In the battle for the Premier title, Chelsea were clear favourites on the form and quality of their top players. In our World Form Rankings, the Londoners had six players in the Top Tens of their respective positions: John Terry and Ashley Cole were in the top ten defenders; Petr Cech was ranked the second best goalkeeper on 12 months form; Frank Lampard was the sixth best midfielder and Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka made the top ten strikers. Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan had five each in the Top Tens. Manchester United only had two: Wayne Rooney at No. 5 in the top ten strikers and Patrice Evra at No. 6 in the top ten defenders.


As the Premier season ends Argentina have won the tussle for most in-form goal-scorers with four strikers at 20 or more goals in the season. International manager Diego Maradona has to select from Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Carlos Tevez and Diego Milito. England have three for Capello to peruse: Wayne Rooney, Darren Bent and Frank Lampard. Of the other favourites, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Germany have one striker over 20 each but France’s top scorer is Kevin Gameiro (not in the squad) – 26th with 17 goals; the top Dutch striker is Arjen Robben, 16; while Brazil’s best scorer Luis Fabiano languishes at 31st in the charts with 15.
Top 12

1. 1. Luis Suarez (Ajax & Uruguay) 35 goals;
2. 2. Lionel Messi (Barcelona & Argentina) 34;
3. 3. Didier Drogba (Chelsea & Ivory Coast) 29;
4. 3. Antonio Di Natale (Udinese & Italy) 29;
5. 5. Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid & Argentina) 27;
6. 6. Wayne Rooney (Man Utd & England) 26;
7. 6. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid & Portugal) 26;
8. 8. Bryan Ruiz (Twente & Costa Rica) 24;
9. 8. Darren Bent (Sunderland & England) 24;
10. 10. Carlos Tevez (Man City & Argentina) 23;
11. 11. Frank Lampard (Chelsea & England) 22;
12. 11. Diego Milito (Inter & Argentina) 22;

We ranked the world’s top 3,000+ players by form over the 12 months to January 2010, using league, cup and international performances. The top players in each position were published with The Sun. These are the best keepers in that list:

1. 1. Julio Cesar (Inter & Brazil) All player position 2nd;
2. 2. Petr Cech (Chelsea & Czech Republic) All players 11th;
3. 3. Iker Casillas (Real Madrid & Spain) All players 12th;
4. 4. Tim Howard (Everton & USA) All players 17th;
5. 5. Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus & Italy) All players 20th;
6. 6. Victor Valdes (Barcelona & Spain) All players 24th;
7. 7. Jose Reina (Liverpool & Spain) All players 29th;
8. 8. Shay Given (Man City & Republic of Ireland) All players 31st;
9. 9. Frank Rost (Hamburg & Germany) All players 33rd;
10. 10. Mark Schwarzer (Fulham & Australia) All players 40th.

The injury to David Beckham means England will be the only nation at the World Cup using an entirely home-based squad. Capello had already used more home-based players in qualifying than any other World Cup finalist, with only Becks plying his trade outside the Premier League. Italy were next up with just Alberto Aquilani and Giuseppe Rossi playing outside Serie A, while Spain had four outside La Liga (Pepe Reina, Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas in the Premier and Dani Guiza at Fenebahce) and Japan have four beyond the J-League. At the other end of the scale Ivory Coast used no home-based players in their qualifiers.


The most cosmopolitan squad at the tournament will probably be Chile, who will likely field a 23-man squad who play their football in 14 different countries with probably only one or two playing in Chile. Brazil will likely have a block of ten Serie A players. It’s hard to think of a more global business than football.


World Cup pundits may be under-rating Cameroon’s chances in the World Cup with some experts predicting they’ll be bottom of Group E. We ranked the world’s top 3,000+ players by form over the 12 months to January 2010, using league, cup and international performances. Cameroon have 11 players in our top 1000, led by Samuel Eto’o as the world’s fourth best. Ivory Coast had nine in our top 1000, Ghana five, Algeria four and South Africa just two.