CIES study, Ronaldo the best in Serie A, but Messi remains first

Despite the difficulties Juventus is going through and a season, at least as a team, less prestigious than expected, Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in Serie A, at least according to CIES. The Football Observatory has compared the performances of players who have played at least two-thirds of their matches from January 1, 2021 until today, in the respective leagues, compiling a ranking. Ronaldo, fifth in 5 European Championships, stands in Italy ahead of Insigne and Brozovic. Lukaku remains outside the top-20.

The CIES Observatory has selected the best in Europe and formed a final ranking with the best players of 98 clubs playing in the top 5 football leagues. In Serie A, Cristiano Ronaldo got the highest score (89.3), followed by Insigne (87) and Brozovic (85.4). Then Gosens (85.2), Luis Alberto (84.6) and Gianluca Mancini from Rome (83.5).

At the European level, Lionel Messi (92.5) leads, followed by Robert Lewandowski (89.5), who actually shares second place with Jorginho of Chelsea (89.5).

Surprisingly, the absence of Romelu Lukaku from the Serie A players is odd, while his teammate, Lautaro Martinez, should be satisfied with the 16th place (74.5). Zlatan Ibrahimovic is not included in this classification, after missing many matches this year.