Best Players and Young Players

 

Lionel Messi is officially the world’s best international soccer player with over 200 club appearances, 162 goals and 79 assists, according to a new study which reveals the top 10. 

New research from TicketSource analysed data on every player to have played in Europe's top five leagues in the last five seasons to find out who can be crowned the soccer MVP. The study also investigated the best young players who might step up to the plate at the Qatar World Cup. 

Please view the full research here: https://www.ticketsource.us/trophy-mvps

The world's 10 best international players: 

Rank	Player	Nationality	Club appearances	Goals	Assists	MVP score/10
1	Lionel Messi	Argentina	205	162	79	8.56
2	Robert Lewandowski	Poland	202	207	33	7.65
3	Kylian Mbappé	France	187	146	64	7.60
4	Thomas Müller	Germany	203	54	91	7.36
5	Karim Benzema	France	218	132	50	7.33
6	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	198	160	30	6.82
7	Kevin De Bruyne	Belgium	183	52	75	6.55
8	Raheem Sterling	England	211	97	44	6.54
9	Luis Suárez	Uruguay	201	102	42	6.42
10	Sadio Mané	Senegal	224	101	31	6.33

Lionel Messi is thought by many to be the greatest player ever to play the game, and the numbers back him up. Messi is one of a handful of players appearing at the World Cup to have played over 200 league and European games in the last five years and is the second-highest goal scorer and assist maker.

In second place is Poland’s goal-scoring machine, Robert Lewandowski. Lewandowski has scored 207 goals in the last five years - the most of any player studied and over 50 more than second place Lionel Messi. 

France is the only country to have two players in the top 10, Kylian Mbappé and Karim Benzema who rank 3rd and 5th respectively. 

The world's 5 best young players: 

Rank	Player	Nationality	Year of birth	Club appearances	Goals	Assists	MVP score/10
1	Rodrygo	Brazil	2001	101	17	16	9.41
2	Bukayo Saka	England	2001	97	17	15	9.11
3	Florian Wirtz	Germany	2003	60	13	16	7.66
4	Jude Bellingham	England	2003	77	6	15	6.83
5	Jamal Musiala	Germany	2003	71	13	7	6.27

Brazil and Real Madrid star Rodrygo tops the list of best young players, already having racked up over 100 appearances for Los Blancos in the last five years. Aged just 21, he’s already established himself as part of one of the biggest teams in the world and is seen as a potential successor to Neymar in the Brazil side.

In second is England’s Bukayo Saka, who misses by virtue of having just four fewer appearances and one fewer assist than Rodrygo. Saka has already featured at a major international tournament, missing the crucial penalty as England reached the Euro 2020 final, but will be hoping to go one better in Qatar.

Further findings:

• The players topping the list of most appearances are Sadio Mané, Ángel Correa and Karim Benzema with 224, 220 and 218 games played in the last five seasons respectively.

• We also looked at the greatest teams on the international stage. Italy came out on top with 36% wins to apparences winning the world cup 4 times and appearing in two finals too. Interestingly, Italy hasn’t qualified for this year’s World Cup.

• The teams in joint second place are Germany and New Zealand who both have 33% of their tournament appearances.