Forward Thinking: Who Is The World’s Best?

I wouldn’t have Zlatan on my top 10. I can’t be bothered to make a full list myself.

For some reason, I always feel like Ronaldo and Messi are wingers and not pure strikers. But the goal totals speak for themselves

p.s. “*All stats from Soccernet” – a scary proposition

@hadley-Wiki is far scarier!

Come on, lets see a top-ten!

“Much like Berbatov and Arshavin, they were ghosts in world football until they arrived at decent teams”

What? Do you mean Arsenal for Arshavin? I’m pretty sure the fact that he was the most heavily sought after player following Euro 2008 completely refutes that point. He made his name with Russia, not with Arsenal.

Your hatred of Drogba is blinding you.

Torres is the best goalscorer in the world but due to his injury proneness I wouldn’t have him ahead of Rooney, Messi, Ronaldo, or Drogba.

Also Drogba won Ligue 1 Player of the Year before moving to Chelsea and was the second highest scorer in all European competitions that year as well. To suggest he was “unknown” is borderline retarded.

@Georger, Arshavin was not heard of by anyone before he was nearly 27.Russian league? Behave yourself. He was there 9 years without anyone having a sniff.

Torres better than Messi? and I’m blinded? Vote for your man, and lets see your 10.

I didn’t say anything about the Russian Premier League. He made his name with the Russian National Team. Behave YOURSELF.

Arshavin was nominated for the Ballon d’Or before he “arrived at a decent team.” Yeah, truly a ghost in the game.

Maybe you should have looked at something other than Soccernet.

@Georger. Its France! Its considered on par with the Colaship. Robert Earnshaw was top scorer of that once.

This years Ligue one winner? Lisandro Lopez 14 goals! Behave yourself.

1. Messi
2. Rooney
3. Ronaldo
4. Drogba
5. Torres
6. Villa
7. Tevez
8. Dzeko
9. Someone other than Zlatan
10. Someone other than Eto’o

@georger, I did mate–and being nominated, and winning it are two different things entirely.

Lopez scored the exact number of goals in two less games for Lyon this year than Benzema did last year. Nobody heard of Benzema either!

Just like being nominated and being a “ghost in world football” are completely different things.

Or how being on the UEFA team of the tournament for Euro 2008 is a completely different thing than being a “ghost in world football.”

@Georger, He was on the 30 man short list for the Ballon d’or AFTER joing Arsenal. He was russia player of the year, once in 9 years in a terribly bad league.

I think your arguments about Drogba’s age are kind of misplaced. You can’t say he’s not as good as Wayne Rooney because he’s older. If the question is, who is the best forward in the world right now, you can’t argue that Rooney is better because he will be good still in a few years. That isn’t really answering the question.

Players peak at different times in their careers. Some players like you mentioned blossom late (Berbatov, Arshavin and Droba.) Others, like Michael Owen, have phenomenal strike rates when they’re young and burn out to become laughingstocks the rest of their careers.

Messi could develop chronic bad knees and Ronaldo could get skin cancer from the tanning bed and all your talk of potential goes out the window.

So, if you’re saying who are the best strikers in the world right now, without thought to what might happen in years to come, it seems impossible to leave Drogba out of that conversation.

Right now, on current form, I’d say Drogba is probably right behind Messi, Ronaldo, and Rooney.

“He was on the 30 man short list for the Ballon d’or AFTER joing Arsenal.”

WRONG. He was nominated in 2008. He joined Arsenal in 2009.

Good try though.

@LE It was one factor of several.

@Georger Its Ligue One mate. Nuff said. Whats Benzema done this year, in a decent league? 8.

Most of these guys score too many goals. Heskey for me.

It’s also bizarre that Drogba is somehow penalized for his early career in a debate on current form (I realize you gave other reasons, but still).

Well Benzema f**king sucks but that has absolutely f**k all to do with saying nobody has heard of Ligue 1 PotY.

Way to nitpick with Lisandro (even though he did lead his team to the CL semis). It’s not like Essien, Juninho, Malouda, Benzema and Gourcuff won it the years between Drogba and Lisando. Oh yes it is actually.

1- Donovan
2- Donovan
3- Donovan
4- Donovan
5- Donovan
6- Meh… you get the idea…

@mnmike My point was he developed into a good player, took many years to peak, this year at 32. There are players who have scored more consistently or are better, that are that good at 20. He’s top-ten for me and scoring in Spain or England and in Ligue One in France are not comparable.

I also said I was bias but I see from the vote, that he clearly isn’t the best in the world in the opinions of football fans.

