re: Gareth Bale > Lionel Messi > Cristiano Ronaldo

I'm seriously deluded because I have an opinion that doesn't line up with yours? Cool. Maybe if you watched a league outside of england and the powerhouses in spain you would see that other players exist too.

We are talking about on form players. Neither Messi OR Ronaldo are in the discussion as far as I'm concerned. Ribs has been ON FIRE for bayern and Bale has been unreal. They are my top 2 on form players at the moment.

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1. Messi
2. Cristiano
3-6 in no particular order:
Iniesta
Pirlo
RVP
Xavi
7-10 in no particular order:
Suarez
Bale
Busquets
Falcao

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Not to say your list is right or wrong or whatever, but I wish there was also room for Zlatan, Ozil, Reus, Gotze, Cavani, etc. I love how there are so many world class footballers.

Also, we did not even mention any defenders or keepers. I love that there are truly like 25 world class players and no other sport even comes close to that.

This is not directed at anyone in particular, but before people get hurt feelings, everyone on here has opinions about the best players in the world and we certainly aren't going to all agree. But most regular posters watch enough football to form some well based opinions...we don't have a lot of idiots that post here.

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Suarez is having a great year, but no way is he in Top 10 otherwise.

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Obviously we disagree on this...I'm interested in what you think is holding him back from being a top 10 or even top 5 player?

I'm asking about the time frame. Are we referring to best form in the last 3 months or even the last 6 months? Or are we asking about who the best player is, a question that involves a larger timeframe. If we go back past the current season, it's laughable to include Suarez. If we are talking about a pretty small time horizon, which I'm assuming Beast means, then I would guess so. But then again, he included Pirlo, which I doubt many of us have seen play consistently since the summer.

It's a mixture of multiple things. What some people in this thread don't realize, and it's probably the ones who just don't know me well enough, is that I'm not just throwing names together onto a list. I watch an embarrassing amount of soccer on a weekly basis. There's a reason I have Pirlo or Falcao on the list and not Ibrahimovic. It's because I have watched, maybe, a single French league match where Zlatan was involved. So naturally, and rightly so, I didn't just throw him into the top 10. Compare that to Pirlo, Falcao or Busquets (players in foreign leagues who I watch at least on a bi-weekly basis) and my list begins to make more sense.

And concerning Suarez, he has scored 46 goals in his first 89 matches for Liverpool. A statistic few other foreign players in the history of the league can come close to matching through their first couple seasons at an English club. Suarez has broken scoring milestones faster than other notorious Liverpool scorers, something that should not be taken lightly. Many put him in or right on the edge of the world class category before he was even brought to Merseyside from Ajax, where he scored 81 goals in 110 league matches. In particular I remember Glass telling me at Finn's that Suarez would be a world class player within two years at Liverpool.

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Compare that to Pirlo, Falcao or Busquets (players in foreign leagues who I watch at least on a bi-weekly basis) and my list begins to make more sense.

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You watch Serie A regularly? I thought most were like me and don't care to watch Italian football at all. I'll keep it on when it comes on in the afternoons on FSC, but honestly would never watch it that consistently.

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And concerning Suarez, he has scored 46 goals in his first 89 matches for Liverpool. A statistic few other foreign players in the history of the league can come close to matching through their first couple seasons at an English club.

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Right, but that's because this year he has been particularly explosive. Last season, though, I know he was pretty disappointing (but might have battled an injury IIRC?). In my uninformed opinion, I just don't see him being on par with the others, particularly Falcao. Though I might even argue Falcao being Top 3...I think the third spot is incredibly open and subject to debate.

edits for myriad of typos and clarification

Oh yeah. If Suarez is mentioned, why is Kun always so noticeably absent from these discussions?

Well, Suarez has twice as many league goals and 12 more goals overall (for club). Aguero isn't the best striker on City's roster right now, and he wouldn't break into any top XIs this season. He had an injury spell early on, but overall he hasn't progressed from 11/12 to 12/13.

yeah, Giroud has talent and will continue to adjust and improve. He'll never be in this convo though. Wilshere though...

It makes me sad the Wilshere is the only player on Arsenal's roster who even has a shot of ever making it onto one of these lists