gerrard 84th? hmm

Huh? Ribery is clearly > Robben.

Yeah and Nani > Both

Will post clubs later.

Nations:


Brazil: 39
Spain: 38

France: 26 (I'm a little bit surprised I still have that many I guess)

Argentina: 24
England: 21
Italy: 18

Germany: 17 (they're very well ranked but not so well represented on the lower part of the list compared to *cough*England*cough*)

Netherlands: 13
Portugal: 9
Cote d'Ivoire: 8

Belgium: 8 (these are really well ranked players too with some outside 300 talent also lurking .Your time is now Belgium, get it together!)

Croatia: 6
Russia: 5
Chile: 5
Uruguay: 4
Ghana: 4
Switzerland: 4
Serbia: 4
Poland: 3
Senegal: 3
Cameroun: 3
Bosnia and Hercegovina: 3
Wales: 3

Mexico: 2 (also seems like too few but have no knowledge of the Mexican league where a lot stay and Dos Santos finally fell out while Torrado I guess fell too old)

Colombia: 2 (I like Colombia recently so wish there were more. Quite a few definitely with the talent)

Paraguay: 2
Japan: 2
Denmark: 2
Ukraine: 2
Sweden: 2
USA: 2
Montenegro: 2
Peru: 2
Turkey: 2

South Korea, Ecuador, Morocco, Bulgaria, Nigeria, Slovakia, Northern Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Costa Rica, Benin, Togo, Iceland and Canada: 1

It's kinda silly that Barca has 5 midfielders in the top 50, 6 in the top 70. Mascherano has to be played out of position to be a 3rd choice CB (debatable) and Cesc/Thiago are the 3rd/4th choice CMF and Cesc is in the top 10 =\

Real is just spoiled with attacking talent.

And neither made the CL final! Embarrassing.

If only the game was played on paper.

Thanks for doing this Bjorn! As you seem to indicate in your country analysis, there appears to be a natural bias towards European domestic league players (given that you mostly follow European leagues), which hurts countries like Uruguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile etc who have a lot of players based in the Americas.

Based on the fact that these national teams have performed strongly at recent World Cups, particularly in 2010, there is a question of whether the individual talents of their players is being undervalued relative to European based players.

Two things stand out with England:

1) They are very short on elite talent.

Only Wayne Rooney is in the top 50. In comparison, Spain have 10 in the top 50, while Germany and Argentina each have 6.

Looking at the top 100; Spain have 15, Argentina 14, Brazil 11, Germany 10 and England only 3.

2) Their squad at the Euros was even weaker than what is reflected in this ranking due to injuries and player selection.

England have 21 players in this list, but only 10 of those players were in the squad for Euro 2012. That's pretty weak compared to the other big sides like Spain, Germany, France and Italy.

Bjorn---I love this list, and don't want to seem like I'm nitpicking your work, but one more player to ask about. Michael Bradley? I've never seen him play in Serie A, but he is so consistently excellent for Team USA, I wonder what your thoughts on him are.

Clubs is a bit more complicated with many players moving around.

+1 is a confirmed top 300 player joining.

-1 a confirmed top 300 player leaving. It's not subtracted from the total though since the player spent the period with the team.

+? is either a player maybe/maybe not returning from being loaned out in the period (like Melo or Diego) or someone who looks like they're joining. For an example I put Silva and Zlatan as +? with PSG.

-? are players very likely to leave but with no other destination confirmed yet. Like Modric or Ganso. They're not subtracted from the total.

Barcelona: 16, +1
Real Madrid: 16
Manchester United: 16, -1,+1
Manchester City: 16
Chelsea: 13,-1, +2
Arsenal: 12,+1, -1?
Bayern München: 11, -1, +2
Tottenham: 10, +2, -1?
Juventus: 9,+4, -2?
Dortmund: 7, -1, +1
Atletico Madrid: 7.+1, -1?
Benfica: 7
Inter: 7, -3, +1, -1?
PSG: 6, -1, +2, -1?, +2?
Milan: 6, -2, +1, -2?
Newcastle: 6
Athletic Bilbao: 6
Zenith: 5, -1?
Sevilla: 5
Malaga: 4
FC Porto: 4
Valencia: 4, -1,+1
Liverpool: 4, -1, +1
Napoli: 4, -1
Lyon: 4
Lazio: 4
Fulham: 3
CSKA Moscov: 3
Marseille: 3
Sao Paulo: 3
Shakhtar Donetsk: 2, -1
Roma: 3, -1, -1?
Montpellier: 2, -1
Santos: 1, -1
Internacional: 2, +1, -1?
Ajax: 2, -1
Everton: 2, -1
Fiorentina: 2, -1
Anzhi: 2, -1
Fenerbahce: 2, +1
PSV: 2
Leverkusen: 2
Basel: -2
Villarreal: 2
Fluminense: 2
Schalke: 2, -1, -1?
Lille: 1, -1, +1
Gladbach: -1. +1, +1?
Udinese 1, -2
Wolfsburg: 1, -1, +1?
Galatasaray 1, +1?
Bologna 1,?,
Twente: 1
Dynamo Kiev: 1
Boca Juniors: 1
Vasco da Gama: 1
Rayo Vallecano: 1, -1?
Dynamo Moscov: 1
Palermo: 1
Herenveen: 1
LA Galaxy: 1
Rennes: 1, -1?
Sunderland 1
Osasuna: -1
Werder Bremen: -1
Genoa: -1
Swansea: -1
Freiburg: -1
La Coruna: -1
Sochaux: -1
QPR: +1
Blackburn: 1, -1?

