October 19: The CIES Football Observatory’s most recent data places Manchester City player Rodri at the top of a list of the 100 “best distributors” in world football.
To determine a score for each player, the study considers various factors such as the average level of matches played, the ratio of passes made in relation to teammates, the percentage of successful passes, and the number of successful passes per match.
The player must have played at least 450 minutes since the current campaign began in order to be eligible.
Rival of Barcelona and playmaker Frenkie De Jong, with a score of 165 points, is Spanish international Rodri, with 192 points.
Toni Kroos, who is in third place with 124 points, is well behind both players.
The only team with two players in the top five is Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen, led by Xabi Alonso. Exequiel Palacios, an Argentine international, and Granit Xhaka, a former captain of Arsenal, have scores of 123 and 122, respectively.
Youngster Palacios is only one point away from four-time UCL champion Toni Kroos, who is considered by many to be one of the best passers in recent memory.
Enormous ahead of every Premier League rival is Rodri, closely followed by Yves Bissouma of Spurs (89 points), who is ranked above players like Declan Rice (75 points), Enzo Fernandez (73 points), Alexis Mac Allister (67 points), and Casemiro (who isn’t on the list) thanks to his revitalized performances under new manager Ange Postecoglou.
Longtime Brighton midfielder Pascal Groß unexpectedly finishes third in England’s top division, surpassing all of the players from elite clubs.
After a challenging start to the season for Ten Hag’s team, no Manchester United players are included in the ranking.
In addition, Rodri finished second in the team ratio category (1 point93), which evaluates the ratio of passes made in relation to teammates, even with the size and prominence of his team and its accomplishments over the previous 12 months.
In this category, Jordan Holsgrove (1 point99) of Estoril Praia and Joon-Ho Son (1 point93) of Shandong Taishan are his closest rivals.
Álvaro Fidalgo (CF América, 8th), Yahya Jabrane (Wydad AC, 10th), and Aschraf El Mahdioui (Al-Taawoun, 6th) are among the top players on the list who are not from Europe’s top leagues.
João Neves of Benfica (ranked 34th) and Eduardo Camavinga of Real Madrid (ranked 71st) are two notable under-21 players who have broken into the top 100.
Unexpectedly, Felipe Melo of Fluminense (38th) and Yasuhito Endo of Jubilo Iwata (77th) are the two football players over 40 in the top 100 rankings.
