Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski were the leading footballers of 2021.The Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich stars went head-to-head for the Ballon d'Or trophy for their exploits over the last 12 months and will soon do battle for The Best FIFA Men's Player prize.However, now that 2021 is in our wings mirrors and we can assess the year as a whole, there is the space and data to analyse which players came closest to matching Lewandowski and Messi.

Best performers of 2021

Besides, with the selection of the FIFA FIFPro World XI just a few days' away, there is a lot of debate to be had around 2021's top performers across every position on the pitch.

Was Edouard Mendy or Gianluigi Donnarumma the best goalkeeper of the year? Has Trent Alexander-Arnold got the better of Reece James and Achraf Hakimi over the last 12 months?

These are the sorts of tantalising questions that will be answered in the coming weeks regardless of how enshrined it might be that Lewandowski and Messi were the top two players overall.

And although statistics aren't the be all and end all when it comes to judging players, it would be rude not to look at which players were the darlings of the numbers across the entirety of 2021.

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Statistical Team of the Year

To do so, we're turning to the data gurus at SofaScore, who award players with an overall rating out of 10 for every game they play which is informed by various metrics across the 90 minutes.

And they celebrated New Year's Eve by unveiling which players had produced the highest averages across their match ratings in Europe's top five leagues between January 1 and December 31, 2021.

The final line-up brought together five Bundesliga players, three Premier League stars, two Ligue 1 representatives, just one La Liga hero and not a single baller from Serie A.

Intriguing, huh? You're damn right because the statistics don't necessarily conform with the wide-spread opinion in the way you might expect, so be sure to check out the full XI down below:

Wowsers. There's certainly a few surprises there.

No Ronaldo or Salah

Jorginho, Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kante, Cristiano Ronaldo, Mohamed Salah, Kevin De Bruyne and Kylian Mbappe all finished in the Ballon d'Or top ten, but none of them actually made the stats XI.

In fact, the highest Ballon d'Or finisher who qualified for the line-up other than the obvious candidates of Messi and Lewandowski was in fact Erling Haaland all the way down in 11th place.

Arsenal vs Man City Match Reaction (Football Terrace)

However, the most surprising selection of all is Aaron Ramsdale because although the Arsenal man has been absolutely superb in 2021, seeing him in the Team of the Year is certainly eyebrow-raising.

It's incredible to think that the England shot-stopper has amassed better stats than Jan Oblak, Alisson Becker, Ederson and Thibaut Courtois despite spending half the year at Sheffield United.

But at the end of the day, the stats don't lie, so you've got to tip your hat to Ramsdale for making an XI that Ronaldo, Salah, Ruben Dias and Joao Cancelo couldn't even break their way into.

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