After leading Argentina to World Cup victory, Lionel Messi has been crowned the best football player in the world for 2022.
The Guardian have published their annual list of the 100 best male players in the world for football. There is no doubt that 2022 was a memorable year for Lionel Messi as he captained his national team to World cup glory.
On the other hand, his long term arch rival Cristiano Ronaldo failed to make it into the top 50. The Portuguese superstar is ranked way back in the list in 51st place.
French superstar Kylian Mbappe is in second place in the list of top 100 footballers after he had an amazing World Cu for France and a stellar year for Paris Saint Germain.
Karim Benzema is in third after being brilliant for Real Madrid in their Champions League and La Liga glory, but not featuring for France in the World Cup.
Erling Haaland, who has scored 25 league goals for Manchester City this season in just 19 appearances, is now ranked fourth in the Premier League.
The remaining top 10 players are Kevin de Bruyne, Robert Lewandowski, Vinicius Junior, Thibaut Courtois, and Mo Salah.
Messi and Ronaldo have had quite different seasons, with the Argentinean reversing his fortunes in Qatar to win his first-ever World Cup trophy.
That solidified Messi’s standing as the greatest football player of all time for many people and assured him of deity status among his compatriots. Without a doubt, that pushed him in front of the Portuguese attacker.
In the meanwhile, Ronaldo struggled both for club and country, sparked a nasty public spat with Manchester United during a contentious interview with Piers Morgan in which he disparaged the team and its manager Erik ten Hag, and finished the year playing for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia.
