48. Raphael Guerreiro

How France fans must have wished Guerreiro had chosen the country of his birth rather than that of his father’s as they watched the tenacious and skilful left-back nullify Paul Pogba, smash a free-kick against the bar and generally put in a display full of verve and class in the European Championship final.

As well as his energetic and technically proficient play, Guerreiro’s tactical understanding means he is equally effective in several positions, with his intelligence on the pitch mirrored by the way he's managed his career. Improving year on year in France for Lorient, he patiently waited for the right opportunity before joining Borussia Dortmund ahead of PSG and Barcelona this summer.

He's settled immediately in Germany, playing as a left-back, a left winger and even in central midfield. “Guerreiro is too good to be restricted to just one position,” says his coach Thomas Tuchel. – TK

47. Paulo Dybala

As last season began, the biggest question mark surrounding Juventus was how Dybala would handle his €32 million move from Palermo to Turin. A star in Sicily, the young Argentine answered every doubt emphatically and ensured the Bianconeri didn't miss the departing Carlos Tevez one bit, with his tally of 23 goals and nine assists coming almost exclusively via his magical left boot.

He danced past opponents in the Champions League too, netting in the 2-2 draw with Bayern Munich before missing the return leg with an injury that only served to highlight his importance to the team, who crashed out without their talismanic star.

"Dybala is unique," Carlo Ancelotti told Tuttosport recently. “He's truly a modern forward, combining his runs and dynamism with his talent. He could make history with Juve for the next 10 years.” Who are we to argue? – AD

Next: The brilliant nutter

46. Thiago Alcantara

Once seen as the heir to the throne of Xavi and Iniesta at Barcelona, Thiago, now 25, is these days very much his own man – even if he’s not quite lived up to that initial billing just yet. A series of injuries have been responsible for much of that, though the nagging suspicion remains that Thiago’s best comes in flashes rather than the unwavering consistency of his La Masia predecessors.

That said, a largely injury-free Thiago has become a staple of the Bayern Munich side under Carlo Ancelotti, and his new manager’s less dogmatic approach to possession has given the midfielder more of a license to take risks in attack.

It’s also, however, been mooted that his long-term future may in fact lie in the holding role. Thiago’s natural tenacity, metronomic distribution and expert reading of the game stand him in good stead to excel there, and Xabi Alonso’s advancing years could make for a neat baton-passing routine – for country as well as club. – AH

45. Pepe

His tendency to over-embellish matters when on the receiving end, juxtaposed with the occasional violent tendency of his own, has earned Pepe the reputation of a pantomime villain – but you don’t get to be Real Madrid’s first-choice centre-back for a decade without being a mighty fine player.

The Brazil-born defender owes his immense strength and prowess in the air to his father, who made him train by strapping weights to his legs and heading the ball into the sea. As well as brute strength, Pepe’s deceptive speed makes him a formidable barrier for any opponent threatening his goal.

The full range of his defensive attributes were on display at Euro 2016, where monstrous performances against Croatia and France in Portugal’s two toughest games earned him a place in the team of the tournament. It capped a magical couple of months for the centre-half, who collected his second Champions League winner's medal at the start of the summer. – TK

44. Douglas Costa

If the ability to shift supporters to the edge of their seats was a decisive factor in determining the order of this list, Douglas Costa would be a contender for the No.1 spot. The thrill-a-minute winger has continued to dazzle for Bayern Munich and Brazil in 2016, combining searing speed with tight close control and an eye for an assist – the 26-year-old laid on 12 goals for his team-mates in the Bundesliga and Champions League last season, while also netting six himself.

He’s hitherto been less productive in an injury-disrupted 2016/17, scoring two goals and recording one assist in 11 appearances in all competitions. Given that new manager Carlo Ancelotti is looking to add the counter-attack to Bayern’s possession-dominated armoury, though, the jet-fuelled Costa is likely to become even more essential to the German champions in the coming months. – GL

Next: Three strikers at different stages

43. Edinson Cavani

No player in European football splits opinion more than Cavani. The PSG striker finished last term with 19 league goals in 32 games – while playing second fiddle to Zlatan Ibrahimovic – and is scoring at a rate of one per match this season... but that hasn't been enough to exempt him from criticism.

Goalless through the Copa America Centenario this summer, Cavani’s poor form was a factor in Uruguay being eliminated in the group stage. He’s since responded by scoring eight times in nine games in the World Cup qualifiers, but his finishing has let him down for his club – most notably in two Champions League clashes with Arsenal.

If PSG are to reach the semi-finals of Europe's premier competition this season, they'll need greater consistency from their No.9 in front of goal. – AG

42. Karim Benzema

Controversial is the word that best sums up Benzema’s 2016. The sex-tape blackmail scandal involving Mathieu Valbuena saw the striker excluded from France's squad for Euro 2016, and he's not yet been recalled by Didier Deschamps for the World Cup qualifying campaign.

Still, Benzema remains one of the world's best strikers and continues to impress for Real Madrid, particularly in his ability to help get the best out of Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale. When his head begins to stray, so do his performances, but when he's focused there aren't many better. – DC

41. Diego Costa

It’s difficult to know what to make of the Brazil-born Spaniard’s last 12 months. For much of 2015/16, Costa spent more time engaging with opposition centre-backs than he did with the back of the net. Few were the Match of the Days without Alan Shearer questioning how good the Chelsea forward could be without such aggression. Yes, that Alan Shearer. 

Yet Costa scored only five fewer goals in all competitions in 2015/16 than he did in his first season in English football. That 12 of his 16 efforts came under interim boss Guus Hiddink implies extenuating circumstances as the wheels fell off Jose Mourinho’s second coming at Stamford Bridge.

Since significant flirtations with former club Atletico Madrid in the summer, Costa has refocused. He looks leaner, and though it would be difficult for him to be meaner, the 28-year-old’s 10 goals in his first 13 league games this season serve notice of a soufflé of crowbars loving life under Antonio Conte, himself far from a shrinking violet as a player. – AM

40. Dimitri Payet

On a quiet New Year’s Eve, in the 48 hours between taking on Leicester and Manchester United, Payet can reflect on an extraordinary 2016. He started the year injured and unwanted by France, despite his stellar form. “A squad has taken shape and I’m not in it,” he shrugged to FFT in February. “You have to accept it.”

Do you? Payet didn’t let up, scoring classy free-kicks, creating the second-most chances in the Premier League, netting nine goals and assisting 12 to become West Ham’s first top-flight PFA Team of the Year representative since 1978.

France did call. And on June 10, having set up Euro 2016’s first goal, Payet hit a stunning late strike to win the hosts’ opener against Romania. One man-of-the-match award followed another, and he was rightly included in the team of the tournament.

Even in West Ham’s dreadful 2016/17, Payet shines. That he had to apologise for an inch-perfect rabona assist against Watford because Troy Deeney said he was “trying to mug us off” is embarrassing for English football. Class means never having to say you’re sorry. – H. Davies

39. Giorgio Chiellini

Juventus's “BBC” defence continues to define them, with Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci and Chiellini seemingly setting new records every season to ensure Gigi Buffon is the most underworked member of the team.

Chiellini’s robust style and refusal to compromise in any challenge has meant the ageing defender (though is he really only 32?) suffers from an increasing array of injuries, but when fit he remains one of the very best man-markers in the game. As he showed at Euro 2016, he's also capable of weighing in with vital goals and is essential in allowing Max Allegri’s Bianconeri to alternate between three- and four-man backlines. – AD

38. Jan Oblak

The first brick in the wall that is Atletico Madrid’s defence – and one that rarely crumbles. Oblak has confirmed his status as one of the world’s best goalkeepers in the last 12 months, notching clean sheet after clean sheet.

In fact, his 18 goals conceded last season was a La Liga low, beating a record which has stood since 1993/94. Such feats are sometimes played down, and the formidable defence in front of Oblak is cited as the key factor. The Slovenian, however, brrings his own class to the backline, and has surpassed David de Gea and Thibaut Courtois considerably in terms of what each individual brought to this Atleti team.

Oblak is the complete package: he commands his penalty area and is strong when dealing with both high and low balls, while he's also blessed with phenomenal agility. It’s incredible that he is this good for a goalkeeper at just 23. – DC

37. Riyad Mahrez

If his first Premier League season was a toe-dip into the unknown, Mahrez’s second was more like a running bomb that emptied the pool.

The Algerian wasn’t even a guaranteed pick in Leicester’s year of great escapism thanks to a string of frustratingly inconsistent displays that the Foxes simply couldn’t afford. But then it all happened. Nigel Pearson was gone, Claudio Ranieri was in, and Mahrez immediately rediscovered the form that excited fans so much after his January 2014 move from Le Havre.

He scored twice on the opening day against Sunderland and then followed that up with two more in consecutive games against West Ham and Tottenham, the latter a smashing late leveller. The brilliance didn’t diminish from there; towards Christmas there was a hat-trick at Swansea, a brace at Everton and a trademark strike that helped bring Jose Mourinho’s second Chelsea stint to an end.

February’s goal at Manchester City confirmed what everyone hadn’t yet dared to admit: that Leicester really were capable of something special. Mahrez, a valid PFA Player of the Year, was at the vanguard. – JB

Next: The oldest member of the FFT100

36. Arturo Vidal

Combative, explosive, but still capable of the deftest of touches, Vidal has become Bayern’s new battle leader.

After Bastian Schweinsteiger was somewhat unceremoniously moved on, the Bavarians' midfield lacked bite. Vidal’s arrival suggested they had found an answer, but it wasn’t until Pep Guardiola’s final chapter at the Allianz Arena that the ex-Juventus star proved once and for all that he was indeed the solution.

From around March onwards, Vidal started to strut rather than slump. He dragged a lacklustre Bayern past Benfica in the Champions League quarter-finals and held his side together in a victorious German Cup final against Borussia Dortmund.

Possessing the perfect blend of fight and flair, the 29-year-old looks set to be the pivot around which Bayern transition into a post-Robben, Ribery and Lahm era. Bayer Leverkusen fans won’t like it, but the young Chilean who once beat the Werkself drum has grown into a leader in Munich. Just cut out the diving, eh Arturo? – JH

35. Sergio Ramos

While prone to the odd rush of blood to the head, Ramos's weaknesses shouldn’t overshadow what a top-quality centre-back he is on his day. Quick, strong and a key leader in the Real Madrid dressing room, the 29-year-old has become an icon at the club he joined in 2005.

