🔝 The five best players of 2023 | OneFootball

And just like that, 2023 has come and gone in a flash.

Here are our top five best footballers of the year …

5. Vinícius Júnior

This was the year that Vinícius Júnior took his game to a completely new level.

The Real Madrid attacker had always starred in flashes during his four years in the Blancos first team but 2023 was truly when the Brazil international went stratospheric.

Vini started the year by scoring a brace in the Real Madrid’s Champions League win at Anfield and was instrumental in the club winning the Copa del Rey over Osasuna in May.

The 23-year-old then took the number seven jersey off of Eden Hazard and netted six goals in all competitions before an injury curtailed his campaign at the start of November.

4. Rodri

A brilliant player who only gets better every time he’s absent for a Manchester City defeat.

Rodri has been a stunning, metronomic presence at the base of the City midfield for years now but it was in 2023 that everything reached its apotheosis.

It was the Spain international’s goal that secured City their first ever Champions League trophy as they beat Inter 1-0 in Istanbul, whilst also claiming his Man of the Match award in the final.

And injury in the back end of the year has showed just how difficult City have found it to replace their very own Sergio Busquets.

3. Kylian Mbappé

A player that just keeps getting better and better with every passing year.

It was a landmark 12 months for Kylian Mbappé as he became Paris Saint-Germain’s all-time leading scorer before leading the capital club to their 11th title and winning Ligue 1 Player of the Season.

It was a summer of turmoil – partly of his own making – but Mbappé got on with the job of scoring goals into the new season and has already bagged 18 this term.

2. Jude Bellingham

Jude Bellingham keeps creating Real Madrid history, week after week.

No club has a more vaunted status in the game and no player has taken to life at Santiago Bernabéu quite like Bellingham.

So far the England international has 13 goals in just 16 Real Madrid games and all eyes now look towards Euro 2024 with the Three Lions.

1. Erling Haaland

Would Manchester City really have achieved everything they did in 2023 without Erling Haaland?

Pep Guardiola’s teams before the Norwegian were often brilliant but, in Europe especially, collapsed at the key moments.

This year, they won it all and they won it in large part due to the sheer goalscoring brilliance of Haaland.

The former Borussia Dortmund man scored more goals than anyone else in the calendar – 44 in total – and helped City go down in the history books.