Top 100 Male Footballers of 2020 (100-81)

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2020 was a strange year for everyone in the world, not just footballers. But the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that we haven’t gotten as much football as we might have done otherwise. That said, there were still plenty of matches played across the year, and some surprise performers and performances along the way. As always, TheMastermindSite.com will now count down the top 100 male footballers in the world for the year. This list takes into account a player’s form in 2020 as it’s primary mechanism, with reputation, difficulty of league, club and national team success each playing a secondary role. So with that in mind, here is TheMastermindSite’s Top 100 Male Footballers in the World for 2020.

100. Danny Ings

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Danny Ings has been highly influential to Ralph Hasenhuttl’s recent resurgence with Southampton, playing an important role in both the press and attack. The British centre forward has scored 6 goals with 2 assists in only 7 matches so far in 2020-21, and he’s earned himself attention again from Gareth Southgate’s England. Perhaps even more impressively, he capped off an incredible 2019-20 season with 22 goals in 38 Premier League matches last campaign, missing out on the golden boot to Jamie Vardy by a single goal.

99. Sergio Busquets

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Barcelona may be ailing and he may be aging, but there’s still a very good footballer in Sergio Busquets. The Spaniard had a decent 2020, helping Barca reach the UEFA Champions League quarter finals and helping his team finish second in La Liga. Although Barcelona would like to do better, it’s still better than most clubs in the world and Busquests himself remains better than most defensive midfielders in the world for his overall awareness, vision, passing, aerial ability and tackling.

98. raphael varane

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At around the time of the 2018 World Cup, Raphael Varane was considered to be one of the very best defenders in the world. Some even had him second to Virgil Van Dijk. As his career has gone on, Varane hasn’t quite kicked on from that and his form’s been in decline ever since. Madrid haven’t been their absolute brilliant best this season, but Varane’s still been a key performer, featuring in 11 of their 12 matches. The Frenchman also played a major role in their title winning campaign of last season, making 32 league appearances. Whether or not he’s still one of the best defenders in the world is still certainly up for debate, but Varane’s reputation earns him a spot in this list for another year.

97. david de gea

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In 2020-21, David De Gea’s kept out one of the best goalkeepers in last season’s Premier League, which in and of itself is hypothetically impressive. The problem for David De Gea is that his form hasn’t been what it used to be, and he hasn’t ever looked the same player since failing in his lifelong quest to make a move to Real Madrid. The Spaniard’s kept a load of clean sheets in 2020, and was reasonably helpful in their run to the top four at the end of 2019-20. How much it had to do with David De Gea could be questioned, but so too would be asking how much it had to do with Manchester United’s reasonably shaky defense. Despite all the debate about him as a player, De Gea remains one of the best keepers in the world.

96. joao felix

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The Portuguese youngster struggled to adjust to life at Atletico when he first arrived, but has now found the perfect partner in Luis Suarez. Joao Felix’s form in 2020-21 has been completely revitalized, scoring 8 goals in 16 matches so far between La Liga and UEFA Champions League matches. He’s also started to earn himself a role in Portugal’s national team, and with the likes of Diogo Jota and Bruno Fernandes by his side, it’s starting to look like a really dangerous attack.

95. EVER BANEGA

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One of the more low-key names on this list, Ever Banega achieved wonders with Sevilla in 2020. The Argentine midfielder scored 3 goals with 7 assists at the heart of Sevilla’s midfield in 33 league matches, and contributed 4 assists in 7 matches to the club’s stellar rise to the Europa League title for the sixth time since 2006. He may not be one best on paper, and he hasn’t even featured for Argentina since 2018. But few midfielders had a better 2020 than Ever Banega.

94. Josip Ilicic  

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One of the stars of Gasperini’s impressive Atalanta side, Josip Ilicic has set Serie A on fire in 2020 with his form. Beyond his 15 goals and 5 assists in Serie A’s 2019-20 season, 5 goals in 7 matches in last season’s Champions League was highly impressive. This is even more impressive considering that nobody expected La Dea to make it to the Quarter Finals, and only miss out on the next round due to late goals from eventual finalists PSG. Unfortunately, Ilicic hasn’t exactly carried out his form in the same way in 2020-21 and is starting to lose minutes to Luis Muriel.

93. César Azpilicueta

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The Chelsea captain and Spanish legend definitely deserves to be higher here, but unfortunately he’s lost his place in the Chelsea team to Reece James toward the end of 2020. He did extraordinarily well to keep James out of the side at the start of the year and was one of Chelsea’s most consistent performers when given his chance throughout the year, as ever. The 31-year old made 36 appearances in the 2020-21 Premier League season, and his exclusion in the side in place of James and Chilwell is perhaps more shocking than just about anything regarding Chelsea this season. He’s still been given his chance in the Champions League, where the Blues advanced to the Round of 16 before any other team in the competition.

92. KOKE

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A long time Atletico Madrid man, Koke had one of the best years of his life in 2020. Atletico’s success was not as great as other years in the 2010s, but it was still a fine year in which they finished third in one season and currently sit top of the table this season in 2020-21. Personally, Koke was at the heart of everything good for Atletico again, scoring 4 goals with 5 assists in 32 league matches last season, while making over 2 tackles per game. Impressively, the Spanish midfielder continues to be used anywhere and everywhere by Simeone, and remains a key figure for his national team.

91. Thomas Partey

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Been missing since his arrival at Arsenal, but Thomas Partey was brilliant at the start of the year for Atletico Madrid and probably would be much higher on this list had he stayed with the better club. The Ghanaian midfielder epitomized everything about a Diego Simeone side and fit their 4-4-2 system like a puzzle-piece. Since moving to Arsenal he’s done okay and impressed from time to time, but he hasn’t been able to change the Gunners’ fortunes around and hasn’t really got going due to injury.

90. Dayot Upamecano

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Dayot Upamecano’s been slowly establishing himself as one of the best centre-backs in the world and might just have done it in 2020. Leipzig finished third in the Bundesliga in 2019-20 as expected, but also made it to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, which wasn’t expected at all. Upamecano was key to all of that and the only real mainstay in the side at centre-back as a variety of different fullbacks and peripheral players tried to make up for Willi Orban’s absence. Upamecano ensured they didn’t miss Orban one bit, and helped his side achieve something remarkable that might never happen again.

89. WILFRIED ZAHA

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Wilfried Zaha is so good, that the common dogma about Crystal Palace over the years has been that they are a “one-man team”. That is far from the truth, but it is undeniable how much worse Roy Hodgson’s side actually perform when Zaha’s not in the lineup. The Ivorian was always a confident player on the wing, capable of scoring and assisting plenty of goals. But this season he’s taken his game to another level as a striker. The 28-year old has scored 7 goals with 2 assists in his first 10 Premier League appearances so far, heading for his best ever return as a player. In fact, he’s nearly doubled the 4 goals he scored in 38 matches last season playing on the left wing. Now that Zaha is 28 years old, he might never get his big money move to a top six club. But, perhaps instead he’ll create a legacy as Crystal Palace’s greatest ever player.

88. Kai Havertz

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Still finding his feet at Chelsea, Kai Havertz started off the year in fine form (to say the least) at Bayer Leverkusen. The German midfielder ended the season with 12 goals and 6 assists in 30 league matches, leading Leverkusen’s charge to fifth in the table. He also notched 4 goals with 2 assists in 5 UEFA Europa League games, making the squad of the season. Fairly impressively, Leverkusen have actually done very well without him in 2020-21 and Chelsea haven’t really needed him all that much. That said, there’s no denying the role he played for Leverkusen and Germany at the start of the year.

87. aymeric laporte

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Unquestionably one of the best centre-backs in world football, Aymeric Laporte just can’t avoid injury. The 26-year old only made 15 league appearances last season, and he’s not on track to do much better with only 4 league appearances so far in 2020-21. This year also hasn’t been the best for Laporte or Manchester City, despite the fact that his reputation remains as one of the very best at what he does. He’s simply not been able to lead Manchester City in the way that Virgil Van Dijk or Kalidou Koulibaly have been able to lead their sides to better times, and perhaps that is why he ranks much lower on this list than his talent would have him.

86. bernardo silva

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Bernardo Silva was supposed to be David Silva’s long-term replacement, but it hasn’t quite worked out that way. Bernardo’s been in and out of the side ever since his stellar 2018-19 campaign, in which he made the PFA Team of the Year and helped his side win the league. However, he remains a regular for Portugal and one of their key figures as they prepare for a post Ronaldo era. When given the chance for City, he’s often able to showcase his high degree of talent, even if his goals and assists have been significantly down since 2018-19.

85. Marco verratti

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Impressive whenever he plays and off to a flying start in 2020-21, Marco Verratti’s unfortunately been hit with too many injuries over the course of his career (and 2020) to ever truly establish himself as one of the very best in his position. But currently the Italian midfielder remains a key cog for PSG, a Champions League finalist. With so much talent now in the PSG midfield, it will be even more impressive should Verratti continue to keep his place as Tuchel’s first choice midfielder. Further, whenever he’s been given the chance for Italy in 2020, he’s looked massively impressive, not just as a regista, but also as a chance creator.

84. Raul Jimenez

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I didn’t realize that Raul Jimenez was one of my favourite players until trying to watch Wolves without him. The Mexican forward is quite simply, the epitome of Wolverhampton Wanderers. He is the man that links up with all others, not just as a goal-scorer, but also as a target man, chance creator, play-maker, and all around nuisance for the opposition. 4 goals in 10 matches to start this season might not be Raul’s best, but it’s still right up there and was key to Wolves’ early season form. The Mexican striker played all 38 matches last campaign, scoring 17 goals with 6 assists. With his recent head injury, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side will miss him massively in 2020-21. We just have to hope that he comes back stronger than ever following what could have been a career ending injury.

83. Antoine Griezmann 

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Antoine Griezmann’s become extremely underrated as a player since moving to Barcelona and that might have something to do with the fact that he is a completely different type of player than what Barca fans are used to. He’s not the most elegant player. He’s a workhorse, playmaker, counter-attacking speedster, who doesn’t fit into Barca’s style of play and has been forced to play out of position to accommodate better players like Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. Someone like Ansu Fati unquestionably fits the style of play more and will be Barca’s man to watch in the future more so than Griezmann. With that said, the Frenchman is still one of the best players in the world and an imperative player for his national team.

82. diogo jota

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For any player to be capable of turning Liverpool’s front-three into a front-four, they have to be something special. But Diogo Jota’s meteoric success at Liverpool so far in 2020-21 has been a bit of a surprise. He’s broken Liverpool records for least amount of games to score impressive tallies of goals, while simultaneously fitting into Liverpool’s high-pressing, energetic system with ease. With 9 goals from 15 appearances between the league and Champions League, Jota’s proven to be capable of playing anywhere in Klopp’s front four, and capable of providing something different from the other three. The 24-year old’s also begun to establish himself as a regular for Portugal, as his national side prepare for the post-Cristiano Ronaldo era with arguably the most impressive attack they’ve ever had.

81. Mason Mount

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Trusting Mason Mount has been one of Frank Lampard’s smartest decisions since arriving at Chelsea Football Club. The England youngster’s career has been completely transformed under Lampard, and he’s managed to keep the likes of Jorginho and Kai Havertz (albeit different types of players) completely out of the side in recent months. Playing in a slightly deeper role, it’s unsurprising that his numbers have dropped to just 1 goal and 2 assists in 10 matches. However, his overall play has been highly commendable for the Blues this season and Lampard simply cannot afford to leave him out of the side.

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For the record, the following notable players missed out on the cut this year…

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So there it is! The Top 100 Male Footballers in the World (100-81). Who do you think should have made the cut that didn’t? Be sure to share your thoughts on Twitter @mastermindsite or in the comments below and check back soon for the rest of the list! Thanks for reading and see you soon!

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