Occasional recklessness can undermine his performances, and although he may have endured a disappointing European Championship, his partnership with Gerard Pique not proving as solid on the pitch as it looks on paper, the former Sevilla defender still played a vital role in Madrid's 11th European elite club success last season. And things aren't going too badly this term for the Madrid outfit, either, clear at the top of La Liga as they are and with the second-best defence at the time of writing.  

As the '30s approach, Ramos may not be able to play with the same intensity he used to, so a period of adaptation may be necessary for Los Blancos' stalwart at the rear. But judging by his plentiful past successes we don't doubt his continuing at the top level. – DC

34. Gianluigi Buffon

Buffon turns 39 in January, yet age shall not weary him. Even now he's one of the world’s three best goalkeepers, despite being the FFT100’s oldest player by more than three years; old enough to have feasibly sired a dozen of our other entrants (though he probably didn’t).

The veteran insists he’ll retire after the 2018 World Cup. That would be a tremendous shame, especially if Italy aren’t even in it – being in Spain’s group means they may face a play-off.

So if Buffon’s winding down his career, why has he risen eight places in our countdown? Because 2015/16 was among his best-ever seasons. The ex-Parma custodian was hugely influential – the standout player, in fact – in turning Juventus's stuttering campaign into another title triumph. He broke a Serie A record by playing 974 minutes without conceding; it took a penalty to stop him.

And if you think his record-breaking 10 consecutive clean sheets came in easy games, think again: they included 1-0 wins over title rivals Napoli and Roma as well as high-flying Sassuolo and a 2-0 victory over fourth-placed Inter.

Buffon matters. We just have to hope Euro 2016 wasn’t his Azzurri swansong. – H. Davies

Next: Tottenham, Manchester City and Manchester United stars

33. Toby Alderweireld

The most compelling case for Alderweireld is being made by Tottenham’s form since his recent knee injury: when the Belgian was carried off at The Hawthorns in mid-October, most of Spurs' organisation and resilience went with him.

That wasn't in any way a surprise, though; overlooking his country's disappointing European Championship, Alderweireld's 2016 has been exemplary. Aside from his generally flawless defending – his aerial ability and anticipatory qualities – he provided his team with an extra layer of distribution which, in the latter half of the year, they've missed just as much. His long-range passing often created attacking opportunities, while his reliable equipping of the midfield consistently enabled the temperament changes which Mauricio Pochettino's football relies upon. 

Alderweireld is something of an anomaly: he's both a highly skilled, dynamic and modern defender, and yet also a traditional, static centre-half. He's a hybrid player comprising all the desirable attributes from a range of eras and, consequently, is incontestably among the world's very best. – SSB

32. David Silva

It's extremely difficult to separate one Silva season from the next. That's a compliment: his form is so stable that it's near impossible to identify his peaks and troughs or to tell whether, in fact, his career has just been one long, excellent game. Whenever you see his little feet flash as he pirouettes daintily through the chaos, it's a sequence that could belong to any of the last seven years. Silva is that rare thing: excellence that never seems to waiver.

Kevin De Bruyne's arrival at Manchester City stole his thunder. The Belgian was the dynamism in Manuel Pellegrini's attacking midfield and, under Pep Guardiola, has become an even more diverse threat. But Silva’s still there, slipping out of the small spaces and dancing between the tackles; by the end of the 2015/16 campaign, he was statistically his club's most creative player.

The same as always: Silva will belong among the world's best until he decides he doesn't want to play anymore. – SSB

31. David de Gea

Voted fans’ player of the year for the third season running, De Gea himself thought that 2015/16 was his best season in a Manchester United shirt. The Spaniard kept 15 clean sheets in 34 Premier League games and denied Romelu Lukaku from the penalty spot in the FA Cup semi-final against Everton, before starting all four of Spain’s matches at Euro 2016 ahead of Iker Casillas.

The former Atletico Madrid man is now undoubtedly among the best goalkeepers on the planet, having consigned his difficult start to life at Old Trafford to the history books. De Gea's incredible reflexes have saved his side on numerous occasions in the last 12 months, most impressively in his stops to deny Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic in February and Liverpool's Philippe Coutinho in October. – H. Drudge

30. N'Golo Kante

It was a scandal that Kante didn't receive an individual award for his role in Leicester's title win. The FWA voted for Jamie Vardy, the PFA chose Riyad Mahrez instead and, in both cases, opted for style over substance. Vardy and Mahrez were undeniably essential to Leicester, but neither matched the breadth or consistency of Kante’s contribution.

Rather than operating exclusively as a stopper, the £6m signing quickly became integral to every department of Claudio Ranieri's side. He was the master brick: screening the defence, beginning moves inside his own half and acting as an auxiliary counter-attacking piece. Kante has exhibited all the traditional holding midfield qualities over the past 12 months, but not at the cost of showing how rounded a player he is – something not lost on Didier Deschamps, who made him a cornerstone of France’s European Championship side.

Now at Chelsea, he's the iron heart of Antonio Conte's much-admired 3-4-3 system. His partnership with Nemanja Matic has quickly become one of the best in England and turned the side's soft centre into the toughest in the land. – SSB

29. Gerard Pique

The style has always been there. Ditto the calmness. And the love for the occasional practical joke. But in 2016, there has been consistency and an ever-increasing iron will to Pique’s Barcelona performances.

The Catalan has won over Luis Enrique, who had serious reservations over Pique’s long-term future when he first sat in the Camp Nou dugout in 2014, and is now one of his manager's most trusted on-field lieutenants. If fit – Pique missed four games in late October or November – he’s as guaranteed to start as Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta or any of the MSN forward line, and was vital to los Cule’s title win in May.

The stink bombs are now a thing of the past – the 29-year-old centre-back restricted himself to tweeting emojis when Real Madrid were ejected from the Copa del Rey for playing ineligible players. Take away the cheeky chappy persona and you’d lose the confidence and bravado that sets Pique apart, and provides the beginning for many Barcelona attacks.

All too often, the ‘footballing centre-half’ only gets points for style. Pique has the grit, determination and defensive nous, too. He’s won seven of the last nine league titles, beginning with Manchester United in 2007/08. Put simply, you want Gerard Pique in your team. – AM

28. David Alaba

On one level, 2016 has been a disappointing year for Alaba. Although Bayern Munich scooped another Bundesliga title in the spring, they once again failed to reach the Champions League final under Pep Guardiola. On the international stage, meanwhile, Austria crashed and burned at Euro 2016, picking up just a single point from clashes with Hungary, Portugal and Iceland as they proved unable to live up to their ‘dark horses’ tag.

And yet for all that, Alaba has strengthened his case to be the planet’s most complete footballer in the last 12 months. His versatility is astonishing – left-back is where the 24-year-old is used most, but he’s also played at centre-half, in central midfield, on the flank, as a No.10 and up front throughout 2016. Being able to adapt to so many different positions speaks volumes about both Alaba’s technical ability and his understanding of the game, which is extremely well developed for a player yet to reach his prime. – GL

Next: The Belgian reborn

27. Eden Hazard

Hazard's performances last season hurt no one more than himself, which led to the Belgian declaring in the summer: “I don’t want to leave Chelsea after a bad season.”

His form for his country during the Euros served as a warning that the winger was on the way back to his best. The start of the season drew rare sightings of brilliance, but it was when Antonio Conte changed to a 3-4-3 that Hazard really excelled.

Conte’s tactical change released him of his defensive duties, allowing Hazard to focus on doing what he does best. His tricky feet and balance can make him seem like the second coming of Cristiano Ronaldo; if he maintains his current form, there’s no reason why he can’t match the Portuguese’s incredible achievements. – BC

26. Ivan Rakitic

An often overlooked cog in the Barcelona machine, Rakitic may take a backseat when it comes to the headlines – those are left to MSN – but he's undoubtedly a chief conductor in the team. The Croatian's energy has been vital to the Catalans' stream of success, with Rakitic providing stamina and hard work in the engine room.

He contributes defensively, while in attack he pushes the team on and makes sure the ball reaches the special trio ahead of him. Make no mistake, Xavi can’t be replaced by any player, but it’s testament to Rakitic that he’s been a staple of Luis Enrique’s side.

Along with Luka Modric, Rakitic is also an inspirational figure for his national team and impressed as part of an exciting team at Euro 2016. The midfielder's leadership and status were evident during the tournament, emphasising his progress since moving to Barca from Sevilla two years ago. – DC

25. Leonardo Bonucci

When Antonio Conte arrived at Juventus in the summer of 2011, it only took him a few matches to recognise the true strength of his squad. He may have been blessed with a wonderful midfield, but the Bianconeri's recent success has undoubtedly been built on the incredible ability of their three-man backline.

Along with goalkeeper Gigi Buffon, the "BBC" trio have been consistent, dependable and almost unbeatable. But while Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini are now approaching the end of their respective careers, Leonardo Bonucci is at his peak.

Leaps and bounds

Once undeniably the weak point of Juve's defensive unit, Bonucci has improved almost every single facet of his game and blossomed into one of the finest central defenders in the world. Conte clearly understood that his ball-playing ability would be an invaluable weapon, placing him in between his two veteran team-mates and allowing him to step forward into midfield whenever the opportunity arose.

At Euro 2016 – where his perfectly weighted assist allowed Emmanuele Giaccherini to open the scoring against Belgium – Bonucci proved he had become a master at doing just that, showcasing an ability that Serie A watchers had long been aware of. He also displayed his incredible mental toughness, dispatching a penalty in the quarter-final clash with Germany as the Azzurri again impressed and the 29-year-old continued his streak of netting in big games.

In the past two seasons alone, Bonucci has scored goals against Inter, Lazio, Fiorentina, Milan and Roma, helping Juventus overcome their biggest rivals on the path to Serie A glory. The Turin-based giants are aiming to secure a record sixth consecutive title this term, and Bonucci belongs to the small band of players who have been with the club through that entire period.

Defender first

Yet for all his goals and incredible passing, Bonucci is first and foremost an accomplished defender. Strong on the ground, excellent in the air and almost invariably in the right position, the centre-back has emerged as a leader in a team of winners.