Was your friend considering Messi a forward Ned? I mean if he was that is clearly a ridiculous argument, I agree with you.

@ned: But he does have the 5th highest votes, so, by that logic he is in the Top 5.

*ridiculous that Drogba is better than Messi, that is.

@Georger, OK, in 2008, 3 months before he joined Arsenal at 27…Where was he before that? Mu poiint stands, before then, he was largely uinknown, like Berbatov in Germany.

It’s inherently difficult to make adequate comparisons amongst people playing in different leagues and for teams of vastly different quality, which is what makes it so fun. Comparing how players do against the same opponents might be a better measure but, again, that’s quite difficult in comparing Champions League teams. The easiest to compare, therefore, would be Rooney and Drogba who had similar goal totals the last three years. Granted, Drogba is older and Rooney will certainly be the better over their respective careers, but over the last three years they’re roughly neck and neck. Also, the fact that Messi is leading is proof that he’s cheating.

Bulls**t your point stands. Your point was nobody had heard of him before he joined Arsenal. Your point is wrong.

I won’t argue with Berbatov because I don’t consider him even remotely close to a world class player.

@LE He maybe 5th along with others. He certainly is NOT best in teh World.

@Georger. Claimed Drogba is best in the World.

Just because YOU haven’t heard of someone because YOU only pay attention to certain leagues doesn’t mean the WORLD hasn’t heard of them.

“Claimed Drogba is best in the World.”

Well that’s just dumb. Nobody is a better player than Messi right now. I still think Torres is the best goalscorer in the world but Messi is the best all around player (and there’s no way he has that goal tally in England, as opposed to Torres who never had a goal tally close to what he put up at Liverpool BEFORE he came to England — no, scoring against Arsenal doesn’t count). Assists are part of being an attacking player, nobody else on this list comes close to Messi in that department.

It’s also hard to make these comparisons because the players are so different. Messi and Ronaldo are fun to compare because they’re both tricky little bastards with phenomenal dribbling and scoring skills.

Drogba kind of defies comparison. For the type of powerful forward he is, he seems to stand in a class by himself.

So if we’re done comparing apples to oranges, you could argue Drogba’s the only orange in town.

@Georger. had you heard of Arshavin before 2008. In 2007, you thought he was class, right? Then good for you. Becasue he played in Russia from 2000-2008 before someone had a sniff and made a move.

@LE, can can be only one.

I guess you could also compare Ibra to Etooo”’ooo over the last two years. Ibra definitely scores more backheel karate kick style goals so I’ll give him the nod.

I actually heard of him during the 2007-2008 UEFA Cup. If you want to make the argument that he’s a late bloomer (which as others have pointed out … so what?) then yeah that’s fine, but even if people hadn’t heard of him until he dominated bitches at Euro 2008, that’s still before he moved to a decent team. Even though Zenit won the UEFA Cup that year.

Thats my point Georger–Late bloomers and kick ass great players at 20, who can only get better? Not the same in my book.

But the book is dealing with current world class strikers, correct? Because Drogba would be on the same page as Ronaldo, Rooney, etc.

He is in the top ten of world class strikers for sure, always said he was, but he is not the best in the world, in my opinion and not better than messi, ronalso or rooney…the vote will decide that as football fans vote< i guess.

Once David Villa moves to a real club, it’ll be interesting to see his star rise in these debates. 36 in 55 for Spain and 108 in 164 league matches for Valencia is crazy awesome.

Other really needs to get his s**t together. Also, no Own Goal?

Players @ 20 yrs of age are not guaranteed future success… a lot of variable can change… lets put Messi on Wigan and see if he is still a world class player…

Oh fer chrissakes. It was me. In my happiness after Chelsea won the trophy yesterday, I said that Drogba is the best striker in the world. I think that a case can be made, especially if you don’t consider Messi or Ronaldo strikers. I think Drogba is a stronger striker right now than Rooney. He scores on a team that doesn’t flow everything through him. And Didier is HUGE in big games. My opinion.

Again, I think Messi is clearly a better player and a better forward. And reasonable people can prefer Rooney. I don’t think Torres is quite there, given his year, but hell, let’s have at it.

Then Ned decides that Drogba isn’t even a top five FORWARD in the world. That, I believe is asinine. I said so. Ned dug his heels in and I dropped off to find better things to do. It’s blinkered to the point of idiocy, I believe, to not rate Didier Drogba a top five forward.

But, sure, I’ll retract “best striker” if you want to call Messi and Ronaldo strikers. But saying he’s better than Rooney right now? I’m sticking to that. Even though he’s my favorite and I was a bit excited at the time.

