Top Football Players of 2019
In 2019, we witnessed some of the all-time football action in the football field. We witnessed the greatest of comebacks by Liverpool against Barcelona in Champions League semifinals and on the other hand, Manchester United’s greatest night in Paris was a lot of a game. At the end of the season, in Premier League, we witnessed the best of title race between Liverpool and Manchester City. In the enthralling contest, Pep came on top of Guardiola by winning the league title ya solitary goal.
On the international front, Brazil won Copa America and Qatar were crowned as the Asian champions. Elsewhere in Europe, Barcelona lifted the La-Liga title whereas Cristiano Ronaldo lifted his first Serie A title.
Even though it shouldn’t be the point of contention that who were the best players in 2019. In the past three seasons, if we were to compile the best of season, it would have been dominated by Real Madrid players. However, this season isn’t the same.
Here goes the list of Top Football Players of 2019;
#5) Virgil van Dijk
Virgil van Dijk Jurgen Klopp’s side in 2017-18 for a world record fee of £75 million for a defender. However, he lived up to the hype in that season by taking Merseyside to European finals.
In 2018-19, Liverpool were a dominant side for most of the season and arguably it’s because of Virgil van Dijk in defense. He has established himself in the setup so well that no one could tell that he came a year ago. At Liverpool, he established himself as the best Premier League defender.
In the 2018-19 season, playing all the fixtures for Reds, the Netherlands international has more than 1 tackle per game apart from 1.1 interceptions per game. Also, at one point of time in the Premier League, he had 17 clean sheets in 32 games.
Apart from van Dijk, Sergio Ramos has been the best among the defender having those stats. However, the talismanic defender has to settle to the fifth spot as few players have performed exceedingly well.
#4) Kylian Mbappe
Top Football Players of 2019: Considered as the face of the Gen-Z footballers, Kylian Mbappe is a season or two away from contending for Ballon d’Or. This year, he was placed sixth as there was a huge competition between Lionel Messi and van Dijk.
The French international has the FIFA World Cup under his belt at a very young age and is expected to have one of the most decorated careers in World football.
The player has been quite phenomenal in the French League with 33 goals in 24 goals. However, the number of goals wasn’t enough to win the Golden Boot as Lionel Messi raced away with a higher number of goals. Also, in the injury-hit season for Neymar, the player covered up well by assisting 7 times in those 24 games in Ligue 1.
#3) Cristiano Ronaldo
After a few ugly exchanges after the 2018 UCL finals, Cristiano Ronaldo left Spanish capital to join the Old Lady in Turin. Along with joining the new club, the Portuguese legend had difficulty understanding a new language apart from moving to the new country.
Cristiano Ronaldo had a lot of pressure on him to deliver the Champions League to Bianconeri as he has the knack of getting it done. However, he couldn’t do the same with the Old Lady as they were defeated by Erik ten Haag’s Ajax Amsterdam.
According to the standards set by Cristiano Ronaldo, one can say that it was a mixed season for him. For the first time since 2009, he failed to score 40 or more goals. However, one should consider his performances in Serie A in assisting the players rather he scoring the goals.
#2) Sadio Mane
Top Football Players of 2019: The Senegalese attacker has been a revelation for the Reds’ for the past two seasons. His tremendous work rate and his humble behavior have made him the immediate fan favorite at Anfield.
During the 2018/19 season, he broke many records on the trot. He became the fifth Liverpool player to score in six consecutive home games in Premier League after Micheal Owen, Fernando Torres, Luis Suarez, and Mohammed Salah. Also, he broke the record of Demba Ba to become the Senegalese player with the highest number of goals in the Premier League. He was also nominated for the PFA Player’s Player of the Year along with van Dijk. He was also named in the PFA Team of the Year alongside Robertson and TAA.
He helped the Reds’ to win the Champions League title by his tremendous contribution to the knockout phases. Also, his brace got him the Golden Boot of the Season along with Mohammed Salah and Aubameyang with 22 goals scored by all of them.
His exploits helped him to acquire the African Player of the Year after beating Mohammad Salah and Riyad Mahrez in the competition.
#1) Lionel Messi
For the Argentina international, one can consider 2018/19 was a mixed season. The club which Lionel Messi represents, Barcelona, squandered the advantage they had in the Champions League semifinals and allowed Liverpool to take the trophy to Anfield.
In 29 matches he played for Barcelona in la Liga, the legendary player scored 36 goals apart from assisting the team 13 times. Also, he scored 13 goals in the Champions League. To reduce the pain of Champions League semifinal loss, Messi and co-won the La Liga title for the Catalan fans.
Acknowledging his tremendous contribution in 2018/19, Lionel Messi won the Ballon d’Or against Virgil van Dijk who was in contention for the trophy.