the only mystical thing here is your idea of quality opposition

I do think the Olympics have been strong in the past. Well at least the top teams and then I guess maybe a huge gap to some of the others. Looking at the squads unfortunately it might only be Brazil where 11 out of 16 are on this list. Then Spain with 7 but everyone in the squad already being a decent candidate, that are excellent. Unfortunately Argentina isn't there this time. I didn't even know that but they've had some great squads present in the past.

Uruguay at least have the attacking stars coming along and I also suspect Switzerland and Mexico will be good (maybe Korea and Japan as well), but on paper at least, certainly not close to Brazil and Spain. The Great Britain team, will have home advantage, some stars too, but like his u21 team did, I don't have a difficult team imagining them suffering under Pearce's tactics which can match up really bad with these kind of opponents and be exploited badly.

Right. Clearly he is constantly going up against the best defenders in the world currently

lol derpdawg, may as well use the wet tuesday in stoke criteria then

messi v world's best defenders:

lol u

One of the things that's most striking to me about the list, and about world football right now, is how Brazil doesn't have any super elite players.

Not only is there no Brazilian with even an argument as the best player in the world, there pretty much aren't any that you could say with a straight face were Top 20.

Bjorn, who we all respect, doesn't even have any in the Top 30!

Going back, all the way to the days of Pele, was there ever a time where you could say that before?

It seems like Brazil constantly has at least a Top 3 player, and it's pretty unthinkable for them not to have even a Top 20 guy (or Top 30!).

Neymar may (or may not) fix all that within a couple of years, but it's pretty amazing when you think about it. I'd be shocked if there was ever a time before this when the top of a list like this would be so devoid of Brazilians.

Thiago Silva is the best CB in the world and Dani Alves is the best rb in the world, but due to their position bjorn doesn't rate them top 10/20/30 in the world.

Was roberto carlos or jorginho a top 10 player in the world?

It's all based on positional adjustments. Neymar is too young to be there, pato fell short; however, there is an insane wave of attacking talent coming up.

Damiao, lucas, ganso, oscar and the aforementioned Neymar.

Well, Kaka, Pato and Ganso have all fallen from 2-3 years ago where they looked like they could be world class (and Kaka was a season removed from the best player in the world). Pato and Ganso are young enough to come back, but their injury problems make it a big maybe.

Hazard had one of the best seasons in Europe last year. I really don't think if you put Neymar on that Lille team he be top 3 in goals and assists and have the same level of influence. Neymar is very good, but he flopped at the only big competition he's ever been in.

I will say Neymar feels like an elite player. It's just that he is still in Brazil,
The last few times I've seen him he has been pretty unreal as he's become physically stronger along with his other gifts. I might have to push him upwards a little bit at least. For an example he should be the country's best player moving in front of Dani Alves at this point. All in all after some more thought, with his injury, and Brazilian league(s) getting stronger and richer, I like his case over someone like Götze too.

But still, while I liked that (your) point more the previous list and one before that, it's still an interesting one and there is no doubt that there has been a weak period for Brazil.

Right this moment though, this is now starting to feel like a really strong time for Brazilians is just around the corner if it has not begun already.
More and more are emerging, I've certainly never had this many on the list, they are everywhere (well except at the very top..), 39 and many more could be added, so after perhaps an all time weak period it feels like they're coming back very strong just in time for their World Cup.

Also worth mentioning (edit: and Fonkey already did) that I think Thiago Silva has established himself as the world's best defender, and while that doesn't in my view make him better than the best players in other positions, he is certainly a very important player and if there is some truth to some of the rave reviews Dede has been getting (player of the year ahead of Neymar) they might have another well on his way.

On a random note, while going through the list, I realized I had deleted Podolski in the apparently super risky journey from word document to this thread. No wonder I suddenly miss players while updating here.... argh I really hope he is the only one but if anyone at some point would notice someone they think is super obvious and missing (and I realize not many are that simple!) let me know.

Anyway he was supposed to be ranked 121 and will be when I post a final-final version here and on the blog later.

Would be one of the greatest defensive midfielders ever.

Regarding Brazil, they still had the second best odds to win WC10 and are favourites to win WC14.

Obviously their status for the next tournament is greatly helped by the fact that they are hosts, but they would still be one of the top 3-4 favourites if it were somewhere neutral.

It goes to show you how high their floor is. The last few years have pretty much been an anti-golden generation and they are still one of the best teams in the world.

Absolutely, there are excellent Brazilian players playing all over the world. It seems like every single league has its fair share. Not to mention the fact that great individuals =! great teams ldo.

But there was almost an unbroken string (maybe my memory is just failing, and it seemed that way?) of Brazilian candidates for best player in the world going from Kaka to Ronaldinho to Fat Ronaldo (with Rivaldo mixed in there at some points) and all the way back to Romario.

Before that (my birth basically) I'm not as sure of the timeline but I'm under the impression that between Zico, Socrates, Garrincha, Pele et al, Brazil more or less always had a candidate for at least the Top 5.

The selecao in 2014 is going to be very very interesting. Obviously they're going to be under enormous pressure, and with the huge amount of depth, but relative lack of elite talent, there's going to be almost unimaginable scrutiny on the roster and starting XI selections.

Until we start seeing some of these young up and coming Brazilians playing in Europe, I don't think any of them deserve to be in the top 20. Already guys like Damiao and Ganso were talked about with tons of praise 2 years ago, and neither have made the jump up (in league and class). Now we have Oscar and Lucas, and it feels like the same situation all over again. I don't have the same level of doubt with Neymar as I do with Oscar and Lucas, because he's really showed some special talent in the games I've seen. But ultimately, he's still largely unproven in a top league.

Also, I agree with Das Boot's assessment of Michael Bradley. If he can get consistent games at Roma, I think he deserves to be around 260ish or so. Seems fine to exclude him from the top 300 for some of the reasons Bjorn mentioned about him not really being any different in overall quality to a large group of CM's. He's very young still though!

Tsc, stop being part of the herp-derp parade and accept that the Brazilian league is top notch. Afterall, you don't have a mirror to masturbate in front of to tell you how great and awesome you are