siuuuuu Football's Top 10 Best Football Players of 2023

No, Onana isn't one of them.

2023 was a year that not many footballers managed to play well consistently for a whole year. There were some magicians that graced the pitch and strikers that banged in buckets of goals, but here are the 10 best footballers of the year. It is an extremely controversial list, and it has GOATs, young stars, cult heroes, and a first place that will make your eyeballs fall out of your head.

10th Place: Marc-Andre ter Stegen

Screenshot (This is his epic save on Mayoral.)

Yep, that's right, a goalkeeper made the list of the top to best footballers of 2023. Marc-Andre ter Stegen had the peak year of his career, making important saves again and again. Boasting cat-like reflexes and a great one-on-one skill set, the Barca goalkeeper could be considered the 'Berlin Wall' for the fantastic saves he made. His save against Borja Mayoral epitomizes his brilliant year, closing down and saving the ball with his chest. He is one of the best goalkeepers in the sport and deserves a top 10 place.

9th Place: Lionel Messi

Lynne Sladky/AP

Some Messi fans are probably going to hate me for this, or even more with my website name 'siuuuuu Football'. Let me get this straight- I don't really have a goat. I chose the name 'siuuuuu Football' because I like the celebration 'siuuuuu', it doesn't mean I think Ronaldo's the goat. From a NEUTRAL, all-football fan perspective, Messi did not perform as well in 2023. Messi is a magician of football and will forever be one of the best players in the world. But in the first half of 2023, Messi could not take PSG to a Champions League victory. At the end of the year, he sat off injured and enjoyed life in Miami. It was during the Leagues Cup and the US Open Cup that Messi showed his magic. Timeless, beautiful goals and assists showed his footballing legend. That was enough to earn him a place on the list.

8th Place: Mohamed Salah

Jon Super/AP

Mohamed Salah has shown that he is the Egyptian King once again in 2023. With several brilliant goals and assists, Salah marauded the right flank and played like one of the last true wingers in modern football. Klopp was right: no money from Saudi Arabia would make him sell Salah anywhere. The image of him breaking left backs' ankles and curling the ball to the top left corner would make Liverpool fans remember him for generations.

7th Place: Cristiano Ronaldo (siuuuuu)

AFP

Although he went to Saudi Arabia, Ronaldo still showed that he has his goalscoring instincts at 38, with him being the top goalscorer of the year with 54 goals. With thumping headers, powerful free kicks, and slotted finishes, Ronaldo still proved himself as one of the finest strikers that has ever graced the football pitch.

6th Place: Vinicius Jr

Helios de la Rubia/Real Madrid/Getty Images

A Brazilian magician who is destined to be the next star in Brazil after Neymar, Vinicius' 2023 was hampered a little by injuries, but he still shone when he was healthy and on the pitch. His long-range goal against Man City and outrageous assist against Osasuna, where he dribbled past two defenders and squared the ball to Rodrygo showed just a little bit of the magic he's capable of.

5th Place: Harry Kane

Getty

2023 might be Harry Kane's best year in his career, where the Englishman scored 52 goals in the calendar year. He can score any type of goal, from headers and regular tap-ins to long shots and an absolutely outrageous half-way line chip against Darmstadt, Kane is one of the few aging players who is still shining and playing his best football in Europe.

4th Place: Jude Bellingham

Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images

Jude Bellingham is the new King of the Bernabeu. He claims to be an 'attacking midfielder', but at times he has shown flashes of a young Ronaldo, weaving past defenders and scoring all kinds of goals. At the last minute, he was clutch, as shown with the last-minute goal against Union Berlin, where he tapped a Fede Valverde shot into the back of the net. But his defining moment of the year was his brace against Barcelona, in which he scored an absolutely outrageous long shot and was crowned the new King of Madrid.

Honourable mentions

You are probably capable of making two of the top three now, but I am going to keep the mystery there until you read the last part. In the meantime, here are some footballers who played very well in the year of 2023 but were very unlucky to miss out on a spot.

