Ronaldo, Haaland, Salah: The Premier League's 19 world-class players

How many world-class players are there in the Premier League: 10, 15, 20, 30 or more?

It’s an incredibly difficult question to answer and one that always gets supporters in a flap with that most coveted of ‘world-class’ labels held in the highest regard by some and dished out like sweeties by others.

However, here at GIVEMESPORT, it’s an oft-mentioned phrase that we try to keep an eye on and every now and again apply to the Premier League in order to assess who the leading footballers continue to be.

Last year, we set out our stall and named the 17 players in England’s top-flight that we considered to be world-class with the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw and Ilkay Gundogan all featuring.

And now we’re back to do it all over again for the 2022/23 season where it probably won’t come as a surprise to learn that none of those players have retained their spot in the world-class cohort.

So how are we defining that most revered of adjectives? Well, for the purposes of this article, the player must either be able walk into any team around the world or be widely tipped as ranking amongst the top 50 players in the sport at the moment.

They will, as a result, be there or thereabouts in regards to the world’s top five for their specific position because there’s going to be no bias shown towards forward players here.

Is that the undisputed and objective definition for ‘world-class’ that’s written in permanent ink? No, no it’s not, so feel free to hang onto whatever criteria it is that you hold dearest, but that’s how we’re making our judgements today.

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Therefore, let’s put the housekeeping and disclaimers to one side for now