Castrol Index Names Thierry Henry Best Player of 2009

Image courtesy of Castrol.

FC Barcelona's French International, Thierry Henry, has been named the best player of 2009 by the Castrol Index. This was their inaugural rating of the best players in the world, and they will be an official sponsor next summer at the FIFA World Cup.

Here are a few excerpts from their article about Henry and the rest of the top 20:

"Thierry Henry’s efforts in front of goal are what have made him the stand-out player of the last year. The French international scored five goals and provided three assists during Barca’s successful Champions League campaign and has contributed a further 18 goals and eight assists in La Liga during the 12-month period all of which have helped him become the world’s best performing player.

The key to Henry’s success has been the accuracy of his shooting with the forward finding the target with an impressive 70% of his shots compared to an average of 42% across the five main European leagues.

Castrol Global Ambassador Cristiano Ronaldo admitted he is now gunning for Henry and determined to claim top spot for himself soon.

'The Castrol Rankings is the ranking that every player wants to top,' said the Portuguese winger. 'If you can be number one on the Castrol Rankings there can be no arguments, as it is based on fact, not opinion. That’s why I’m aiming for the number one spot – to prove I’m the best!' "

Using their metrics, Castrol rated the top 20 players in world football. The only goalkeeper in that group was Christian Abbiatti of AC Milan. Surprisingly, Ricardo Kaka' of Real Madrid was not in the top 20.

Here were the top 5:

Thierry Henry, FC Barcelona
Lionel Messi, FC Barcelona
Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid
Gerard Pique, FC Barcelona
Fernando Torres, Liverpool FC

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