With hopes of an epic World Cup final on Sunday between Argentina and Germany in Rio, to decide who the best team in world football is right now, it’s Colombia’s James Rodriguez who can celebrate his position as the tournament’s best player.
Bloomberg Sports (BSports), the world’s leaders in sports analytic technology, today unveiled a World Cup edition of their ‘Power’ rankings, the most advanced data-driven ranking of individual player performances in the World Cup.
The index provides a purely objective analysis of players in their respective positions and considers the context of opponent strength in each game throughout World Cup.
James Rodríguez (Colombia) topped the index with a BSports Rating (BSR) of 83.84. Karim Benzema (France – 83.24) beat World Cup finalist Thomas Müller (Germany – 82.82) into second place, while Argentina’s Lionel Messi (82.25) ranks fourth.
The comprehensive index covers the entire World Cup, highlighting the performances of players in the most successful teams, along with some top performers in teams who crashed out earlier in the competition.
· TOP 5: James Rodríguez, Karim Benzema, Thomas Müller, Lionel Messi, Xherdan Shaqiri
· LEAGUES: La Liga (6), Bundesliga (6), Serie A (4), Premier League (2), Ligue 1 (1), Other (6)
· CLUBS: Bayern Munich (4), FC Barcelona (3), AS Roma (2)
The BSports rankings provide the most scientifically-based analysis of player performance relevant to their respective positions. The system evaluates the thousands of data points collected during every match and analyses players based on their core responsibilities on the field to produce a BSports Rating (BSR).
This BSR includes evaluations on the defensive performance of a player, such as the effectiveness and efficiency of the player in key metrics, as well as the performance of the defensive unit as a whole against BSports’ team rankings.
On the attacking side, there is an emphasis on a player’s effectiveness and efficiency in passing, creativity, shooting and scoring, among other more granular areas. Only players who have played a minimum of 225 minutes are included in the list.
Finalists Germany sees both Thomas Müller and Tony Kroos on the list whilst their Argentinian opponents on Sunday only boast Messi (who trailed only Luis Suarez in the European leagues Power 50 ‘13/’14). Excluding Costa Rica’s Joel Campbell (on loan from Arsenal to Olympiacos), the Premier League placed just one player on the list (Tim Howard of USA).
The top 25 players can be found at www.bsports.com/Power25 along with a more detailed explanation of the methodology and a visual breakdown of the list. The index will also be updated after the World Cup final.