Following a stellar showing against Bayern Munich in the Champions League last term, Pep Guardiola labelled the Italian “one of my favourite-ever players”, leading to speculation that a move to Manchester City could be in the offing. There was talk of a €45 million bid being rejected, as well as rumours relating to a reunion with Conte at Chelsea, but the man himself had other ideas.

“If I said that I wasn’t tempted this summer by an offer from England, above all for the coaches that wanted me, then that would be a lie,” Bonucci admitted. “But Juventus is my home and I'm happy to have remained. My dream was to win with this shirt and now I am here, ready to improve as a player and challenge myself to make this team become a legend.”

He now has that chance.

Bonucci enjoyed another successful year at Juventus

24. Philipp Lahm

Jamie Carragher may once have asserted that “no one wants to be a full-back as a kid”, but it’s safe to say that aspiring young footballers across the world would jump at the chance to have a career even half as successful as Lahm’s.

The Bayern Munich captain has won eight league titles, seven German Cups, the Champions League and the World Cup since breaking through in 2002. And while he recently refused to rule out the prospect of retiring at the end of the current campaign, his medal collection would have been more substantial than the vast majority of his peers even if he’d hung up his boots half a decade ago.

Lahm’s 2016 began with Bayern’s 2-1 victory over Hamburg on January 22, one of 26 wins he’s been involved in throughout the calendar year so far. The Bavarians' latest championship in the spring moved the right-back level with former team-mates Mehmet Scholl, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Oliver Kahn as the players with the most Bundesliga crowns in the division’s history, and Lahm is as essential as ever to his team’s annual procurement of silverware.

International absence

Germany head coach Joachim Low is entitled to wonder whether Euro 2016 would have similarly ended in success for the world champions had Lahm not called it a day at international level two years previously. Although Joshua Kimmich performed admirably out of position at right-back after a failed experiment involving Schalke’s Benedikt Howedes, the Germans patently missed the experience, leadership and calming presence of a man who won 113 caps during his time as a member of the national team.

The fact that numerous fans of Die Mannschaft were keen to see him make a return for the tournament in France says everything about Lahm’s enduring quality. Technically excellent and tactically intelligent, the full-back is able to contribute in both attacking and defensive phases of play, all while rarely affording an opponent too much space or finding himself out of a position at a critical moment.

Lahm has tended to stick to right-back in 2016 following a spell in central midfield early on in Pep Guardiola's tenure, but his understanding of the game is such that he’d probably be one of the leading contenders to fill in elsewhere were Bayern hit by an injury crisis at some point this season.

Nearing the end

With so much still to give, then, Lahm surely won't walk away from the game in a few months’ time? “He won’t retire just yet, I simply don’t believe that,” club colleague Javi Martinez insisted in November, prompting a sigh of relief from Bayern supporters everywhere. “I’d say he still has four or so years left in him.”

The club’s new boss Carlo Ancelotti – the eighth different manager Lahm has worked under at the Allianz Arena – believes the 33-year-old has even more gas left in the tank. “He's always the first to arrive [to training] and the last to leave,” the Italian revealed in an interview with Sport1 in August. “I'm convinced that he can play until he's 39.”

Football fans everywhere – including those under the age of 18 – should hope that Ancelotti is right.

Lahm got his hands on two more trophies in 2016

23. Toni Kroos

Stefan Reinartz retired from football in May after completing his final professional season with Eintracht Frankfurt. Injuries had reportedly taken their toll and the 27-year-old defensive midfielder couldn’t carry on.

Still nursing a burning passion for football, Reinartz took a keen interest in data analytics and understanding the game from a statistical viewpoint. You may have since heard of his – and team-mate Jens Hegeler’s – numbers-based examination of the game, which aims to decipher football in a more accurate way than the widely used ‘Expected Goals’ model (German football journalist Raphael Honigstein has written about the new method previously, for one). 

Pass master

If not, it’s called Packing. The system measures how many opposition players are taken out of the game by a particular action, namely a pass or dribble. And Reinartz's new process found that Toni Kroos was the best passer at Euro 2016 on account of his unerring ability to push the ball into dangerous areas of the pitch more succesfully than any other player.

Kroos was unable to make the final step with his country, of course, as Germany crashed out at the semi-final stage after losing to hosts France in the semi-finals. Being named in the team of the tournament may have helped the talented midfielder get over the defeat, mind.

Kroos was one of the standout performers at Euro 2016

It's not just on the international stage where Kroos has excelled, though. Regardless of whether or not you subscribe to Reinartz’s hypothesis, the naked eye is all that's needed to realise the midfielder is an essential part of Zinedine Zidane's Real Madrid side, who won the club's 11th Champions League trophy this spring. In doing so Kroos became the first German to win the Champions League with two different clubs. His 93.9 per cent pass completion rate last term, meanwhile, was higher than any other player in La Liga, and he also recorded the sixth-most assists and ranked 13th for key passes.

Madrid's fulcrum

It's a similar story this season: Kroos has completed a higher percentage of his passes than any other midfielder in Spain, while only Pablo Piatti has more assists to his name.

Put simply, the German – alongside Luka Modric – is the heartbeat of Zidane’s European champions and one of the most reliable performers for club and country. And at just 26, those long, raking passes are only going to continue being sprayed across the pitch for years to come. 

22. Sergio Busquets

It's a compliment to Sergio Busquets that Luis Enrique is trying to lessen Barcelona's reliance on the midfielder this season.

Many teams come to the Camp Nou and try to get in the Blaugrana’s face, and deep-lying playmaker Busquets is often their first target. Regardless of the amount of pressure he comes under, though, the Spaniard has a knack for retaining possession, picturing the angles and space around him to play his way out of pressure. 

It's a high-pressure job in a team that's expected to dominate the ball every time they take to the field, but Busquets remains the best man for the job. This is the role made for him, with the likes of Sergi Roberto and Javier Mascherano forced to change positions in recent years as a result.

Still essential

Thirty-five appearances in another title-winning year evidences Busquets' ongoing importance to Barça. He's looked a little jaded since a disappointing Euro 2016, though, with Luis Enrique's side's tendency to stretch the pitch during build-up play having made his job significantly more difficult.

Aged 28, Busquets could still have his best years ahead of him – particularly as numerous midfielders in the same mould have played at a high level until their mid-30s. But whatever happens from here, the Sabadell-born regista will be a defining player of his generation.

Relied upon

Spain may be armed with several nimble, agile and diminutive playmakers who can swirl around with fluidity, but there must be a dependable base for everything to fall back upon. Busquets is that midfield anchor, the vital counter-weight, the occasionally cynical and rash presence to break things up in the middle of the park – and after well over 500 professional games, he’s a specialist in the position.

The Euros may have been rather forgettable for Spain, with a change of manager and personnel required in the aftermath. But the fact that Barcelona are still so dependent on Busquets shows what a quality player he still is, and it's likely that Julen Lopetegui will build his Roja side around the awareness, technical ability and cool head provided by the 28-year-old.

Busquets is still a mainstay for both club and country

21. Diego Godin

The rebirth of Atletico Madrid under Diego Simeone has been one of the modern era’s purest pleasures, variously spearheaded by the bloodthirsty counter-attacking of Radamel Falcao, Diego Costa and Antoine Griezmann, while the likes of Arda Turan and Koke have pulled the strings.

But it’s not Atleti’s ability to put the ball in the opponent’s net that has caught the eye during their renaissance; instead, it's their near-psychopathic desire to keep the ball out of their own. And at the heart of that process is the man who could quite easily claim to be the continent’s most consistent defender of the past three years if not, more simply, its outright best.

That Diego Godin’s reputation isn’t more fearsome across the globe is perhaps proof that history – or at least a large part of it – is written by the victors. Had one or both of those two knife-edge Champions League finals swung the other way, or last season’s final-day La Liga title race unfolded differently, then we would probably be talking about an all-conquering defensive warrior in the mould of Alessandro Nesta or Nemanja Vidic.

Solid foundations

As it is, he’ll have to settle for being the defensive lynchpin of a side that single-handedly disrupted – and for a season, dismantled – the most unshakable duopoly European football has ever known. That Atletico were simply able to mount a title challenge in 2014 is achievement enough; that they’ve retained their place at the top table, all the while reaching a pair of European Cup finals, is little short of astonishing.

Godin’s influence on this feat should not be overstated. For three of the past four seasons, Atletico have conceded the fewest goals in La Liga (in the other, they conceded the second-fewest), a trend that culminated in last season’s league campaign, which saw them let in just 18 goals in total and keep a staggering 24 clean sheets.

Throughout those four seasons, the Uruguayan has been an unwavering presence at the heart of Simeone’s defence, never dropping below the 40-appearance mark and (perhaps more importantly) flying the flag for South American centre-backs everywhere by amassing a grand total of 50 yellow cards.

Loves to defend

His angular, loping physique and shabbily receding hairline hardly give the impression of an elite sportsman, which makes it all the more satisfying when you realise Godin is exactly that. His defensive game is largely without weakness: he’s an indomitable aerial presence, has a ferocious appetite for a tackle and possesses that handy knack of coming up with vital goals.

And while he may be a tad underappreciated, he’s hardly unsung: the last six months has seen him awarded Uruguay's highest sports honour by the national parliament in Montevideo, named as the best defender in La Liga and shortlisted for the Ballon d’Or.

As with many at Atletico, you feel he owes much of his progress to his manager. "We have great confidence in him," Godin says of Simeone. "He marks the way for us and we will go with him until death. That is how you achieve things."

Godin arguably epitomises Simeone's Atletico better than any other player

20. Mesut Ozil

So, no, the Premier League isn’t quite the Thunderdome of world football and we should really stop stressing its physicality. However, it would do Mesut Özil a great disservice to pretend that he didn't experience a culture shock when he first arrived in the country, and that his subsequent adaption hasn't been thoroughly impressive.

More than any other recent major signing, the German playmaker has had to labour against reductive stereotypes. His style and Willo The Wisp mechanics have made him easy prey for those who seek to label; in the early months and even to this day, he continues to be flogged with pejorative cliches concerning his work-rate and attitude.

Truthfully, the assist culture that has flared up around him has gone a little too far. Not because Özil isn't one of the most creative players in England (he is: 19 assists in 2015/16 proves that), but rather it reduces him to less than he is. To call him a simple facilitator is to ignore the intelligence with which he moves, the defensive attention he attracts and his ability to influence games without being obviously involved.

