🏆 Ballon d'OneFootball: Our countdown begins ... | OneFootball

Welcome to the fourth annual edition of the Ballon d’OneFootball as we begin our countdown of the top 25 players in the world right now. Here’s an explainer how we decided on a top 25.

Here’s the list so far.

And we kick off the list with …

25th: Thibaut Courtois, Real Madrid and Belgium

(Last year: 25)

Real Madrid’s Champions League semi-final exit to Manchester City in May 2023 is not a match that will be remembered fondly by the 14-time European champions.

And it’s rare that a goalkeeper emerges from a 4-0 defeat with credit.

But Thibaut Courtois managed it that night, thanks to two outstanding saves which reminded everybody why he’s one of the very best goalkeepers on the planet.

The first save denied Erling Haaland from point blank range. The Manchester City striker had been found by a cross inside the six-yard box and looked certain to score, only for Courtois to position himself brilliantly to claw the ball off the line with his right hand.

And the second save was even better. Haaland again headed towards goal and Courtois adjusted his feet rapidly before making a scarcely believable reflex save to tip the ball around the post.

It was moments of class like that which earned the Belgian a spot in the Champions League Team of the Season and though 2022/23 was a disappointing one from Real Madrid, their goalkeeper was Mr Consistent throughout.

He kept 17 clean sheets in all competitions over the course of the season and in LaLiga Madrid conceded a goal roughly every 100 minutes when he played.

The stat that really stands out from last season is Courtois’s save percentage. He saved 90 of the 119 shots he faced in LaLiga, giving him an impressive 75.63% save ratio.

It feels like rarely a game goes by when he doesn’t make at least one world class save, and his distribution is up there with the very best as well.

At international level it wasn’t a vintage year for Courtois either, with Belgium eliminated from the World Cup at the group stage, but he recently earned his 100th cap for the Red Devils, leaving him seventh on the nation’s list of most capped players. He will surely be their go-to goalkeeper again at next summer’s European Championship.

Courtois has been one of the world’s top goalkeepers for well over a decade now and he recently turned the ripe age of 31. Many players would be starting to wind their career down at this point, but this guy is at his peak, and he has plenty left to offer in the coming years.

Click here for every player named so far and their profiles.