'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Europe is the proverbial 'Island of the Blessed' when it comes to football and nothing serves excitement to our noggins like an action-packed weekend of exhilarating, top-flight European football.
The glitz, the skills, the noise, the excitement, the wonderment, the excitement... phew, I could go on and on and still wouldn't have expressed myself entirely. And when you play at the biggest of stages, you gotta shoulder the weight of expectations from around the world.
After all, with great power comes great responsibility. And in this slideshow, we will be looking at those players who have been delivering the goods at the top level, unflinching and apathetic about the magnitude of it all.
We'll be looking at one standout performer from each of Europe's Top 5 Leagues, namely the Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga and the Premier League.
So, let's kick on then:
#5 Ligue 1 - Neymar Jr. (Paris Saint-Germain)
"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."
Neymar Jr. wanted to break out of Messi's shadow at Barcelona and the world inveighed against his audacity. "How dare he?" And then they lost their collective cool when a price of €222m was quoted.
Well, why should we care about where the Parisians get their money from? It's their business after all. And as far as business decisions go, who can fault them for sending Barcelona an arm and a leg to rope in Neymar?
Neymar has been spectacular for PSG this season, so far, and has shown no signs of putting the brakes on.
As per Whoscored.com, Neymar has a rating of 8.97 from 17 appearances. In the Ligue 1, the Brazilian wizard has scored 18 and assisted a further 11 goals. He has been directly involved in 29 of PSG's goals this season from 17 appearances so far! Oh, I'd pay all the money I had, mate.
Just add this stupefying number to the mix and you'll get a fair idea of how good Neymar has been: Neymar has created a total of 61 chances for PSG this season.
Filth.
And now, I invite you to see how he goes about it. Yeah, the flicks, the tricks, the rainbow, the hocus pocus... sigh, the whole fricking deal:
#4 Serie A - Ciro Immobile (Lazio)
The first player in Europe's top 5 leagues to hit 20 goals this season, Ciro Immobile has been tearing it up in Italy for the second consecutive season. Immobile's career has so far been a mix of rainbows and fire and brimstone.
A traveller who has had prolific campaigns at Olimpico, Torino and Pescara has also had utterly abysmal and pedestrian seasons at Genoa, Dortmund and Sevilla. What's worse? He's been as sinusoidal as they come.
Immobile would have a great season and then when the world expects him to come knocking for the tall prizes, he starts to look like someone who showed up to the field as an afterthought.
And finally, for the first time in his career, Ciro has been able to replicate his fine form from the previous season. In fact, 'replicate' would be an understatement as he has gone one better than last year.
Immobile scored 23 goals from 36 appearances in Serie A last season. This season, he already has 20 goals to his name from as many appearances. And if that isn't enough, the Italian has assisted 7 goals. A direct involvement in 27 goals from 20 appearances is a truly world-class accomplishment.
Ciro has also created 26 chances for his team in the league and has a Whoscored average rating of 7.58. He hit 3 past Milan and kicked on from there and scored 4 against SPAL. Well, we now know where a lot of the Serie A match balls are ending up at.
And here, treat yourself:
#3 Bundesliga - James Rodriguez (Bayern Munich)
Surprised? You shouldn't be, i.e, if you've been watching how the Bayern machine has been ticking thanks to the Colombian's malicious mischief. First of all, let me just give a shout-out to the man simply for how joyous it is watching him play.
Rodriguez was loaned out to Bayern by Zidane after deeming him surplus to requirements at the Bernabeu (promise to not laugh). After struggling a bit initially, Rodriguez has really come to his own and has been consistently shelling out top performances for Heynckes' well-drilled unit.
Immensely complemented by Arturo Vidal in midfield, the Colombian sensation has been hailed as 'God-sent' by his gaffer. At Bayern, Rodriguez is getting the amount of game time a player of his calibre truly deserves.
His delightful lobbed ball that cut through the Schalke defence like a knife through butter to set up Arturo Vidal for Bayern's 3rd goal of the night has been playing on repeat on my laptop.
While his numbers may not be as staggering as the ones that we've dealt with so far in this slideshow, you cannot understate James Rodriguez's impact for the Bavarians.
The attacking midfielder has scored 4 goals and assisted a further 6 in his 15 appearances (12 starts and 3 off the bench). On top of that, Rodriguez's game is enabled by the outstanding precision he brings to the field as evidenced by a pass success rate of 90% and has also created 39 chances in the league so far.
According to Whoscored.com, James Rodriguez leads the list in term of average ratings with a rating of 7.67 which is greater than any of his teammates- more than Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski who have been involved in more goals than the Colombian.
Zinedine Zidane could very well be a man filled with regret at this point in time and why wouldn't he be given how Madrid have been struggling since James Rodriguez's departure?
Here's an indicator of just how good he has been so far:
#2 Premier League - Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
Dominant, intimidating and soon to be champions... you don't wanna incur the wrath of the Pep guided juggernaut of England that goes by the name of Manchester City. And in a team full of outstanding individual performers, one stone shines brighter than the rest and he goes by the name of Kevin De Bruyne.
Whether it is about leathering the ball into the top corner from 30 yards out or feeding the perfect through balls to the ever mobile legs of Sterling, Sane, Aguero, Jesus or Walker (phew), Kevin De Bruyne personifies midfield masterclass like no other.
The Belgian midfield maestro is on a constant quest to put the ball to its best possible use and is unrelenting in his efforts to retrieve the ball and pump it up the field for his teammates to pile up the misery on their opposition.
He has been Man of the match 7 times already this season. That is no mean feat when you're sharing the midfield realms with a player of David Silva's quality.
Kevin De Bruyne has no qualms about showing up for the big games and has already scored 7 and assisted 11 goals this season.
The 26-year-old has created 77 chances in total for the blue half of Manchester and has a Whoscored average match rating of 7.90. Well, his numbers seem to suggest that City have been profligate in front of goal. That's the quality of the man.
Here's De Bruyne being De Bruyne...
#1 La Liga - Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
For almost a decade and a half, writers around the world have been hunting for the right words to describe this man who was born to make us fall in love with the game, over and over again.
Owing to the same reason, you won't find anything here that can surprise you or anything that you haven't seen or heard before about Lionel Messi. Just when it was starting to look like Zinedine Zidane's Real Madrid were setting themselves up for world domination, Messi decided to go full GTA with Barcelona.
He got into the driving seat and has driven on to rob defenders of their dignity and teams of their willingness to fight. Upending defences, causing arch-rivals to eat the humble pie... yes the whole deal. Leo Messi is at it again.
Messi has amassed 20 goals and 10 assists from 22 appearances so far this season. This man is quite simply, the gold standard by which other footballers ought to be gauged. He has a Whoscored.com average match rating of 8.82.
If Luis Suarez was on top of his game, a lot more out of the 59 chances that Messi has created in total would have been converted to assists for the undisputed king of football.
With the recent addition of Philippe Coutinho and the return of Ousmane Dembele, Messi and Barcelona are only going to get better. And that's bad news for all save the Catalans who have a lot of baskets of popcorn to invest their money on.
Just look at the title of the video:
