Who are the 3 best players in the world up to this point in the season?

[Fortitude]

Finally, no Messi occupying a slot, and a rather strange season in many ways up to this point in time.

Who would you have in your first, second and third positions up to now (December 2nd)?

 

[Swoobs]

Bellingham is the only shoo-in for me.
Edit- forgot about Haaland. So those 2, the rest are far away

 

[JogaBonitoRooney]

Bellingham, Mbappe, Kane.

Nobody from cheats city should get a mention and the above 3 are all actually better than Haaland.

Honorable mentions Griezmann, Salah, Wirtz, Rice.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Bellingham is the only shoo-in for me.
Edit- forgot about Haaland. So those 2, the rest are far away

How on Earth is Kane far away?

 

[devaneios]

Kane and Bellingham are far ahead anybody else.

Also, how PL can't get the truly best players in the world, despite being by far the richest league for some time, become especially comical now that both are English(yeah, I'm aware that Kane was there until last season and has been great for many years, but he has reached this level of recognition just now).

 

[Swoobs]

How on Earth is Kane far away?

He is impressive but not as much in the CL as compared to Haaland and Bellingham. I can see why people will have him in top 3 though

 

[Karel Podolsky]

Bellingham, Mbappe, Kane.

Nobody from cheats city should get a mention and the above 3 are all actually better than Haaland.

Honorable mentions Griezmann, Salah, Wirtz, Rice.

Yeah I like PSG

 

[tomaldinho1]

CF - Kane
Wide Attacker - Salah
CM - Bellingham
DM - Rodri
FB - Hakimi (?)
CB - Maguire
GK - Allison

Maguire hahahaha

 

[Josep Dowling]

Mad to think Ole tried to get Bellingham and Haaland in one transfer window but ended up with Ighalo.

 

[WakeAndBeek]

Bellingham
Haaland
Kane

 

[Steve Bruce]

Finally, no Messi occupying a slot, and a rather strange season in many ways up to this point in time.

Who would you have in your first, second and third positions up to now (December 2nd)?

Messi hasn't been top 3 since he left Barcelona. But because he's Messi people lazily think he was when in truth he has lost levels from his prime.

 

[IRELANDUNITED]

Kobbie Mainoo

 

[Scroto Baggins]

He is impressive but not as much in the CL as compared to Haaland and Bellingham. I can see why people will have him in top 3 though

Haaland has 5 goals 1 assist in the CL, Kane has 4 goals 2 assists in the CL. Doesnt seem like a lot of difference to me? Both City and Bayern are demolishing their respective groups.

I would have to go Kane because of how much he is smashing up the Bundesliga, 18 goals and 5 assists in 12 games, nuts stats. Records could fall if he remains fit for the whole season, a big if.

Kane, Bellingham, and someone, Haaland or Mbappe? I think you could flip a coin for either of them as number 3.

 

[Von Mistelroum]

Seems to be Bellingham, Mmbop and Kane.

Haaland is good but limited until the finishing from what I've seen (I must admit I've avoided watching the cheats for quite a while though, so only seen bits).

 

[Champ]

Kane and Bellingham are far ahead anybody else.

Also, how PL can't get the truly best players in the world, despite being by far the richest league for some time, become especially comical now that both are English(yeah, I'm aware that Kane was there until last season and has been great for many years, but he has reached this level of recognition just now).

Kane would have reached this level has he gone to City, it's only because he left Spurs that he has gained this extra recognition,

 

[Pascal Quiff]

De Bruyne, Salah and Bellingham

 

[Ish]

Surely it’s Jude, Kane & Maguire!

 

[whitbyviking]

Kane and Bellingham are far ahead anybody else.

Also, how PL can't get the truly best players in the world, despite being by far the richest league for some time, become especially comical now that both are English(yeah, I'm aware that Kane was there until last season and has been great for many years, but he has reached this level of recognition just now).

PSG, Real, Barce and to a degree Bayern have been spending top end premier league money throughout this time. English teams are generally richer across the board but they pay more because of tax, and also the weather/locations. Clubs hike their prices too because they all know the Premier League has huge sums of tv money sloshing around. I’d be interested to see some metrics on transfer spend vs overall income from TV, sponsorship etc. I wonder if the results would paint a different picture.

Edited to add - income across the whole league vs gross and individual transfer spend would be interesting too

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

Kane and Bellingham are far ahead anybody else.

Also, how PL can't get the truly best players in the world, despite being by far the richest league for some time, become especially comical now that both are English(yeah, I'm aware that Kane was there until last season and has been great for many years, but he has reached this level of recognition just now).

Might sound biased but the reason the league doesn’t have the best is because we aren’t atop of it anymore.

Replay the last 10 years & if bbc a united have a respectable amount of success I could easily see both Bellingham & Kane here.

Liverpool bent over for Bellingham for years, Real fluttered their eyelashes & the guy turned them down immediately.

Real will always be a pull to players above all else but had we managed ourselves competently then Kane isn’t at a Bayern, Griezman is a self proclaimed United fan, he’d have donned the shirt at some point. I could go on.

 

[Red Star One]

Bellingham
Rodri
Kane

in that order

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Mbappe's still the best player in the world for me. Maybe PSG is finally wearing on him though with some subpar games this season.

Mbappe
Kane
Rodri

 

[sebsheep]

De Bruyne, Salah and Bellingham

He's been injured most of the season

 

[RG77]

Bellingham
Valverde
Carvajal

This is the definitive list.

 

[(...)]

Bellingham
Kane
Griezmann

 

[hasanejaz88]

Bellingham Kane Salah

 

[Massive Spanner]

It's funny for all the money in the PL, its only truly world class homegrown players (Kane, Bellingham) aren't even playing in it.

 

[Oranges038]

Maguire
McTominay
Lindelof

 

[Davicho]

Has Mbappe died?

 

[RG77]

Has Mbappe died?

Going by his game and PSG fans he does seem to have slowed down? Stats still there (then again, Ligue 1…) , but doesn’t look as good this season. Maybe the resident PSG fans can say more. @Oly Francis ?

 

[GlasgowCeltic]

Griezmann is top

 

[Bubz27]

He is impressive but not as much in the CL as compared to Haaland and Bellingham. I can see why people will have him in top 3 though

Yeah, Haaland has been doing the absolute business in the CL against *checks notes* Young Boys and Crvena Zvezda.

 

[Taribo's Gap]

Going by his game and PSG fans he does seem to have slowed down? Stats still there (then again, Ligue 1…) , but doesn’t look as good this season. Maybe the resident PSG fans can say more. @Oly Francis ?

Mbappe also started last season "poorly" even though he was still putting up decent numbers. I think it should take at least a full season of underperformance to knock him off of his perch.

 

[WeePat]

It's funny for all the money in the PL, its only truly world class homegrown players (Kane, Bellingham) aren't even playing in it.

Bellingham yes, but tbf Kane left aged 30 and he would have stayed in the league had Spurs not priced him out of a move to City, which would have probably paved the way for United to sign Haaland.

But I guess nobody would call him top 3 in the world if he was still playing for Spurs. Banging goals in for Bayern gives you a different level of profile to banging the goals in for Tottenham.

 

[BootsyCollins]

Bellingham, Haaland, Kane and Mbappe are better than the rest imo.

Then there is a pretty large group of extremely good players like Griezman, Salah, Rodri, Allison ect ect.

 

[GlasgowCeltic]

for defenders Rudiger is probably the best I've seen so far this season (haven't see him for Germany)

 

[Taribo's Gap]

Great players, but these names still feel somehow underwhelming, which may be a sign that I am just getting old.

Was it like this during the post-Maradona, pre-Ronaldo interregnum? Or it is reflective of systems taking precedence and minimizing the impression individual skill and quality can leave?

 

[Brightonian]

All the crowing about Kane being the PL's best product and not even playing in the PL...

Way to acknowledge that while in the PL a player of this quality could be rolled out by a borderline-CL team like Spurs, and was generally in the conversation for best CF rather than necessarily a shoe-in, he moves to the Bundesliga and demonstrates just how much easier it is to score goals there and finds himself immediate uncontested best player in the league.

I'd say that reflects pretty well on the PL's quality and competitiveness.

 

[Stobzilla]

Bellingham
Griezmann
Kane

 

[devaneios]

All the crowing about Kane being the PL's best product and not even playing in the PL...

Way to acknowledge that while in the PL a player of this quality could be rolled out by a borderline-CL team like Spurs, and was generally in the conversation for best CF rather than necessarily a shoe-in, he moves to the Bundesliga and demonstrates just how much easier it is to score goals there and finds himself immediate uncontested best player in the league.

I'd say that reflects pretty well on the PL's quality and competitiveness.

Firstly, Kane didn't only move to another league; he also joined a much stronger club. Secondly, the other way around happened tons of times; in fact, most of the best PL players in recent years came from other leagues(Salah, for example, never was that great before Liverpool), meanwhile, bar Kane and Bale, I can't remember other "PL manufactured player" shining in other big leagues(you can argue that less great players leave PL to other leagues, but then you shouldn't use this kind of argument, because it would not be verifiable). Also, Kane playing for a bordeline-CL team has nothing to do with how he was regarded in England; United and City tried to sign him, but couldn't because of his stupid contract.

Anyway, Kane being crowned the best player of the world right in the season he left England would be funny(no, it wouldn't prove any point about PL level; it's just funny).

 

[Righteous Steps]

Kane
Bellingham
Griezman/Salah/Haaland