BTW, this is what it’s like to argue football with Ned. But I do love the man so.

I’m going to vote Drogba just to piss Ned off.

Dirty Tackle cheated and voted hundreds of times for The Continental.

/kidding

Oh dear, back tracking, Auto. I have the emails, Messi was in the mix with the others and you and another Chelsea repeated constantly, Drogba was the best in the world. Easy to reflect afterwards and adopt another position. You should have been a politician.

Romelu Lukaku is the best striker in the world. He’s scored 19 in all competitions for Anderlecht this season and he’s only 16. By the time he’s Drogba’s age, he’ll have scored a bajillion goals and won the Champions League 7 times.

Plus he has cool hair.

torres doesn’t get nearly enough credit. his only downfall is that he gets injured too often. when he is fit and at his best, he is the best player in the world. absolutely unstoppable and uncontainable

Who here honestly thinks that somebody plays this game better tha Lionel Messi? He’s on a team with Xavi, Iniesta, Zlatan, Keita, Toure. And HE gets the ball when it’s crunch time.
i.e. Lebron with the Cavs

That said Clint Dempsey gets my vote

I voted for Messi. As far as Drogba however, I don’t think age should be a factor in the discussion on who is the best right now or this year. If we’re talking about careers then we’ll see in 10-15 years but age isn’t a factor. Also, you have to consider the caliber of his international teammates vs. the other strikers. You used his talented Chelsea midfield as a reason for his success so there must be something said about the caliber of mids playing for England, Spain, Argentina etc… they are more talented than Ivorians

Well Zlatan is probably the last person you would want to rely on in the crunch and Yaya has scored what like four goals in his career there? I mean I get your point. Without Rooney United wouldn’t be scoring many goals. Barca still have goal scorers and he still puts up those numbers.

@Lennon’s Eyebrow
Dunno about Lukaku. I’m still pining for the stilted glory that is/was Nii Lamptey

Lebron with the Cavs is not an apt comparison to Messi with Barcelona. I’d argue Barcelona is like the Lakers with Kobe. Both LA and Barcelona have some serious talent surrounding their superstars whereas the Cavs have Lebron and bunch of other players.

Perhaps Lebron and the Cavs are more like Rooney and United. One man teams that go very far on the talent of the one man.

[...] Unprofessional Foul [...]

Am just wondering what you meant by drogba was being assisted by world class team mates,. messi , ronaldo and messi are all suported as well. and when it comes to international drogba does not have the support the rest of them gets.. afterall how many premier league top scorer awards as ROONEY won..??

Ok i’ll work under the pretence that Messi and Ronaldo are NOT strikers but in fact wingers (where they play most of their football)

1. David Villa (as someone to find the net there is no better)
2. Wayne Rooney (he is a good goalscorer but has a lot more to his game as well)
3. Fernando Torres (he has an amazing strike rate at liverpool)
4. Diego Forlan (overlooked by many but the veteren has bagged goals everywhere hes been except manu)
5. Carlos Tevez (Does so much more than score goals)
6. Miroslav Klose (just pipped Dzeko to 6th, he is truly a great striker)
7.Edin Dzeko (is playing amazing and is becoming one of the worlds best, top 5 soon)
8. Gonzalo Higuain (plays on the wing as well but mostly a striker and has kept an amazing strike rate despite varies deployments)
9. Lisandro Lopez (goal to game ratio 2:1 – not many strikers can say that)
10. Robin Van Persie (a great player, if not for injuries would probs be higher)

The guy is a constant, MAJOR force for multiple Premier League titles

He comes up big in the biggest times he is needed….and he doesn’t make the Top 5?

Point being, facts show he is arguably the BEST so if someone doesn’t have him in the Top 5, they either don’t watch him or have a bias against him. No other real option

@Andy: I want what you are smoking.

@Andy: Are you honestly trying to make the claim that Drogba isn’t even in the Top 10?

Rooney and Tevez “do so much more than score”, yet Drogba had more assists this season than Rooney and Tevez combined.

He has a better strike rate than Lisandro Lopez and Dzeko, both of whom play in substantially inferior leagues. He also has a better strike rate than RVP, who happens to be made of glass.

Miroslav Klose scored 1 (one) goal this season.

@Andy Ronaldo has been a forward this season with Huguain, they have 50 or so between them and Messi has always been a forward.

I love how someone wasted about 2 houtrs clearing the cache and voting for Drogba. Lets see if they’ll do it again.

There’s more hijinks with this poll than an EPL Talk poll.

I am astounded that this thread is still going

I already said I blame Dirty Tackle.

