How do we build anticipation for this year’s list of the world’s top 100 footballers when one player has clearly achieved so much more than his competitors? He terrorised defences in La Liga all season; he scored the matchwinner in a Cup final in May against obdurate Spanish opponents; he captained his country to a cathartic victory in a tournament they had never won; he stepped up and scored the crucial penalty in a shootout when under immense pressure, then fell on his knees and burst into tears of joy; and, as is mandatory for players in the uppermost echelons of the game, he heard from the Spanish tax authorities.
No, not Cristiano Ronaldo. The over-achiever of the year has been Neymar, the man who won La Liga, the Copa del Rey, the Supercopa de España and the gold medal Brazilians wanted the most from their home Games.
Olympic football might not be the biggest draw in the UK – Stuart Pearce’s team didn’t exactly light up London 2012 – but the sport has featured at the Games since 1900, a full 60 years before the European Championship was established, and the Brazilian public were going for nothing less than gold. It is no exaggeration to say that Neymar, the 24-year-old Brazil captain who has already scored 50 goals for his country but had to put up with boos from his own fans during the tournament, had to overcome more pressure during that final than any other athlete faced this year.
The Seleção had competed in 12 Olympics without ever winning the tournament so, when Neymar stepped up to take the decisive penalty in the shootout against Germany – the team that had humiliated his nation two years before at the World Cup – he dared not miss. He placed the ball on the penalty spot in the Maracanã and then struck it, sweetly, into the top corner. After he had wiped the tears from his face, he declared the victory “one of the best things that has happened in my life”. That’s what it meant to Brazil.
So, with first place tied up, who deserves to come second? Cristiano Ronaldo has clearly enjoyed the year of his life, winning the Champions League with Real Madrid, captaining Portugal to their first trophy and picking up his fourth Ballon d’Or. Ronaldo walked the Ballon d’Or voting, earning more than twice as many points as second-placed Lionel Messi. But, does he really warrant the top spot on our list? If we’re brutally honest, he did nothing in the Champions League final until the penalty shootout and his three most memorable contributions to Euro 2016 were chastising Iceland’s “small mentality”, being pestered by a moth and pushing his manager around on the sidelines as his team-mates secured the victory in the final, inspired by Pepe, Nani and Renato Sanches (three players who didn’t make it into our top 100 last year).
No mention of Ronaldo is complete without bringing up the other half of the Ballon Duo, Messi, who remains the most watchable, talented and unpredictable footballer in the world. Messi achieves as much in a year as other players manage in a career. In the last 12 months he has scored 58 goals in 61 appearances and won La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa de España with Barcelona.
We could just put him in top spot until he retires but, in a year of international triumphs for Neymar, Ronaldo and Alexis Sánchez – who was voted the player of the tournament as Chile triumphed in the Copa América Centenario – Messi endured a series of frustrations with Argentina. He missed a penalty in the shootout as Argentina lost a second Copa América final in two years; he retired from international football in a huff; he came back and suffered an embarrassing 3-0 defeat to Brazil that has damaged Argentina’s chances of qualifying for the next World Cup; and then he told the country’s press that they wouldn’t be hearing from him for a while.
On the topic of international failure, England’s Jamie Vardy finished eighth in the voting for the Ballon d’Or a week ago (one place behind his Leicester City team-mate Riyad Mahrez) and should really jump up a few places from 68th. Harry Kane was the highest-placed Englishman last year, in 38th, above Wayne Rooney (60th), Raheem Sterling (62nd) and Vardy. Surely it’s time for Rooney to depart – and take Andrea Pirlo (42nd last year), Vincent Kompany (57th), Bastian Schweinsteiger (74th), Memphis Depay (86th) and Santi Cazorla (95th) with him.
Who should take their places? N’Golo Kanté didn’t feature last year but should glide into the new top 20. Rui Patrício, Raphaël Guerreiro – and the aforementioned Pepe, Nani and Renato Sanches – all shone for Portugal against Kanté in the Euro 2016 final and will be hard to ignore. Antoine Griezmann, who was 28th in last year’s list but finished third in the Ballon d’Or 2016 voting, should be breaking into the top 10; Gareth Bale’s performances in the Champions League and Euro 2016 should move him up from 16th; and Mahrez, who scraped into the list in 97th last year, deserves a mighty uplift.
With the top three difficult to call and the battle between the newcomers and old timers taking shape, the big reveal on Friday is promising to upstage Christmas. Who should make the cut?
