Top-50 Football Players - December 2013 edition

Here is the new list of the top-50 football players on earth. It is the first list since the introduction of the football aging curve. As the current player age is now corrected for all but for goalkeepers, I removed the age limit under 30 that was previously limiting the players on the list. As a result, now we have some players that did not have a prior listing.

I take the fact that the top-5 players are equal to the ones without age factor in November as a sign of the stability and reliability of the algorithm.

Rank	Player	Goalimpact	Age	PeakGI	Team	Nationality	Previous Rank	GI Diff
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	195.9	28.8	200.7	Real Madrid	Portugal	1	+7.9
2	Philipp Lahm	193.8	30.1	199.7	Bayern München	Deutschland	4	+14.2
3	Bastian Schweinsteiger	182.0	29.3	187.1	Bayern München	Deutschland	3	+1.5
4	Cesc Fàbregas	178.2	26.6	179.5	FC Barcelona	Spanien	5	+6.0
5	Lionel Messi	176.2	26.4	177.2	FC Barcelona	Argentinien	2	-8.6
6	Dani Alves	171.4	30.6	181.0	FC Barcelona	Brasilien	n.a.	n.a.
7	Wayne Rooney	169.3	28.1	173.6	Manchester United	England	13	+6.7
8	Iker Casillas	166.4	32.5	166.4	Real Madrid	Spanien	n.a.	n.a.
9	Xabi Alonso	165.3	32.0	185.2	Real Madrid	Spanien	n.a.	n.a.
10	Javier Mascherano	163.6	29.5	168.8	FC Barcelona	Argentinien	12	+0.7
11	Manuel Neuer	162.3	27.7	162.3	Bayern München	Deutschland	9	-4.2
12	Sergio Ramos	161.9	27.7	165.5	Real Madrid	Spanien	18	+4.0
13	Mesut Özil	160.1	25.2	162.5	Arsenal FC	Deutschland	6	-7.7
14	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	159.7	32.2	180.4	Paris Saint-Germain	Schweden	n.a.	n.a.
15	Petr Cech	159.5	31.5	159.5	Chelsea FC	Tschechien	n.a.	n.a.
16	John Terry	158.8	33.0	184.2	Chelsea FC	England	n.a.	n.a.
17	Victor Valdés	158.4	31.9	158.4	FC Barcelona	Spanien	n.a.	n.a.
18	Thomas Müller	157.8	24.3	162.8	Bayern München	Deutschland	8	-8.7
19	Patrice Evra	154.6	32.6	177.5	Manchester United	Frankreich	n.a.	n.a.
20	Iniesta	153.8	29.6	159.1	FC Barcelona	Spanien	10	-10.5
21	Gaël Clichy	152.4	28.3	156.9	Manchester City	Frankreich	19	-1.2
22	Arjen Robben	151.9	29.8	157.3	Bayern München	Niederlande	11	-11.8
23	Per Mertesacker	151.5	29.2	156.5	Arsenal FC	Deutschland	20	+1.4
24	Mats Hummels	151.2	24.9	154.1	Borussia Dortmund	Deutschland	24	+2.9
25	Karim Benzema	150.9	25.9	151.0	Real Madrid	Frankreich	17	-8.0
26	Gianluigi Buffon	150.4	35.8	150.4	Juventus	Italien	n.a.	n.a.
27	Neven Subotic	150.0	25.0	152.9	Borussia Dortmund	Serbien, USA	22	+1.0
28	Ashley Cole	149.3	32.9	174.4	Chelsea FC	England	n.a.	n.a.
29	João Moutinho	149.1	27.3	151.7	AS Monaco	Portugal	35	+4.1
30	Gregory van der Wiel	148.4	25.8	148.9	Paris Saint-Germain	Niederlande	23	-0.5
31	Busquets	147.7	25.4	149.5	FC Barcelona	Spanien	7	-19.5
32	Helton	147.2	35.5	147.2	FC Porto	Brasilien	n.a.	n.a.
33	Piqué	145.8	26.8	147.5	FC Barcelona	Spanien	14	-15.9
34	Darijo Srna	145.3	31.6	162.1	Shakhtar Donetsk	Kroatien	n.a.	n.a.
35	Jan Vertonghen	144.8	26.6	146.1	Tottenham Hotspur	Belgien	43	+2.7
36	Rafael van der Vaart	144.4	30.8	155.7	Hamburger SV	Niederlande	n.a.	n.a.
37	Marcelo	144.4	25.6	145.7	Real Madrid	Brasilien	16	-14.8
38	Pepe Reina	144.4	31.3	144.4	SSC Napoli	Spanien	n.a.	n.a.
39	Johnny Heitinga	144.1	30.1	149.9	Everton FC	Niederlande	40	+0.7
40	Kun Agüero	142.8	25.5	144.2	Manchester City	Argentinien	79	+6.1
41	Marcel Schmelzer	142.8	25.8	143.2	Borussia Dortmund	Deutschland	38	-1.3
42	Mario Gómez	142.8	28.4	147.3	ACF Fiorentina	Deutschland	28	-4.6
43	Robert Lewandowski	141.8	25.3	143.8	Borussia Dortmund	Polen	36	-2.8
44	Jérôme Boateng	141.7	25.3	143.8	Bayern München	Deutschland	32	-4.5
45	Toby Alderweireld	141.6	24.8	145.1	Atletico Madrid	Belgien	39	-2.2
46	Ángel Di María	141.1	25.8	141.7	Real Madrid	Argentinien	25	-6.9
47	Sami Khedira	141.1	26.7	142.5	Real Madrid	Deutschland	33	-4.7
48	Jeremain Lens	141.0	26.0	141.0	Dinamo Kiev	Niederlande	41	-2.1
49	Luiz Gustavo	140.8	26.3	141.6	VfL Wolfsburg	Brasilien	34	-4.5
50	Salomon Kalou	140.6	28.3	145.1	Lille OSC	Elfenbeinküste	21	-8.6

The only player that was listed below rank 50 in the last month and now newly entered the list is Manchester City's Kun Agüero an rank 40.

Kun Agüero has been rated as top talent since early 2004. His expected Peak GI (dashed line) was 180. But he didn't live up to these very high expectations and the Peak GI dropped to still outstanding 135 in Aug 2006 when Atletico Madrid bought him. He developed in line with the normal aging curve since then.

In case you miss him, Franck Ribéry is on rank 84 with a Goalimpact of 135.5 down from a peak of 145.6. But lucky him, the Ballon d'Or is granted for a year of great performance and not an entire career. Hope for him to win is left.