See it to believe it

The irony is that, globally recognisable star though he is, Özil isn't really built for the support-by-television age. He's a pertinent example of a player who should only ever be watched from inside a stadium and by those who can see the entire pitch; that's when his influence is most vivid, where he’s most obviously more than just binary code.

Arsenal have been re-weighted in late 2016. Alexis Sanchez has been used most often as a false nine and, in turn, there’s been a greater emphasis on Özil's goalscoring. The assists have receded, but his overall impact has grown: his run-and-header against Watford portrayed his evolving role and his volley against Chelsea, at the end of a flowing counter-attack, was the embodiment of his languid class. In November, his masterpiece against Ludogorets completed a fine comeback and, as if to rally against those accusations of big-game anonymity, Özil was crucial to his side's hopes of topping their Champions League group.

Ozil and Germany fell short at the European Championship in France

Unusually, 2016 didn't bring any international success, with Germany suffering a relatively disappointing European Championship. At 28 and in his theoretical prime, though, Özil looks more at home in English football than ever before and, more importantly, as rounded a footballer as he's ever been.

More to come?

With the conditions now suited perfectly to him at club level and with a supporting cast that looks equipped to achieve, this could be the season in which Arsenal finally end their title drought. Good for Arsene Wenger, good for the supporters, but also good for Özil – his detractors have used that surrounding failure to not only prop up their accusations but also as an excuse to turn away from his more subtle, ethereal qualities.

Özil has won a league title in Spain and the World Cup with his country, so universal acceptance in England will always be a secondary concern. However, the rubber stamp of a championship would add some neat symmetry to this story and weight his mighty talent with some overdue gravitas. Less than what Özil can do for Arsenal, it's more what Arsenal can do for Özil: he's operating at the extremity of his talent and it falls on those around him to translate that into something more tangible.

19. Andres Iniesta

Xavi may be gone, but Andres Iniesta remains – for both club and country. The Spaniard is a key outlet for Barcelona and Spain, bridging the gap between midfield and attack while providing the key to unlocking the most solid defences.

Iniesta’s ability to do that time and time again has saved his teams on numerous occasions, and while Spain fell badly at Euro 2016 it was the 32-year-old who came away with plaudits when few others did.

The diminutive midfielder is still a penetrative force with the ball at his feet, and despite his age he retains a decent turn of pace; that ability to change direction and bamboozle opponents is as effective as ever. With Xavi gone, Iniesta has been handed more responsibility and licence to control the team – and hasn’t flinched once in his new role. Instead he’s showcased even more to remind all why he is one of the best players ever produced by Barça.

Same old Andres

The old facets of his game remain, however; the ability to drive at teams at speed while the ball stays glued to his foot and the penchant for undoing even the meanest of defences. The MSN may steal every headline but the link with Iniesta as their supply line has been vital in their plundering of goals.

Even with one goal to his name, Iniesta’s game is about so much more than filling up the stat columns. A two-month injury layoff didn't impact his season as he – once again – produced several remarkable performances.

Perhaps none were better than that at the Bernabeu, when Barça destroyed Real Madrid to win 4-0. Iniesta was subsequently applauded off the field by rival supporters – an honour only awarded to Ronaldinho in recent seasons. He was around to help Barça over the finishing line in La Liga as they secured yet another triumph.

Summer of rough

Then came the summer, and in a flagging Spain side it was Iniesta who offered la Roja hope at Euro 2016. His consistency, and the level of those performances in France, were overlooked thanks to the nature of Spain’s displays as a collective. Despite falling apart from within it was their ever-reliable, slight midfielder who kept plugging away and sought to drag them through games.

Vicente del Bosque looked to Barça’s string-puller more than ever before and he rarely let his side down. His ability to increase the tempo in what had become a predictable, lethargic Spain side was commendable, and when there was little to no inspiration in the team it was Iniesta who would turn up yet again.

Despite his age the Spaniard has somehow grown even more influential, and rather than drift in games like he once did, Iniesta is instead an integral figure pivotal to the outcome of games. Barcelona and Spain are notably different teams with and without him, so both must be worried of a future without the player.

Injuries generally haven’t been a significant factor in his career, though, so there’s hope that he’ll be around for a while yet. Lionel Messi puts it best: “The hardest thing to do in football is to make it look like everything is easy, effortless – and that's Andres.”

18. Zlatan Ibrahimovic

“It’s not bragging if you can back it up.” One of the many soundbites attributed to Muhammad Ali, who passed away this year, could easily have been said by Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The striker’s career has been driven by two forces: bragging, and backing it up. This year, the latter has never been more necessary.

It doesn’t matter if you’re being tongue-in-cheek or masking insecurity with bluster: when you say, “I won’t be King of Manchester – I will be God of Manchester,” you tend to invite scrutiny, especially in English football’s microclimate of self-importance. Furthermore, the sceptred isle has never allowed itself to be convinced by Ibrahimovic’s qualities. As soon as he signed for Manchester United, then, it was vital for his image that he delivered on his bombast.

It was vital for Jose Mourinho’s image, too: by reputation, ‘failure’ isn’t in the 53-year-old’s lexicon. And it was vital for United, cornered into his appointment by their cross-city rivals’ calculated empire-building and their own balls-up of the Fergie transition.

After Mourinho, United signed Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba as a statement to the league, choosing to ignore the small issue of Mourinho’s 4-2-3-1 system not suiting either of them. Ibrahimovic is a lieutenant for Mourinho, who said of the Swede, “I need guys on the pitch to read the game and understand what we want” (for ‘we’, read ‘I’). But so far, Ibrahimovic and Pogba’s best moments in a red shirt have come from their natural ability.

And so, Ibrahimovic has flopped in England. Right? Wrong.

Instant impact

The Swede delivered immediately. After opening his account with a trademark acrobatic volley in pre-season, he scored United’s winner in the Community Shield, and then from 25 yards on his league debut against Bournemouth.

Four goals in his first four Premier League games also included a vastly underrated strike in his first Manchester derby (watch it again and name three other players in the world who’d score that).

And then: six games, no goals, more questions. He responded in typical Zlatan fashion, saying, “The goals will come: I have more than 450 goals in my career so that is the last thing I’m worried about” and hitting two against Swansea, but others were concerned by that blip.

If we’d drawn up this list a few months ago, he’d have been on the rise from last year’s 16th. Instead, he’s down two places. So, you may ask, why is he in our Top 20 at all?

Goals, goals, goals

It’s crucial here to remember 2015/16. Our timeframe covers far more of that season than this one. And Zlatan Ibrahimovic had an incredible 2015/16.

Even if you think Ligue 1’s full of rubbish – and the French teams who keep beating English sides in Europe would disagree – it's impossible to look at Ibrahimovic’s goal record without awe. Last season it bordered on ridiculous: 29 league starts, 38 goals, 13 assists. Directly contributing to 51 goals over 29 games? That’s insane. Ibrahimovic won Ligue 1’s Golden Boot with the second-highest tally in its 85-year history; he also set a personal first: 50 goals in a season, across all competitions. 

PSG needed those goals. In the nine league matches Ibrahimovic didn’t start, they scored nine goals. FFT’s abacus suggests that’s one per game. In the 29 he did start, they scored 93. On average, PSG scored 3.2 goals in any league game Ibrahimovic started. That’s some impact.

How Manchester United could do with those goals now. Ibrahimovic still has work to do in 2016/17 – and 2017/18, what with the 35-year-old having unexpectedly been offered another year already. It’s time to back it up.

17. Alexis Sanchez

Sandwiched between two highly successful Premier League seasons, Alexis Sanchez played, top-scored in and won the Copa America – Chile's second continental triumph in as many as summers. So, not a bad 2016 at all.

It promises more, though. Whereas Sanchez's first two seasons showed him as a dynamic – and often spectacular – attacking midfield force, in recent months Arsene Wenger has deployed him as the spearhead of his Arsenal formation. It's been highly effective, but also extremely revealing; Sanchez's close control was no secret, nor was his ability to scythe through defensive lines and change games, but this season has showcased his adaptability and revealed what a multi-faceted player he is.

Summers at the Emirates are usually spent fretting over world-class forwards and, truthfully, that has been an obvious Arsenal weakness for some time. It's impressive, therefore, that Sanchez has effectively filled that void. Modern strikers are either built like targetmen or are able to offset physical deficiencies with an abrasive style; the Chilean, however, relies on nothing but technique, intelligence and blood-thinning hard-work to knit his side's attacking phases together. His ability to be both an outlet and a threat at the top of the pitch – no mean feat – has been of the cornerstones of his side's new potency.

Improving others

Rather than lauding him for his individual impact, perhaps Sanchez's worth is more commonly seen in the effect he has on others. While team-mates at Arsenal - notably Mesut Ozil, Santi Cazorla, and Theo Walcott - have all made significant strides themselves this season, the temptation is to believe that, to differing degrees, those improvements all have Sanchez's influence at their root.

As a false nine, he occupies opponents and contorts a defence's shape, but he's also aware enough with the ball to exploit the space he invariably creates. Important goals were recently scored at the Parc des Princes, Vicarage Road and at the Emirates against Chelsea, but his tendency to create chances is what's stood out most in 2016. Not all of them have resulted in goals – naturally, given Arsenal's habitually profligate nature – but they have still furthered his reputation as a Swiss Army Knife of a footballer and as a utility forward who can be dropped into almost any area of the offensive third with the guarantee of production.

Arsenal's superstar

The stunning goals and cute finishes aren’t new, but they're now a lesser part of his overall game: robbing Gary Cahill back in September was an important moment in a big match, but the barometer of his contribution is the reverse passes he’s provided, the touch-and-move phases he’s been a part of and the amount of times Walcott, Iwobi and Ozil have profited directly from his actions.

He was previously great in short bursts, whereas now he’s become a hive of consistent attacking activity, his eclectic range of skills making him almost impossible to subdue. It's been a "what else can you do?" kind of year and, to Sanchez’s great credit, he’s answered that question fully, definitively and to the benefit of his side.

16. Jerome Boateng

Under Pep Guardiola, Jerome Boateng became the greatest defender in the world. During the summer of 2016, he was one of Germany’s most important players with some monstrous performances at Euro 2016. Post-tournament, he was crowned German Footballer of the Year. It was a reminder, however small, that in an age when attackers are valued more highly than ever, world-class defenders are just as important to their team’s fortunes.