Bukayo Saka- The English starboy had a brilliant year, being extremely creative and scoring goals, but in my opinion, it's his deliveries that are the best. A wicked, pacey, but also accurate right corner along with a whipped cross, he is the man to rely on when Arsenal needs that creative spark.

Bernardo Silva- The Portuguese midfielder proved his worth to the Man City team as he regularly adds goals and assists to their attacking tally.

Virgil van Dijk, Ruben Dias, and any other good center back- you were good, but these 10 were too good. I know defenders are underrated, but these 10 were too good.

Kevin de Bruyne: He showed his class by scoring screamers and creating outrageous assists, but later in the year he was hampered by injuries. Would have made it in if not injured and continued to play well.

Julian Alvarez: Haaland in the team yet he still flourished. Integral part in City's attack, and won nearly everything with his club. He basically completed football.

Romelu "la ka ka" Lukaku: well, I probably made a mistake here.

3rd Place: Kylian Mbappe

Getty Images

Now it's time for the podium. Kylian Mbappe is a player I have admired for a long time. His pace, creativity, and finishing are all top-tier. Mbappe scored 52 goals in the calendar year, bursting down the year and boasting a crippling finish. His best goal of the year was in France v Netherlands, where he picked up the ball outside the D and curled it into the top corner. Mbappe is one of the elite forwards in the world, but he has the potential to be the best of them all.

2nd Place: Erling Haaland

Martin Rickett/PA via AP

... fiercely contested with this guy. Haaland broke the 50-goal mark by-well, 0 goals. But we can't complain, because it's 50 goals. Haaland is a goalscoring machine, a robot, a beast, or whatever you say about him. He is always in the right place at the right time for his shots. Whether it's thumping headers or slotted finishes, give him the ball in the area and he will score. However, he doesn't have a trademark moment this season because all of his goals are pretty much finishes inside the box. Trademark Guardiola, you can say.

1st Place (siuuuuu Football's Best Footballer of 2023)

Mbappe or Haaland, maybe Messi or Ronaldo, would have been named in any other list of best football players of 2023 as first. But hey, it's siuuuuu Football. I had said in the intro that you can expect a first place that will make your eyeballs fall out of your head in sheer shock. He is a footballer that did not occupy the brightest position, but is arguably the most important to his team. Crunching tackles, important interceptions, and occasionally a screamer or two, I present you siuuuuu Football's Best Footballer of 2023:

R O D R I

IMAGO/Pro Sports Images/Nigel Keene

Yes, Rodri. Now I can watch all of your eyeballs fall out of your heads in sheer shock. Man City's absolute heart in midfield this season, Rodri came out clutch, scoring the club's most important goal in their history (even after Agueroooooooo). Defensive midfielders do not get much credit (sorry if this is controversial, I said it before, but probably more controversial now because of the center-back thing I said earlier), but Rodri did enough to be the Best Footballers of 2023. New CDMs will watch him play and model their game after him, and he will be considered a legend like Pele, Yashin, Puskas, etc decades later.

Wait... you can't read all this, because you all lost your eyes.

Conclusion

2023 was definitely an eventful year of football. This was the year that a legendary Man City team was created, the year that Messi and Ronaldo both left Europe and the year many new football stories were written. It was an emotional year, some of the world's biggest stars left the big football stage for some others to take over. Some football legends also retired from football, with the likes of Ibrahimovic, Buffon, Bale, and Hazard stepping away from the grass for one last time. But these legends will be replaced by new ones. Mbappe and Haaland are the new kings of football, while the likes of Vini Jr, Bellingham, and Saka also proving themselves on the world stage. Then comes another golden generation, with younger stars like Endrick, Vitor Roque, Echeverri, Ouedraogo and Roony Bardghji slowly emerging onto the world stage too. let's hope that 2024 will be another brilliant year of football, with four continental cups and many more beautiful stories yet to be written. Happy New Year everyone!