# Opinions on Castrol Soccer Rankings **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 17, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-castrol-soccer-rankings/517970 "2009-11-17T23:45:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-castrol-soccer-rankings/517970/1 "2009-11-17T23:45:01Z")
While I’m certainly not the biggest soccer fan in the world, I thought I had a good idea about who most the best players are. However, looking at the Castrol rankings, apparently I was somewhat mistaken. For example, Kaka is the 88th best player in the world (and the 11th best Brazilian)? Iker Casillas is only the 33rd best goalie? What’s the general opinion on these rankings? > **[Castrol](https://www.youtube.com/castrol)** > > At Castrol, we're breaking boundaries and moving FORWARD on a pathway of change. Embracing the new to accelerate progress. > > YouTube Commenting Policy: > All conversations and posts herein should be constructive, respectful, and contain language that is... ---
**Author:** ![MJinks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@MJinks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MJinks)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-castrol-soccer-rankings/517970/2 "2009-11-18T00:36:17Z")
Someone likes Barcelona… Rooney 11th best player in the Premier League, with Vidic 2nd? What has Rooney done to drop 31 places to 34th, despite carrying his team? Rio dropped 75 places to 127th, 9th best English player behind Green, Kirkland and Lescott. I’ll assume that’s due to his bad form but Van Der Sar, who has been injured for most of the season, is up 43 places to 42nd. John Terry has dropped from 12th to 56th. With such massive changes in ratings without any semblance of logic it’s complete bollocks. ---
**Author:** ![footballisplayedwithyourfeet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9f8e36/32.png) [@footballisplayedwithyourfeet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/footballisplayedwithyourfeet)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-castrol-soccer-rankings/517970/3 "2009-11-18T10:03:34Z")
Ok, I haven’t got time to read the list, but any list of current players that puts Kaka outside the first 10 is useless…unless it’s a list of worst players. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-castrol-soccer-rankings/517970/4 "2009-11-18T11:13:52Z")
It seems one of those ridiculous things that draws attention and bar discussion, perhaps, but nothing more. If you took the top 15 managers in the world and had the select their best XI I’d bet you get 15 fairly different teams. Everyone views a player through a slightly different lens and values different attributes. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-castrol-soccer-rankings/517970/5 "2009-11-18T15:20:40Z")
Looking at [this source](http://www.4thegame.com/club/manchester-united-fc/news/249441/Who's+Europe's+best+player/), it might well be that the list only covers the month of October 2009, hence the rankings will only make some kind of sense at this time next year because the ‘performance analysts’ have only just started rolling out the statistics. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-castrol-soccer-rankings/517970/6 "2009-11-18T21:34:31Z")
> [@MJinks](#): > > Someone likes Barcelona… > > Rooney 11th best player in the Premier League, with Vidic 2nd? What has Rooney done to drop 31 places to 34th, despite carrying his team? > > Rio dropped 75 places to 127th, 9th best English player behind Green, Kirkland and Lescott. I’ll assume that’s due to his bad form but Van Der Sar, who has been injured for most of the season, is up 43 places to 42nd. > > John Terry has dropped from 12th to 56th. > > With such massive changes in ratings without any semblance of logic it’s complete bollocks. The other number shown is the previous ranking, and not the change from the prior ranking. You must be an accountant. 😃