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Guardian Reveal Their Top 100 Footballers Of The Year

Guardian Reveal Their Top 100 Footballers Of The Year

It's no surprise that Lionel Messi tops the bill as the best male footballer of 2019, having won his sixth Ballon d'Or this year.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Lionel Messi pipped Virgil van Dijk to the title of world's best player twice this year and now he's topped the Liverpool defender in a list of the top 100 male footballers this year.

Guardian writers got together to hash out their top 100 male players this year and it will come as a surprise to no one that Messi is top but Liverpool's dominance of football both domestically and in Europe is shown by having four players in the top 10 and another five in the top 50.

1. Lionel Messi

2. Virgil van Dijk

3. Sadio Mane

Sadio Mane hoping to get himself bumped up to second. Image: PA Images
Sadio Mane hoping to get himself bumped up to second. Image: PA Images

4. Cristiano Ronaldo

5. Mo Salah

6. Kylian Mbappe

7. Robert Lewandowski

8. Raheem Sterling

9. Alisson

10. Frenkie de Jong

11. Roberto Firmino

12. Kevin de Bruyne

13. Sergio Aguero

14. Eden Hazard

15. Harry Kane

Kane helped get Spurs to a Champions League final. Image: PA Images
Kane helped get Spurs to a Champions League final. Image: PA Images

16. Bernardo Silva

17. Trent Alexander-Arnold

18. Matthijs de Ligt

19. Son Heung-min

20. Karim Benzema

21. Marc-Andre ter Stegen

22. N'Golo Kante

23. Andrew Robertson

24. Jan Oblak

25. Antoine Griezmann

Griezmann finally moved to Barca this year. Image: PA Images
Griezmann finally moved to Barca this year. Image: PA Images

26. Luis Suarez

27. Dusan Tadic

28. Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang

29. Hakim Ziyech

30. Kalidou Koulibaly

31. Neymar

32. Jadon Sancho

33. Donny van der Beek

34. Fabinho

35. Joao Felix

36. Sergio Ramos


37. Joshua Kimmich

38. Serge Gnabry

39. Angel di Maria

40. Ederson

41. Christian Eriksen

42. Paulo Dybala

43. Georginio Wijnaldum

44. Toni Kroos

45. Luka Modric

46. David Silva

47. Lautaro Martinez

48. Jamie Vardy

49. Riyad Mahrez

50. Miralem Pjanic

51. Romelu Lukaku

52. Gabriel Barbosa

Barbosa's late goals won the Copa Libertadores for Flamengo. Image: PA Images
Barbosa's late goals won the Copa Libertadores for Flamengo. Image: PA Images

53. Erling Haaland

54. Aymeric Laporte

55. Paul Pogba

56. Edinson Cavani

57. Dani Alves

58. Timo Werner

59. Fernandinho

60. Mauro Icardi

61. Casemiro

62. Jorginho

63. Ciro Immobile

64. Duvan Zapata

65. Jordi Alba

66. Bruno Henrique

67. Lucas Moura

68. Thiago Silva

69. Bruno Fernandes

It was a surprise Bruno Fernandes didn't move last summer. Image: PA Images
It was a surprise Bruno Fernandes didn't move last summer. Image: PA Images

70. Giorgio Chiellini

71. Marquinhos

72. Marcus Rashford

73. Raphael Varane

74. Jordan Henderson

75. Gabriel Jesus

76. Memphis Depay

77. Arthur

78. Dries Mertens

79. Sergio Busquets

80. Marco Reus

81. Marco Verratti

82. Gerard Pique

83. Jose Maria Gimenez

84. Teemu Pukki

85. Diego Godin

86. Kai Havertz

87. Tammy Abraham


88. Hugo Lloris

89. Dele Alli

90. Achraf Hakimi

91. Leroy Sane

92. Everton

93. David de Gea

94. Fabio Quagliarella

95. Idrissa Gueye

96. Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan had another good goal scoring year. Image: PA Images
Zlatan had another good goal scoring year. Image: PA Images

97. Santi Cazorla

98. Samir Handanovic

99. Alexandre Lacazette

100. Philippe Coutinho

The list is sure to cause some amount of controversy and there's likely that we'd all have our own opinions on where certain players should actually be on the list, has Paul Pogba really been good enough this year for 55th?

Should Lionel Messi have won all the awards he did? Should he be top? Won't someone please give Virgil van Dijk the top spot he deserves?

Featured Image Credit:

Topics:ย Liverpool, Football News, World Football, Barcelona, Serie A, Ligue 1, Lionel Messi, Premier League, Ballon d'Or, Virgil Van Dijk, La Liga, Bundesliga