@JT: I blame the lack of quality writing elsewhere on the site.

And have faith, Lamptey’s going to come good someday. He’s the future of African soccer.

@LE: Wait a cotton-pickin’ minute. Considering I did all the writing on the site after 3 p.m. …

@LE
Ouch.

What I meant to say was, TSE’s writing is so transcendent that there’s no room for us lowly commenters to add anything.

Whew. Good save.

@LE
No, the ouch registered. Too late!

Andy Gray thinks your apology was totally sincere.

And check out what Roberto Mancini has to say about my writing in the Glazers post. You two are tight, LE!

I could sense we had a special connection, we’re going to be BFFs forever.

What a Dick head you are you stupid son-of-a-*****. It seems somebody f**ked you out of your freaking mind DUMBO. The argument you provided was no better than a shovel pushed up your ass. Just keep your bloody f**king swining to yourself or one day you are gonna see that big fat dumbo ass-face of yours just shoved right into someone’s s**t.

well first of all i think your wrong your judging him and others by the age were they became succesfull i mean drogba is 32 yrs and may have got to his peak at a older age but is alot better than other strikers and has had a better season ofr his age unlike zlatan, eto, and maybe torres but hes always injured so u cant really count him on performace. and MESSI n C.RONALDOs are wingers not strikers so they cant be included.

but hes my top ten based on form from this season not by popularity.

1-milito
2-drogba
3-higuian
4-rooney
5-villa
6-tevez
7-niang
8-lopez
9-forlan
10-bent

I think the OP has a distinct agenda. Firstly, your point about ‘being a late bloomer’ has already been addressed; it’s ludicrous to bring potential into an argument that rates a player NOW. In terms of transfer fee, sure you can bring potential into it, but not in terms of awarding a number one accolade.
Secondly, you can only really measure ‘the best’ through statistics, which you have done – well done, although this obviously brings some bias into the equation. Rooney for eg, is a world class player and has been pretty much carried united this year. He scored most of their goals. Drogba on the other hand scored more, despite playing less games. Through statistics, Drogba is a better player right now.

Of course, we don’t just decide how good a player is on statistics alone, we use subjectivity. Which is inherently flawed and therefore mere speculation.

Then of course, we come to the fact that the other players mentioned in the top three all play in various differing roles for their respective teams. Ronaldo is a winger turned pacy forward; Messi is a creator/second striker; Rooney is probably best as a bullish but skillful support striker. Drogba is an out and out target man/centre forward.

Finally, statistics are skewed through circumstances, so Edin Dzeko might bang goals in for fun in Germany, but in England or Spain or Italy, might he enjoy such prolificacy?
Rightly, the top four ‘forwards – i’ll call them’, each play in a top league and at international level, so I think it’s fair to say that they’re the best four players in the world, in their respective positions.

But to single one out is like choosing who is the best serial killer; One might be more efficient, one might simply kill more, one might be more creative etc etc.

Oh look, Drogba’s fluffer has arrived. But is Sam the ‘best’ or merely top-ten.

If only such a job existed.

The blogger commenced proceedings with an agenda to prove his Chelsea fan friend wrong. How is one supposed to view this poorly-constructed and subjective diatribe with anything other than suspicion when such weighty bias is evident?

It’s akin to me justifying attendance at my dayjob because I lost a bet.

This blog is typical of lazy sensationalism that surfaces in anticipation of silly season. It’s not enough to consider each player on their merits, let’s decide who the best forward in the world is in a conclusive and objective manner, despite football being inherently subjective and inconclusive.

@JD

I completley declare bias – plain as day in the words above. I dislike Drogba and Chelsea. That was never in doubt. This aint the BBC, its a footy blog and i write my opinions, and then you get to disagree with me.

This was an excercise to see if people really thought he was the best, i doubted it and was genuinly curious as to other peoples opinions, as I am bias and loath cry baby forwards and divers.

Anyway, someone around these parts was child-like enough to change the poll to include duffers like Mido and JHV, drawing the strange to post venom; so this has now been rendered a dead excercise and the vote has been removed.

I never claimed to NOT be bias over Drogba but wanted to see what unbias folks thought and see YOUR top tens. Glad I bothered!

Good debate from the sensible commentors.

you’re right about the numbers but as far as football genius and beautiful goals (which I think is a factor in deciding the best forward in the world) it’s between drogba and torres.

Hi Ned,

Thanks for your justification.

I get that it’s your opinion and you did use stats to back it up, so fair play.

The problem is though, that surely you can’t set out to prove that someone isn’t the best on the basis that you don’t like that player or their club?

