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