In France, Boateng was at the heart of Joachim Low’s challenge for silverware. Right from the first whistle of the world champions’ opening game against Ukraine, his diagonal passes split defences and opened up Germany’s attack. When he wasn’t in possession, his timing in the tackle was superb – although he rarely has to make last-ditch interventions because his positional play is so good. Clearances weren’t an issue, either – against Ukraine, Boateng displayed remarkable agility to prevent the ball crossing the line.

In the knockouts, he scored a sensational opener against Slovakia (his first ever goal for Germany) and was brilliant against Italy, too. When he was forced off with injury after an hour of the semi-final meeting with France, Germany fell apart.

Key man

Die Mannschaft aren’t alone in their dependency on the centre-back. An abductor injury Boateng sustained at the start of 2016 sidelined him for three months – his longest absence since a knee injury at Manchester City in 2011.

During that time, Bayern Munich were missing something. It might not have been so noticeable in the Bundesliga, but in Europe it took Arturo Vidal and a sizeable slice of fortune against Juventus to see the Bavarians through to the semi-finals. Boateng returned for the second leg of the semi-final with Atletico Madrid; his presence wasn’t enough to see Bayern through, but his performance served as yet another reminder of how important he is for his club side.

A player transformed under the tutelage of Guardiola, Boateng has become the modern game’s archetypal defensive quarterback. His passing range and accuracy would impress Tom Brady, and he wins like the New England Patriots man, too: another domestic Double was added to his collection in 2016, with Boateng now a four-time Bundesliga champion.

Natural leader

Carlo Ancelotti’s arrival has put the brakes on Boateng’s dominance as the 28-year-old adjusts to his team’s new approach. The arrival of Germany team-mate Mats Hummels has taken some of the pressure off his shoulders, but it also means he’s no longer the only one spraying passes out from the back.

Despite being a fans’ favourite in Germany, Boateng was overlooked for the captaincy of the national team after Bastian Schweinsteiger’s departure. Nevertheless, he continues to reinforce his leadership qualities week in, week out. Vidal may be louder and fiercer, but Boateng’s quiet authority shines through and will be essential to the Bavarians’ chances of glory this season.

It might not have been as striking a year as 2015 (although his haircuts have certainly been memorable), but Boateng has continued to show why he’s one of the best defenders around. If he can score a few more goals – an area of his game he wants to improve – then Jay-Z's pal will make even more headlines in the next 12 months.

15. Gonzalo Higuain

It says much about modern football that Juventus paid £75 million for a striker turning 29 in the knowledge they’d probably get two good years out of him. It says much about Gonzalo Higuain that they probably made the right call.

There’s a reason Higuain has risen 48 places in the FFT100. In 2015/16 he broke Serie A’s post-war Capocannoniere record (and equalled the all-time record) by scoring 36 league goals for runners-up Napoli. That’s 36, with his nearest rival netting 19. Indeed, since 1959 only one person, Luca Toni, had even reached 30 in a season, and Italian football has seen some pretty decent forwards in the past six decades. Higuain topped the lot.

On April 3, it looked hopeless. Napoli’s trip to Udinese appeared simple enough – their opponents were embroiled in a relegation battle and had scored three fewer goals in the season than Higuain on his own – but with the Partenopei trailing 3-1 despite the Argentine’s rocket from 20 yards, two pointless bookings for off-the-ball incidents condemned Higuain to a three-match ban. Six goals required from seven games became six from four. Then, when Napoli lost 1-0 to Roma upon his return, six from three.

Against the odds

Higuain went into the final 45 minutes of the season, in the driving rain against Frosinone, still needing a second-half hat-trick. A neat first-time volley, and he grabbed the ball from the net. An even neater first-time volley 10 minutes later, and Napoli celebrated the post-war record being matched. And 10 minutes after that, a third volley – nay, an overhead kick from 20 yards, the ball looping over the goalkeeper as if illustrated in a children’s book – and the record was his.

After that ridiculous finale, Higuain’s summer brought drama of a different sort. Argentina breezed into the Copa America Centenario final, with Higuain scoring twice in the quarter-final and twice more in the semi, but for the second year running they lost to Chile on penalties.

A month later, Juventus threw down history’s third-biggest transfer fee for their title rivals’ star. Unlike Diego Maradona before him, Higuain would not be the Argentine driving force behind a Napoli Scudetto. It’s no surprise that receiving a £75m sum hasn’t placated the angry Napoli fans who feel betrayed. It’s no surprise, either, that with Higuain in Turin, Juventus are already four points clear in 2016/17’s Serie A, while Napoli are seventh.

European glory?

Higuain hasn’t been as explosive as he was last season – that would be impossible – but he has adapted to challenges at Juve moderately well. He’s no longer indispensable, despite that transfer fee; Massimiliano Allegri wasn’t afraid to drop Higuain in favour of Mario Mandzukic for “a physical game” against Inter, having apparently been binge-watching The Crystal Maze. Meanwhile, a thigh injury has meant training alone, and Napoli supporters’ fury has reportedly necessitated a 24-hour security escort. Even so, Higuain’s finding the net with some regularity.

Of course he’ll never match 2015/16. Higuain was simply relentless: he scored five braces in seven matches either side of Christmas, and his longest goal drought of the season lasted 200 minutes in February. This wasn’t flat-track bullying, either: that final-day treble was his only hat-trick all season – some feat for 36 goals across 35 matches – and he did not discriminate, scoring against 17 of the league’s 19 other teams.

A Scudetto with Juventus this season looks guaranteed. The real ask: ending their 20-year wait for a Champions League title. Challenge accepted.

14. Paul Pogba

After studying Carlos Tevez and Fernando Llorente while at Juventus, Alvaro Morata has likened playing in Serie A to attending university. But if the striker benefited from a world-class education during his time in Turin, then what about the invaluable lessons learned by Paul Pogba since his arrival at the club in 2012?

Having joined from Manchester United as a highly regarded but untrusted teenager, the Frenchman won four Serie A titles, two Italian Cups and played in a Champions League final during his time with the Bianconeri, and also captained his country to victory at the U20 World Cup. He later became a full international in his own right, and was given a masterclass in tactical and personal discipline by current Chelsea boss Antonio Conte before receiving more responsibility from Max Allegri.

Pogba also spent time picking up tips from illustrious team-mates Andrea Pirlo, Arturo Vidal, Claudio Marchisio and Sami Khedira. In the summer of 2015, he was already regarded as one of the most gifted midfielders in the world, constantly linked with moves away from Juve in stories that discussed world-record transfer fees.

Pressure on young shoulders

Yet the departures of Tevez, Pirlo and Vidal meant the Old Lady had to retain Pogba last summer, with the club handing him a vastly improved contract and the club’s iconic No.10 shirt. That led to significantly heightened expectations as the 2015/16 campaign got under way and – carrying a legacy built by the likes of Michel Platini, Roberto Baggio and Alessandro Del Piero – the burden on his young shoulders proved overwhelming.

“Pogba’s problem is that he has too much quality and when he makes mistakes he gets frustrated,” compatriot Patrice Evra told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Sure, losing the ball is annoying, but it happens because he’s someone who always goes for it and does not hold back.”

He wilted when facing the bigger teams and was clearly targeted in the first leg of Juve’s last-16 Champions League clash with Bayern Munich, where Pep Guardiola ensured his side swamped Pogba whenever he received a pass and forced him into numerous turnovers.

A goal in the return clash couldn't help Juve avoid elimination, but then everything suddenly began to click. Pogba weighed in with five goals and seven assists in the final 12 games of the season, his contributions helping the team to register a second consecutive league-and-cup Double. “Paul has come on a great deal and put in some important displays,” Allegri told a press conference during that period. “If he keeps it simple he’s unplayable. He still must learn a lot but he’s a 23-year-old and should become a top-level European midfielder.”

World-record fee

Back to his best, a lengthy transfer saga this summer resulted in a return to Old Trafford, his former club paying over £89 million for a player who had left for minimal compensation four years earlier. Like the Juventus No.10 shirt, his newfound status as the most expensive player in history has taken a toll on Pogba, who's yet to rediscover the devastating performances he is obviously capable of delivering.

There have been glimpses, of course; the wonderful array of tricks, flicks and laser-guided passes have occasionally surfaced, along with a couple of superbly taken goals. But with the stage set for the pupil to showcase what he's learned during his time away, the Theatre of Dreams has yet to see Pogba at his scene-stealing best.

13. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

In 2015, it was clear that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had become the striker Borussia Dortmund had always hoped he would be, crowning a remarkable 12 months by being named African Footballer of the Year. The 27-year-old didn’t break as many records in 2016, but there can be no denying his place among the striking elite.

There were several signs of that at the end of last season. Against Stuttgart in the German Cup quarter-finals, he showed remarkable poise and skill to find the net. He then scored a similar goal against Sporting this season, highlighting his consistency in front of goal.

At the start of the 2016/17 campaign, Aubameyang had never gone longer than one game in all competitions without a goal for Dortmund. Sixteen games into the new season he already has 16 strikes to his name, including an instinctive and important winner against Bayern Munich.

Among the best

Aubameyang is a player at the top of his game – the Gabonese road-runner is now up there with Luis Suarez, Sergio Aguero and the man whose ghost he’s banished at BVB, Robert Lewandowski. He uses his pace more effectively these days, pinning defenders down and regularly leaving them trailing in the wake of his bright boots. Most importantly of all, he scores more: since joining Dortmund, Aubameyang has improved his goal tally season on season and is on course to do the same this term.

He’s even had a rap record named after him, with the Gabon international and his best mate Marco Reus starring in the video. It made him even more endearing, just as his obvious joy when playing football does. After all, it takes something for a modern-day player to drive an outrageously flashy car and star in a rap video without being laughed at.

Perhaps the one thing Aubameyang needs to improve are his performances in the biggest games. In last season’s Europa League campaign, he showed flashes of his quality – mostly notably against Tottenham – but didn’t deliver enough when it really mattered.

That strike against Bayern in November is a positive sign of change, although his miss against the same opponents in the German Cup final earlier in 2016 still makes for tough viewing. His goal-to-shot ratio may well be improving, but there’s still a fair amount of doubt when he races through for a one-on-one with the goalkeeper. It’s for that reason that any comparisons with Thierry Henry should be made tentatively rather than assertively.

