Suarez, Rooney, Lewandowski, Zlatan: Football's 30 best strikers of 2010s ranked | OneFootball

Who was the best striker in world football throughout the era of the 2010s?

From Robert Lewandowski to Luis Suarez, Wayne Rooney to Harry Kane, and Sergio Aguero to Karim Benzema – the decade of the 2010s was littered with world-beating attacking talent.

Which makes deciphering who out of all of them was the very best, a seriously tough task.

But before we get into it, let’s just quickly run through some general housekeeping rules.

As we’re ranking exclusively strikers in this list, the two GOATs in Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will not be considered for a position.

Whilst those strikers who might have enjoyed their best years just prior to 2010 but continued playing after, for example Fernando Torres or Wayne Rooney, we’ll take their best years into consideration when ranking them.

Meaning, in effect, we aren’t looking at their performances specifically after 2010 but rather their whole careers. To qualify, players simply had to have played around that time frame.

We’ll be using Tiermaker to assign each player one of five categories that range from ‘overrated’ to ‘ultimate no.9.’

So, without further ado, let’s dive straight in.

‘Overrated’

Mario Balotelli, Alexandra Lacazette, Alvaro Morata

A player that showed so much promise early on in his playing days, to say Balotelli’s career to date has flattered to deceive would be quite the understatement.

His talent ensured he got many bites at the cherry with Liverpool and AC Milan both giving him a second chance after his spells with Inter and Man City failed, but ultimately, he was never a top striker.

Second in the ‘overrated’ category is former Arsenal man Lacazette. The Frenchman did decently well for a time at the club, but never really brought too much to the table in the form of goals.

Whilst Spain striker Morata rounds off the final selection in this segment. Much like Balotelli, he consistently got chances at top clubs – and still does to this day playing at Atletico – however, he can never seem to find the net with any kind of regularity.

‘Reliable goalscorer’

Gonzalo Higuain, Diego Costa, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Mario Mandzukic, Olivier Giroud, Jamie Vardy, Daniel Sturridge, Romelu Lukaku, Radamel Falcao, Mario Gomez

Plenty of quality in this section then, championed by none other than Argentinian hitman Higuain.

He was arguably world class for parts of his career and nearly crept into the category above, but his goals dried up a bit too early for our liking.

Huntelaar, Mandzukic, Giroud and Gomez represent four more old fashioned number nines that were never really up there with the best yet could be relied on for double figure goal hauls each season.

Whereas the remaining names all plied their trade in the Premier League for large parts of their careers.

Sturridge was a simply sublime finisher when at Liverpool. Whilst Vardy has crafted himself legend status at the King Power Stadium thanks to his consistent goal returns.

In the case of Falcao, well, his Premier League stint didn’t go all that well despite the enormous expectations fans had for him. The Colombian did nearly win the Ballon d’Or when at Atletico, though, so whilst consistency counts against him in the long run, he can still be looked upon fondly.

‘World class’

Robin van Persie, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Thomas Muller, Edinson Cavani, Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o, Antoine Griezmann, David Villa, Fernando Torres

Jheez this category is stacked with seriously, seriously elite strikers.

None more so than Eto’o, a legend of the game that would have been classed as an ‘all-time great’ had he not headed for Russia at the age of 29 and stayed at the top level.

Drogba also narrowly misses out on the second highest ranking of the lot, mainly because his goal record just doesn’t quite tally up when compared to the Kane’s of this world, as brilliant as he was when in his pomp.

Torres and Villa, two of Spain’s finest ever forwards, were a lethal duo for their national team and very worthy of a ‘world class’ tag.

Meanwhile Muller and Griezmann represent two strikers that, although they’ve never been the most prolific of scorers for their clubs, bring so much more to the party in terms of their creativity that they can’t be overlooked.

And we’ve got to round off this section by talking about the flying Dutchman. Van Persie’s left foot possessed such venom he could’ve punched a football sized whole in a steel door should he have been so inclined – a lethal baller.

‘All-time great’

Luis Suarez, Harry Kane, Sergio Aguero, Karim Benzema, Wayne Rooney, Zlatan Ibrahimovic

So, six of the very best then as we near the end of our ranking system.

We’ll start off with Suarez. A player that, in our view, might have been most worthy of taking the number one spot were it not for Lewandowski’s obscene goal returns.

In an era dominated by Messi and Ronaldo, the Uruguayan can arguably lay claim to being the third best player of his generation. Goals and assists were always a given, but his overall performance levels and unselfishness set him apart.

Although, saying that, there are in fact three other very unselfish strikers within this section that are also great players in their own right and therefore might prove that statement wrong.

Kane, Rooney and Benzema have all been known to sacrifice their own attacking endeavours for the good of the team, often doing so to great effect.

The rapid rise of Benzema from being recognised as a world class striker when alongside Ronaldo, to a leading Ballon d’Or favourite is testament to that.

And when it comes to the two remaining names, well, let’s just say Aguero and Ibrahimovic aren’t ones to allow others to grab the glory.

The two were so prolific throughout the entirety of their career being unselfish simply wasn’t an option and they scored their goals by the bucketload.

‘Ultimate no.9’

Robert Lewandowski

When it comes to the perfect number nine, though, it’s nigh on impossible to look past Lewandowski.

The Bayern legend and now Barcelona star just bags goal after goal, smashing record after record in the process to this very day.

Sure, the freaks that are Messi and Ronaldo might have very narrowly outscored him over the course of their careers, however, since 2015/2016 it’s the Polish hitman that’s been making up ground on them.

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