Despite being omitted from the official 30-man shortlist for the 2016 Ballon d’Or, Alexis Sanchez finished the period as the highest WhoScored rated player in the Premier League, and with the eighth best rating overall from Europe’s big five leagues and European competition.
The Chile international has been in sublime form in 2016 and has also flourished in his new central striking position that Arsene Wenger has deployed him in this season. In fact, only three players have played a direct hand in more Premier League goals in the calendar year than Sanchez (17).
Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, now both of Manchester United, actually rank higher than Sanchez, but both of those have secured such high ratings predominately based on their performances for Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain, respectively.
In fact, despite coming in for fierce criticism for his performances at United, Pogba is actually the closest the breaking the top three in football – Lionel Messi, Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo. A WhoScored rating of 7.95 is enough to secure fourth place in the 30-man list and leaves him just shy of Ronaldo in third (7.98). Had Pogba not made such a floundering start at United then maybe he would have broken into the top three.
Elsewhere in the table, there are spots for two members of Leicester’s Premier League winning side, although there wasn’t space for Riyad Mahrez or Jamie Vardy. Instead, N’Golo Kante, who is now at Chelsea, and Christian Fuchs have that honour. Since the start of the year Kante has completed more tackles and interceptions than any other player in Europe’s big five leagues (230). A WhoScored rating of 7.70 was enough to secure a spot in 12th.
For his exploits in the Champions League and at Euro 2016, Ronaldo is the frontrunner to land the prize, but based on ratings then Messi is by far and away the clear winner (8.41). In fact, the top three hasn’t changed at all from last year’s edition of the Ballon d’WhoScored.
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