haha this looks so confusing....

Total workhorse who did very good for Chievo (so much so he has been connected with much bigger Roma) where he was a great fit. They're kind of the Stoke of Serie A.
I didn't see him much in Germany but yeah I've definitely seen him do very well for Team USA.

I would probably have him on par or even ahead of established Serie A workhorses like the Bologna soldiers Mudingayi and Perez. Those are the first comparisons that come to mind. Maybe he even has a bit more to offer with his passing, but I think still think too limited not to be behind a lot of midfielders more or less outside the list and there are many (you could probably go on and on): Veloso, Gonalons, De Marcos (though more attacking, Bender, Kehl, the Sissokos, Plasil, Fernando (Porto beast), Obraniak, Rio Mavuba, Diarra, Kvist Faurlin, Ricky Alvarez, Carmona, Balmont, Benat, Gargano, Rolfes, Träsch, Joe Cole, Anita, Elm, Tino Costa, Adam, Henderson, Schaars, Gago (who he would compete with at Roma) or the really talented guys like Romeu, Lamela (even if more attacking now) Guarin, Phil Jones, Mario Suarez

I can't rule out I'm selling him short on football intelligence and passing of course and that he is further ahead in that department of the Bologna guys than what's been my view on him so far. He is actually younger than I thought so it's not impossible he has been developing hastily recently? More of a two-way player than I thought (you only really see Chievo against the best teams as well which also sort of guarantees a certain picture). If that's the case, that alone at least moves him closer to the above company. If he would beat out some the Roma midfielders in playing-minutes, and we would really be talking.

But I'm guessing he's seen as a (much?) better footballer than a brute like Jermaine Jones then?

Bradley has always had the core tools (vision, passing technique, strength, workrate, dynamism, shot) to be an excellent complete midfielder, I think. He scored 16 in the Eredivisie with Heerenveen at 20 for example. I see his Chievo season (and the subsequent US friendlies, in which he has been excellent) less as a random leap in talent and more as him combining some of the attributes which made him an appealing prospect out of H'veen with improved game and technical awareness. The goal he set up against Brazil (3:49) is a good example of what he brings to the table over a Jermaine Jones.

He's forward pressing, anticipates and picks up the loose ball, and is immediately in attack mode: he takes an incisive first touch into vacated space and draws the attention of several Brazilian defenders, which opens up the still-small window for his through ball to Johnson who crosses for Gomez to score. He's gotten a lot of attention in the US for his improved national team performances and his excellent distribution has been the most notable change (though obviously with the caveat that he's played a mixture of friendlies and CONCACAF teams). I have no idea whether he's a top 300 player in the world but I do think he's somewhat more than just a workhorse, though the constant running is still the core of his game.

he is certainly a much better footballer than jones. I wouldn't fully classify him as a workhorse either (being american there will always be that aspect though). His passing range is pretty good and I like his composure on the ball. If he moves to Roma that would be very interesting

Bradley has always been very average in the Bundesliga, performed much better for the USA than on club level.

This is pretty cool considering two seasons ago we were a Championship team, plus it'll be 7 when we finally get Debuchy

Maybe at giving Ronaldo hand jobs.

There is probably some bias in rating players higher because they play for a certain team. It's just a gut feeling that I can neither confirm nor deny.

Haha I saw my dad last night and he was asking me how good JS Park was, and I told him that a very trusted football commentator from the internet rates him higher than Michael Bradley, and he was floored. Really doesn't take much to get QPR fans excited over summer transfers .

No Forrest, Ki, Kayal or Wanyama is a shame.

Neymar is clearly a top 10 player in my mind. For what I call "decisiveness" he's around 3rd or 4th behind Messi and CR and maybe Ibra. He just creates chances out of very little beside his own ability and is quite good at all the off-the-ball poaching stuff too.

lol brazil, though

absurd rankings for Pirlo and Hazard too.

Like putting Henderson above Thiago in some past edition, there's just no real comparison where Hazard is better than Neymar.

other than neymar not playing against top competition week-in week-out and hazard raping an insanely defensive league