What’s the story?
The CIES Football Observatory has named Cristiano Ronaldo as statistically the best Footballer of the 2016/17 season so far. The Real Madrid forward ranked the highest among all the players in Europe’s Top 5 leagues, followed closely by Lionel Messi in 2nd place, wtih Edinson Cavani and Edin Dzeko in 3rd.
In case you didn’t know...
The CIES Football Observatory in Switzerland employs a rigourous and detailed technical analysis of football data to come up with their observations. This tends to come up with results that go against public opinion, such as naming Dejan Lovren the best defender of the 2014/15 Premier League season. Using the criteria of a minimum of 900 domestic minutes, CIES has gone through the stats of all footballers and has ranked the best players in each position.
The heart of the matter
Cristiano Ronaldo has racked up a score of 94 this season, on the back of 11 goals and 2 assists in 12 appearances in La Liga so far. Surprisingly, Lionel Messi has been involved in more goals in the 2016/17 season, scoring 13 goals and assisting 3 in 14 appearances, yet has been scored 93.
Manuel Neuer and Stephane Ruffier jointly top the best goalkeeper list, while Mats Hummels and Alex Sandro top the best centre-back and full-backs list respectively. Thiago Alcantara and Paul Pogba are the best defensive midfielders of 2016/17 so far, while Premier League stars Philippe Coutinho and Kevin de Bruyne top the attacking midfielders list.
Yann Karamoh of Caen, Allan Saint-Maximin of Bastia (on loan from AS Monaco) and Jesus Vallejo of Eintracht Frankfurt (on loan from Real Madrid) are the best young players this season.
Here are the 10 best players overall, which is dominated by strikers:
| # | Player Name | Club | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | 94 |
| 2 | Lionel Messi | FC Barcelona | 93 |
| 3 | Edinson Cavani | Paris St-Germain | 92 |
| 3 | Edin Dzeko | AS Roma | 92 |
| 5 | Sergio Aguero | Manchester City | 91 |
| 6 | Thiago Alcantara | Bayern Munich | 90 |
| 6 | Paul Pogba | Manchester United | 90 |
| 6 | Zlatan Ibrahimovic | Manchester United | 90 |
| 6 | Gonzalo Higuain | Juventus | 90 |
| 6 | Luis Suarez | FC Barcelona | 90 |
What next?
Antoine Griezmann is conspicuous by his absence, but he has been disappointing in the 2016/17 season. The Frenchman will battle it out for FIFA’s BEST Player of the Year award with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The Real Madrid forward is the favourite to win, having picked up all major individual trophies this year, including the Ballon d’Or.
Sportskeeda’s Take
CIES’s confirmation of Cristiano Ronaldo’s talents in the 2016/17 season comes at an opportune moment, especially as the Portuguese forward had a small goal-scoring blip this season, leading many to opine that he was past his best. With Lionel Messi also joining him in a stellar 2016/17 season so far, the duo will battle it out for next year’s FIFA BEST award and the Ballon d’Or yet again, with no end in sight to the duopoly.