Goal machine

Aubameyang is likely to reach 100 BVB goals before 2016 is out, though, while he’ll also close in on 200 appearances in the coming months. Dortmund has become the perfect home for him, allowing the striker to develop his game in an environment where he’s the main man.

Aubameyang has had his moments of controversy, however. The 27-year-old was suspended for November’s home game against Sporting after breaking squad rules by taking an unauthorised trip abroad. Three days later, he scored four goals in 49 minutes against Hamburg, before admitting his mistake and revealing he’d apologised to manager Thomas Tuchel.

Dortmund fans will be thankful he’s now back doing what he does best: scoring goals.

12. Luka Modric

God's own five-a-side player. 

Answer this: are there any teams in world football which Luka Modric wouldn't improve? In fact, how many of the elite sides from the last 25 years would he have made better? It's a pertinent question because, at 31 and with the sun setting on his prime, it will soon be time to consider Modric's place in football history.

In 2016 he became a European champion for the second time, operating on the right of Zinedine Zidane's three-man midfield. The Santiago Bernabeu is a strange place and it's easy for a Modric-like figure to get lost among the egos, but this was the year in which it was finally accepted that even Real Madrid aren't quite the same without him.

Madrid mainstay

Modric is habitually an understated performer and, in a team which naturally creates highlights, it can be difficult to properly isolate what he brings. He had a very accomplished year, but also a subtle one: his influence was most felt in the texture of games – in their speed and feel, and in the rhythm with which Madrid were able to move the ball up and around the pitch.

In 2015/16, he averaged more passes per game in La Liga than during any other season since moving to Spain. It's a one-dimensional statistic, but it's as good a way of illustrating his growing influence as any. In a more advanced role in England, he would provide neat flourishes and push wingers into attacking space; as his position has deepened at Madrid, the way he affects games has changed. Modric is more fundamental now than at any other point in his career, while the breadth of his influence is also wider than ever before. 

Balance among Galacticos

When a player is described as the heart of his side, images are conjured of uncompromising tackles, boundless energy and a pure form of leadership. But although he doesn't suit those associations, it would still be entirely fair to describe Modric as Madrid's heart.

Beyond the smooth, metronomic distribution (is there a prettier pass in football than the one he gives with the outside of his right foot?), the Croatian has developed key understandings with his full-back (most often Danilo, sometimes Dani Carvajal) and his advanced playmakers, and exhibited positioning and tactical disciplines which, for a while, were assumed to be beyond him. Modric's evolution was glimpsed in the space he covered, the gaps he filled and much of what he did without the ball. Essentially: the dirty work, the roles thought to be beyond finesse players.

He certainly benefits from the balance of the surrounding midfield – the security offered by Casemiro and the expression of Toni Kroos – and from playing behind that heavyweight forward line. Without Modric, though, none of it would work quite as well as it does. In 2016, he's once again been the grease in Madrid’s gears and the oxygen in their lungs.

11. Thomas Muller

In football, creating a whole that exceeds the sum of its parts is generally a task for managers rather than players. Thomas Muller, though, is a footballer who seems to have elevated that ability into an art form. In terms of eye-catching attacking attributes, Muller possesses practically none – he’s not especially quick, tall or strong, rarely shoots from long range, and isn't a distinguished dribbler – and yet he’s one of the most effective and high-pedigree forwards on the planet.

Equally impressive is that he hasn’t overcome those limitations through the traditional route of dutiful industry (although there's plenty of that), but instead with a lightning-quick brain. His self-appointed nickname of the Raumdeuter – the Space Interpreter – has become famous not just because of its originality but also because it perfectly captures the skill that has fired Muller to global eminence.

In that sense, Muller is the prototypical modern attacker: he has no ‘natural’ or fixed position, instead playing the game with flexibility and acute tactical understanding, allowing himself to be guided by his instinct for showing up in exactly the right place at precisely the right time.

Slow start 

It’s an instinct that’s served him well. He’s creeping steadily up Germany’s all-time top-scorers chart (currently 10th, one behind Oliver Bierhoff) and has – until recently at least – become an indispensable part of one of the most dominant Bayern Munich sides of all time, which is no mean feat. “In my team, Muller always plays,” Louis van Gaal famously said, and it was a maxim that Pep Guardiola pretty much followed to the letter, too.

And yet despite flourishing in his three years under Guardiola’s tutelage, Muller's lost some of that momentum since Carlo Ancelotti took the reins. His role within the Italian’s 4-3-3 system is not yet clear, with Muller yet to score a league goal at a point in the season when he had 10 to his name last term. 

In this sense, his jack-of-all-trades status has come back to bite him: he’s a lesser No.9 than Robert Lewandowski, a lesser winger than Arjen Robben and Douglas Costa, and a lesser playmaker than Thiago Alcantara. As such, he’s sometimes had to make do with a spot on the bench, which isn't something he’s been used to in recent years. A bizarre recent feud with the political establishment of San Marino was the latest episode in a campaign where frustrations have so far outnumbered perks.

But let’s not overplay what at this stage is little more than a brief loss of form. In the context of a wildly impressive career, Muller’s current iffy spell qualifies as blip rather than crisis, and there are few sages who don’t think Ancelotti’s Bayern will be a more fearsome prospect if and (in all likelihood) when they carve out a settled role in the starting XI for their space interpreter-in-chief.

This is, after all, a striker who has not only averaged a goal a game for his country since the summer, but who six months ago was celebrating the most prolific season of his career (32 goals was the final tally) with a pair of major trophies. Onwards and upwards.

10. Manuel Neuer

Having already revolutionised the goalkeeping position, Manuel Neuer, like many of his Bayern Munich teammates, was going to have to do something remarkable to go one better in 2016. We rarely see Neuer roaming out of goal to head the ball clear or rob an attacker of possession any more, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been there when his team have needed him most.

This season, with Bayern wobbling against Ingolstadt, Neuer made an incredible save to deny Matthew Leckie. It wasn’t his only big stop of the game, with his performance sparing Bayern’s blushes on what may otherwise have been an extremely embarrassing afternoon.

The German made a brilliant start to Euro 2016 in France this summer. As the world champions’ new captain, Neuer delivered a complete performance against Ukraine that included two superb saves and excellent recycling of the ball with his feet. He led by example; Germany followed suit.

Neuer then went one better against Italy in the nail-biting quarter-final, performing brilliantly in regulation time before saving two penalties in an incredible shoot-out. The Azzurri's goal in that game was the first Neuer had conceded in 665 international minutes.

Quieter times

The 6ft 4in stopper was, as he so often is, reliably inconspicuous during Bayern’s charge to the Bundesliga title last season. It’s clear that the Bavarians’ defence is more comfortable when he’s in between the sticks, but other than a sharp display in the 2-0 win in Wolfsburg and the 0-0 draw against Borussia Dortmund, there was little to write home about in terms of his league form. The same could be said for Neuer’s German Cup performances, although a crucial save in the penalty shoot-out against Dortmund was a reminder of just how brilliant a goalkeeper he is.

For goalkeepers, though, no news tends to be good news. As much as he can be involved with his feet, Neuer’s remarkable ability to be out of the game for so long but still deliver when he’s called upon never fails to impress. His concentration sometimes seems superhuman, which means it’s a major surprise when it drops.

In 2016, however, that happened a lot more than expected. Despite having a great tournament, Neuer’s performance against France in the European Championship semi-final was a far cry from his dominant display in the quarter-final clash with the same opponents at the 2014 World Cup. And in the Champions League last season, he had a horrible night in a 2-2 draw with Benfica.

This term, Neuer didn’t cover himself in glory for Anthony Modeste’s acrobatic goal against him, while he looked equally awkward for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s winner in the recent defeat by Borussia Dortmund. The 30-year-old may be enduring a blip, although it’s more likely that the outstanding standards he set in 2015 were always going to be impossible to maintain.

Still the best

Having said all that, Neuer’s still the goalkeeper that any manager would want between the sticks. His statistics might not make for incredible reading, but he’s always been a player of quality more than quantity. In nearly 300 games for Bayern, Neuer’s conceded fewer than 200 goals; look closer and you’ll realise nearly half of those games ended with a clean sheet for the Gelsenkirchen-born keeper.

The year ahead will be a big one for Neuer. With Bayern struggling to adjust to life after Pep Guardiola, the club will look to their senior players to step up and lead by example. Neuer’s task will be made easier by the completion of Germany’s defensive triangle (Neuer-Hummels-Boateng) at club level, but with new challenges looming he knows he must be better than ever before.

9. Sergio Aguero

Once in a while, players score goals that perfectly characterise their ability. Aguero did just that in Manchester City's 3-1 win over Swansea City in September: his touch and finish for his first goal was quintessentially him and contained all the elements which make him one of the premier forwards of his generation.

Aguero isn't flash and his game isn't a flurry of step-overs and heel-tricks. Each goal he scores (now 152 in 225 Manchester City appearances) attests to the value of honing simple attributes to their fullest extent and mastering the basics of the game; conveniently, that opener at the Liberty Stadium was a descriptive masterpiece.

There were three elements: the idea, the touch and the finish. In isolation they were all relatively simple, but together they attested to just how quickly the Argentinian's mind works and how reliable his execution is. Touch, touch... goal: it's the archetypal Aguero sequence.

Fearsome foe

The greatness of strikers can be reliably measured in fear - both of opponents and rival supporters. In only one of Aguero's six Premier League seasons has he failed to score at a rate of more than a goal a game (2012/13) and, as a consequence, there isn't a more respected marksman in the country.

Fans draw breath when he touches the ball around their box and defenders, paralysed by what they've seen and experienced of him in the past, stand off in the hope of not being embarrassed. Goal tallies are a striker's primary currency, but Aguero's worth can also be felt in those micro-reactions; other players fleetingly occupy the same territory, but he never leaves it.

2016 has been a year of growth. Aguero's more blue-collared qualities are evidenced by his self-improvement. His scoring rate remained fairly constant while under Manuel Pellegrini's direction, but he also noticeably became more of an aerial threat. More recently, Pep Guardiola has challenged his work rate and, stung by Champions League exclusion, Aguero’s responded: note his role in the equaliser against Barcelona in November or, more generally, his developing influence within his side's high press.