I’m not especially fond of liverpool, however Torres is clearly a world class striker, and Gerrard a great captain and talisman for the club. You can abhor them as people, but you surely can’t let bias get in the way of judging their ability?

If you had set out to say that Drogba wasn’t the best in the world on the basis that there are better players, that’d have been fine in my opinion. But to reason your argument on a subjective dislike for his manner and perceived personality belittles your argument.

JD

@JD

And I did, to me there are…Everyone in the top-ten i listed.

“First off, 34 goals in all competitions is great.” & “So while 36 goals can’t be sniffed at, lets ponder this…”

Which is it then?

“Drogba was unknown until he joined Chelsea at 27 years old. Much like Berbatov and Arshavin, they were ghosts in world football until they arrived at decent teams.”

Just because you didn’t follow them, doesn’t mean they were ghosts in world football.

“At the international level, Drogba has made 22 starts for his country since 2005 . Compare with Rooney who has made 58 starts at just 23 years old, or Messi who has made 34 starts for Argentina at 21. Ronaldo? 51 starts at the age of 25. Messi and Ronaldo have also both won FIFA player of the year. Drogba, has not.”

Age has nothing to do with it – it’s who is the best NOW. You also say ‘since 2005′, how many appearances before that? For eg. do Ivory Coast just play less games than the other nations?
Fifa award – neither has Tevez, Rooney or Villa.

“Total goals, domestic competition
Didier Drogba: 36 goals”

So 36 goals in all comps, oh wait was that Domestic? Which one?

“Champions League
Didier Drogba: 3 goals (Apoel Nicosia, A. Madrid)
Wayne Rooney: 5 goals (AC Milan (4), Bayern Munich)
Lionel Messi: 8 goals (Arsenal (4), Stuttgart, Dynamo Kiev)
Cristiano Ronaldo: 7 goals (Lyon, Marseille(4), Zurich)”

What teams went further in the CL? Chelsea got knocked out earlier and therefore played less teams. They also have more goals from elsewhere in the team.

“Whether Drogba is capable of making my top-five is certainly debatable–I hate Chelsea, so harbor some bias there–but he surely not close to the others above, all better at younger ages.”

So he MIGHT be good enough, but you hate him and chelsea so he’s not good enough. Again, the age thing is irrelevant.

I glossed over the stats before, but your arguments are littered with selective evidence and wild unsubstantiated opinions.

Here’s mine:

Messi
Ronaldo
Torres
Villa
Gerrard
Rooney
Xavi
Iniesta
Lampard
Drogba

And DEFINITELY NOT Emile Heskey or Andriy Voronin.

@ JD

Plus Drogba was suspended 3 or 4 games in the CL this year anyways…

@JD Yes, and I admitted it! Not selective, deliberate. Still don’t think he is the best in the world and the majority of UF readers agree.

1)messi
2)ronaldo
3)torres (has the best goals to games ratio in the entire prem. would have been set for golden boot by a mile if had stayed fit.)
4)reina (goalies are footballers too, as are defenders)
5)rooney (dont forget he wouldnt have even been close to golden boot without taking the penalties, which is why he is this far down)
6)gerrard (not the best season of hes career but not enough to say hes past it, this time a year ago he woulda been 2nd)
7)van persie (undoubtedly world class, if he wasnt always injured would probs have been up there fightin for golden boot and would be higher up my list)
8) Xavi (makes messi look even better than he already is, behind every great goalscorer there is a great passer)
9) Villa (getting on a bit, still very good, but a little lightweight and seems to only show up in big games to steal headlines but hardly ever in the smaller ones, as if hes complacent, doubt he would make it in the prem)
10) Tevez (good season, not so sure he can keep it up)

I would be bias as well but I think Torres is one of the top 5 ahead of Tevez. If he play for better team like Barca, he will be number 1 along with Messi (im not saying Liverpool is s**t though- well this season, yes…)

P.S wouldnt it be awesome if Villa join LFC this summer?

I WOULDN’T BE BIAS^ edit.

Bottom line is… TORRES IS THE BEST!…. damn injury

I agreed with john’s list

Ok, here’s my top ten forwards in the world:

1. Didier Drogba
2. Frank Lampard
3. Nicholas Anelka
4. Joe Cole
5. Florent Malouda
6. Daniel Sturridge
7. Gael Kakuta
8. Fabio Borini
9. Salomon Kalou
10. Charlie Austin

age dose not matter in the game of football what matter is the skills and the hart of the player so done talk about how droba is old and the other player are young

I never thgouht I would find such an everyday topic so enthralling!

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