Still getting better

That's a highly exclusive gene, because there aren't many elite players who continue to evolve once they reach the top of the game. Aguero has done, though. He has his preferred finishes and familiar traits, but it's remarkable how many different types of goal he scores over a full season and how often, even after half a decade.

The low centre of gravity, movement off the ball and short backlift makes him lethal from anywhere within 30 yards and seemingly allows him to exist independently of defensive pressure; given the breadth of opportunity that creates, it's little surprise he continues to be remarkably eclectic.

In a world occupied by Lionel Messi, he can seem unremarkable. He doesn't translate quite as well to YouTube and doesn't draw the same fanaticism, but he remains English football's apex predator and, terrifyingly for everyone but City and Argentina, the statistics suggest that he's becoming more dangerous.

8. Kevin De Bruyne

When a knee injury ruled out Kevin De Bruyne for February and March of Manchester City’s 2015/16, his club probably didn’t realise just how much they’d miss him.

Ultimately, it was season-ending: the Belgian missed seven matches, of which they won the first at Sunderland but then contrived to lose against Leicester (1-3), Tottenham (1-2), Liverpool (0-3) and Manchester United (0-1), and failed to beat Norwich.  

Each defeat was a crippling blow; a sequence of fixtures that began with City three points behind Leicester in second place had left them 14 behind in sixth. De Bruyne scored on his return to first-team action against Bournemouth, one of 17 goals in a promising debut season at the Etihad Stadium, but by then it was too late.

Influential attacker

Fast-forward almost eight months and a fit De Bruyne is demonstrating why City always knew their £55 million investment was a safe bet. He’d already impressed in his first season – injury just came at the worst time possible – and in 2016/17 he’s picked up where he left off.

After 12 games of the campaign De Bruyne was already two assists clear of any other player (7), having missed one match with a hamstring tweak. Two goals were welcome bonuses, particularly a fine finish in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford in September.

He opened the scoring after zipping away from Daley Blind and finishing coolly past David de Gea, and then had a hand in No.2 when he hit the post and Kelechi Iheanacho stabbed into an empty net from six yards out. City were effervescent that day, and their 25-year-old playmaker epitomised that confidence from the start.

Game changer

It’s a commodity De Bruyne is not lacking; he is well aware of his majestic ability as a genuine world-class player who can help separate City from mediocrity and greatness in their biggest matches. When they beat Barcelona 3-1 at the Etihad it was the Belgian playmaker who thumped in the free-kick that made it 2-1.

There’s a case to argue that he’s the Premier League’s best player. He's edged it over Sergio Aguero for us – if only just – but it doesn’t matter a jot to Pep Guardiola, who has the top flight’s two finest stars feeding off one another like a modern-day Summerbee-Law double act.

It’s easy to look back now and wonder why Jose Mourinho never gave him the opportunities at Chelsea that his current ability would have commanded, but De Bruyne was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. He needed his permanent breakaway to Germany to establish himself as the bona fide star he is today, very much in the right place at the right time.

 

 

Read more at http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/fourfourtwos-best-100-football-players-world-2016-8-kevin-de-bruyne#pkDo3hoTZy02CV31.99

7. Robert Lewandowski

It was always going to be difficult for Lewandowski to improve on 2015, which was undoubtedly the best year of his professional career – the only thing that was missing was a Champions League winner’s medal.

Not much changed as 2016 rolled in. Lewandowski was a consistent scorer in the final stretch of Bayern’s Bundesliga triumph, contributing 15 strikes in the second half of the season. He finished the campaign with the Golden Boot having notched 30 of Bayern’s 80 league goals, with his effort against Wolfsburg (the same team he famously scored five in nine minutes against last year) on matchday 23 highlighting the confidence with which the Polish striker now struts around a football field.

After the game, Lewandowski asserted in an interview: “I want to score goals systematically.” While he was doing just that under Pep Guardiola at club level, he was unable to have the same impact on the international stage: Poland may have reached the quarter-finals of Euro 2016, but their star man managed just one goal in France.

Hot marksman

Perhaps his domestic heroics left him with too little gas in the tank in June and July; the fact he’s hit seven of Poland’s 10 goals in their first four World Cup qualifiers certainly seems to suggest he’s back to his clinical best after the summer break.

Lewandowski’s quality is undeniable. Guardiola labelled him one of the most professional players in the world and new Bayern head coach Carlo Ancelotti believes him to be one of the top three centre-forwards around.

In a recent interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung, Lewandowski revealed he’s improved in the last couple of years, largely because “I can [now] combine better with other players.”

That hasn’t been easy in the new season, with Lewandowski often crowded out by five-man backlines. In the same interview, the Polish striker revealed that Ancelotti wants him to play more like a traditional striker, one who favours killer instinct over tactical awareness.

Next step?

At the start of the season, there was plenty of that on show. An opening day hat-trick against Werder Bremen served as evidence of his opportunism. And then in a tense game against Schalke, Lewandowski made the breakthrough in the final 10 minutes with an incredible display of composure. It was the perfect example of just how much of a difference-maker he can be.

Goal droughts are concerning for any striker, and Lewandowski was soon reminded what one of those feels like. Between matchday four and eight of the new season, the Pole failed to find the net. Many pointed the finger at Ancelotti, but Lewandowski’s recent performance against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League show that even the most brilliant scorers in the modern game can struggle against well-organised defences.

The way the 28-year-old’s career has panned out up to now suggests that a reported new contract doesn’t mean he’ll necessary stay at Bayern, although Lewandowski must surely be tempted to score the 19 goals he needs to reach 100 for the club. The Bavarians won’t mind that one bit - especially if those strikes lead them to European glory.

6. Gareth Bale

There was a point in Gareth Bale’s career when it looked like his Real Madrid dream was coming to an end. Rumours of discontent among his own team-mates, an inability to integrate into Spanish culture and some generally underwhelming performances on the field were all prevalent features. That's a distant memory now, though, with Bale closing in on doing the unthinkable and becoming the heir to Cristiano Ronaldo’s throne.

The Portuguese still rattles the goals in, but the mesmerising performances of old - littered with mazy runs down the wing - are consigned to video compilations. It’s a good job, then, that Madrid have Bale.

The Welshman has grown in stature over the last year, and it all started with Rafa Benitez's ill-fated reign. Under Carlo Ancelotti, Bale looked to be heading for the exit door - before the Italian was shown it himself. Bale was then taken under the wing of Benitez, who put him on the right path to becoming the golden boy at the club. It was under the Spanish coach that Bale began to fly just like he had in north London, rampaging down the flank and also proving a dynamic force through the middle.

Relentless production

The Welshman has begun to take up more important positions on the field, understanding where he needs to be to cause maximum destruction. Despite the departure of Benitez, there's been no relenting in Bale’s form: under Zinedine Zidane and with Ronaldo in decline, the 26-year-old has come to the fore as a leader. This culminated in his strong Champions League final display, in which he assisted a goal and scored in the penalty shoot-out. 

The former Southampton full-back has become a clinical performer, creating chances and also taking them himself. His physical attributes are phenomenal: he provides speed and strength in a league which has seldom seen such a devastating combination of the two.

When Bale wants to control a game, or decide one, then he will.  He did it for his country in the summer, too, as Wales produced one of the most memorable performances of any team at Euro 2016.

National icon

Bale led Chris Coleman's side, becoming one of the few superstars who actually delivered in France. In turn Wales grew in strength as the competition went on, fuelled by their star man's heroics; Bale was unselfish and showed character, as well as providing a number of crucial goals that made him the competition's joint-second top scorer.

The rewards haven’t stopped coming for Bale, who recently signed a bumper new deal to cement his status as a key player at Madrid. It’s a world away from the stories of a shy young man failing to adapt to Spanish life. The club is now very much in the palm of Bale's hand and it's only a matter of time before Ronaldo relinquishes his place on the Bernabeu throne.

5. Neymar

There were two main tasks awaiting Neymar upon signing for Barcelona. The first was to create a platform for himself to co-exist with Lionel Messi and the club's other superstars. The other was to prove that he could be the heir to Messi’s throne when the Argentine eventually calls it a day.

It’s safe to say Neymar has accomplished the first and is on track to completing the second, too. His progress over the last 12 months has been superb, with the Brazilian showing the humility to work in tandem with his team-mates but also the ability to lead the line when required. The skills and thrills are still there, but there’s also an essential understanding of his place within the collective.

Improved consistency

Neymar is rarely greedy or selfish; instead he's always willing to lay on a pass for a team-mate and even contribute in the defensive phase of play. The fears that he would do neither have been comprehensively disproven.

Looking back, November 2015 was a key juncture in Neymar’s career at the Camp Nou. It was then that he produced his most scintillating form, which included a stunning goal against Villarreal. At the time, Neymar was probably the best player in the world - for once Messi had taken a back seat. It was unfortunate, then, that he faltered so badly down the final stretch of the season.

Despite that, he still managed 31 goals in all competitions and deservedly secured a spot in the Ballon d’Or top three. His downturn was perhaps a combination of fatigue and pressure catching up with him, or maybe he was saving himself for a busy summer back home.

Olympic gold

After missing out on the Copa America Centenario, Neymar returned to Brazil to compete in the Olympics in August. The Selecao were worthy winners, securing their first ever gold medal in the sport, and the tears that run down their star man's face showed how much it meant to him.

It was Neymar who scored the winning penalty against Germany in the final, with the 24-year-old immediately dropping to his knees as virtually everyone around him went wild. It was an emotional moment and one of the most significant in Neymar's career to date.

Barcelona recently acknowledged his development as a player and a person by tying him down to a whopping new contract which runs until 2021. By then you’d expect him to be the main draw at Camp Nou. The world better be warned that, despite everything Neymar has accomplished so far, there's much more still to come.

4. Antoine Griezmann

English football is full of tales of technically able, but physically lacking, youngsters who fall out of love with the beautiful game after one knockback too many. Yet, Blighty isn’t the only country afflicted by ‘too small-itis'. More than a decade ago, France nearly lost its crown jewel.

By 2005, rejection letters kept falling through Alain Griezmann’s letterbox. Auxerre, Saint-Etienne, Sochaux, even Lyon, the team his 13-year-old son Antoine supported, didn’t want to know. Lyon wasn’t even the one that really hurt, though. Metz reneged on their offer of a trial, again stating Griezmann was too small, without even seeing him play.

Eric Olhats saved everything one day in Paris. The Real Sociedad scout had just returned from a trip to Argentina and only went to a tournament hosted by PSG to see some industry friends at the Camp des Loges training ground. So enchanted was Olhats by the tiny kid wearing a Jamaica t-shirt instead of a Montpellier club tracksuit in one game, he gave the trialist his card and begged him to have his father call. The rest is history.

Major strides

First in San Sebastian, now in the Spanish capital at Diego Simeone’s visceral Atletico Madrid, Griezmann has become a star of worldwide acclaim. Perhaps more than any other player, 2016 has been his year. Yes, he lost the Champions League and Euro 2016 finals (each to a team containing Cristiano Ronaldo), but he was probably the best player in both competitions. He was certainly voted so in his home tournament for France, scoring more goals at a Euros than any other player since Michel Platini in 1984.

This summer was an important one for the 23-year-old. Griezmann has lived in Spain since Olhats first took him to Real Sociedad. He celebrates goals he scores, even for France, in Spanish. He drinks the South American herbal tea maté ever since his Real Sociedad B coach Martin Lasarte introduced him to its restorative powers. France wondered if he was really that bothered. Six goals, player of the tournament and tears at losing to Portugal saw him settle any doubts.

A return of 32 goals in 54 appearances in all competitions for Atletico in 2015/16 was equally phenomenal. So is nine in his first 17 this season. When he first arrived at the Vicente Calderon in the summer of 2014 for €30m, Griezmann was nervous at the prospect of replacing the Chelsea-bound Diego Costa; now he’s the go-to player, the shyness definitively gone. The Hotline Bling celebration is testament to that.

Now playing regularly as a centre-forward, Griezmann has added clinical finishing to his game. 

“He always knows how to hurt the opposition,” says Atleti boss Simeone. “He puts everything away.”

Premier League on the horizon?

If the rumour mill is to be believed, Chelsea are sniffing around. Manchester City, too. Now representing himself after bidding adieu to his agent a couple of months ago, Griezmann will likely stay at Atletico as long as Simeone does, which is believed to be the end of 2017/18, the club’s first at the new stadium.

For now, though, just enjoy the artistic brilliance of a slight, frail-looking attacker blessed with supreme confidence and ability honed by years of studying YouTube videos and his superiors in training. To be the best, Griezmann knew he had to work, to make up for the physique that nearly denied him a place at football’s top table.

On his forearm, he has the tattoo of a phrase from The Little Prince by eminent French author Antoine De Saint-Exupery. “Fais de ta vie un rêve, et fais de ton rêve une réalité,” it reads, meaning “make your life a dream, and make your dream a reality”

He’s certainly done that. And it all began in one 10-minute cameo in 2005, wearing a Jamaica t-shirt.

3. Luis Suarez

The weak link in MSN they once said. How absurd that take now looks. Luis Suarez has if anything, grown to be possibly the most productive member of the greatest attacking trio ever seen in the game.

There's also the fact he’s become the best striker in the world, with his goalscoring reaching a phenomenal level. Suarez proceeded to register 40 goals in LaLiga last season, and won the much lauded Pichichi Trophy winner awarded the top scorer in the league. The monopoly of the award being passed between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi was over. Not content with that, he landed the European Golden Shoe award too, and like with the Pichichi, became the first player to win the award other than the duo.

An incredible 15 of his goals were scored in the final five games, and Suarez also managed to tie with Messi for the most assists in La Liga. It built incredibly on an impressive debut season for the player, at the club some doubted he could fit in to. Suarez has never looked out of place, and with Messi and Neymar beside him has only improved his game and competed at a higher level. Playing with such great players has clearly raised the game of the Uruguayan, who also shone while in the Premier League with Liverpool.

Suarez’s movement and instincts in attack have been paramount to his success at Barca, and his ability to take up key positions in the penalty area and float dangerously outside it have seen him not only notch goals himself but also open up more opportunities for his partners in crime. Humble, unselfish, hard working - Suarez has become a popular figure at Camp Nou and one whom people now look upon for inspiration in games. 

Reliable figure

It's obvious Neymar is still growing, and Messi can’t always do it all on his own. In then, comes Suarez. The 29-year-old rarely disappoints when pressure is put on his shoulders – instead he turns up and gets the job done in expert fashion. There are no histrionics with him. His private life remains quiet, and on the field he lets his goalscoring do the talking. He’s very much an unassuming character in the team that all the world wants to see, but make no mistake he’s also the most deadly.

His finishing has only improved since his Liverpool days. With Suarez now operating at a higher level he realises waste isn’t acceptable. The only blot on his copybook over the past 12 months has been an injury at the end of the domestic season that shattered his Copa America participation. Suarez was in the Uruguay squad for the tournament, but didn’t make it on the field as his beloved nation exited without even a whimper.

Next surely for Suarez is reaching the pinnacle of world football after now breaking into the Ronaldo and Messi monopoly thanks largely due to his goalscoring. No one else is scoring with such aplomb at a high level, and at 29-years-old he is at the very peak of his powers.

2. Lionel Messi

Despite suffering two muscle injuries, losing the Copa America Centenario final with a penalty sent over the bar and announcing his international retirement (before later reconsidering), Lionel Messi has every reason to be happy: his 2016 was the coronation of the modern Messi, the player we'll all enjoy in the years ahead.

Discussions over whether an ageing and slower Messi would become a static centre-forward or a classic No.10 have taken place for the past decade, with opinions divided. But 12 years after making his professional debut for Barcelona, Messi's now unlocked a different 3.0 version of himself.

From a right-wing dribbler (1.0) to a devastating penalty-box scorer (2.0), Messi's now became a strategist, capable of deciding when to score but also when to assist, when to be close to the box and when to enjoy the full-pitch panorama. Since the introduction of Barcelona’s current trident, which includes an out-and-out striker in Luis Suarez, Messi’s involvement in the build-up has been more active than ever before.

All-round attacker

His free-kick technique has improved - witness his stunning strike against the United States - with Messi enjoying his most prolific year from set-pieces. 

He's also excelled when it comes to playing through-balls, a skill he's been able to practice regularly at club level thanks to the movement of Suarez and Neymar. It's been a different story at international level, though, with Messi forced to carry Argentina due to underperformance from his attacking team-mates.

“You don’t win in chess with a Queen but no Rooks, or Bishops, or Pawns, or Knights. Argentina doesn’t get it yet,” El Grafico wrote earlier this year. “Messi’s challenge: how to defend the country with a plastic fork and a plastic knife” was the headline chosen by newspaper La Nacion.

National team pain

The disappointment at losing another final with Argentina brought about a change in Messi's appearance, who died his hair blonde and grew a beard. He later admitted that this was a way of him starting over and resetting ahead of the 2016/17 campaign, where he's dragged his country back into contention in World Cup qualifying.

The modern Messi has become a leader, too, as demonstrated by his recent decision to lead his international team-mates in a boycott of the Argentine press. 

The 29-year-old will probably end 2016 as Europe's top scorer and leading assist provider, which shows how influential he's been. This is a different Messi now, but that doesn't mean he isn't equally brilliant.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo

It says everything about Cristiano Ronaldo’s still-bulletproof confidence that he's described a year in which many have tried to suggest that his imperiousness is waning as “the best of my life.” In fairness, he has all the ammunition one might need as he exits 2016 with a Champions League, a European Championship with Portugal and a new five-year contract at Real Madrid all safely stashed at Casa Ronnie.

The rate at which records continue to fall at his feet is remarkable. This year he arrived at a total of 500 goals in club football, and matched Gerd Müller and Robbie Keane’s 68-goal hauls in the international game with a brace in Portugal’s November defeat of Latvia.

Yet there’s no denying Ronaldo is visibly ageing - and changing. That's been the case for a while now, with his body perhaps finally paying the price for the relentless, punishing workload he's put it through for over a decade. Portugal collectively held its breath on the eve of Euro 2016 as doubts over his fitness bobbed to the surface in spring (Ronaldo missed the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against Manchester City), bringing back bad memories of the World Cup two years before - which he admitted in his documentary film, Ronaldo, that he shouldn’t have played in.

International glory

Even amid the joy of Madrid’s win in Milan, which he sealed with the winning kick in the penalty shoot-out – tearing his shirt off in celebration as he had done when setting the seal on the 2014 final win over Atletico in Lisbon – there was cause for concern. He was a pale imitation of himself for most of the game, a passenger. One was justified in wondering what sort of state he would arrive at the Euros in.

Brazil had been agony for Ronaldo and his fans alike, as he fought vainly against nature; this time, in France, there was a happy ending. Much of the credit for that has to go to Fernando Santos, with Portugal’s wily and experienced coach understanding that his captain is not quite the explosive force of years past. Santos moved to a 4-4-2 which required Ronaldo to run less, and crucially gave him the close support of Nani, his fellow Sporting academy graduate.

Still, nobody could have foreseen the high drama of the Saint-Denis final, where he was hobbled by a Dimitri Payet challenge and – after again trying to play through it – was forced from the field in tears. His final role was that of a frantic, unhinged and heavily bandaged touchline coach, roaring Portugal over the line in extra time. It revealed another side to Ronaldo to the world at large, one that his countrymen have been aware of for a very long time; that for all his posturing and scarcely concealed vanity, there are few things that matter more to him that playing for – and winning for – his country. The Euros, as much as the Champions League or the Ballon d’Or, were the realisation of a long-held dream.

Goal machine

The one thing that hasn’t changed this year, of course, is the goals. Ronaldo has continued - remarkably so given the injury obstacles placed in his way - to rattle along at a goal per game for club and country, and it’s easy to see why Florentino Perez has placed such faith in his medium-term future. Portugal’s skipper is more than just a totem for Real’s success.

He’s a guarantee of goals and given his finishing power, his strength, his aerial prowess and – most importantly – his own understanding of how he’s becoming a more penalty box-based player, there’s little to suggest he can’t continue at the top of the game for a while longer yet. Before, Ronaldo wanted to do everything. Now he knows he needs to be served.

As he celebrated his new deal at a packed Palco de Honor in the Bernabeu in November, Ronaldo spoke on his apparent fixation with the Ballon d’Or. “I’m not obsessed with this,” he insisted. “Obviously it’s important but for me, the key to the individual prizes are the collective ones.” In that respect, he couldn’t have done much more this year to cement his legend.