Lionel Messi has retained the top spot in this year's Guardian's choice of the world's top 100 footballers, which also sees Franck Ribéry, Gareth Bale and Luis Suárez make impressive leaps into the top ten.

The second annual list by the Guardian enlisted the former Italy international Alessandro Nesta as the lead judge in a panel of 15 experts (up from 11 last year). The former England women's coach, Hope Powell, and retired USA goalkeeper, Kasey Keller, joined the selection of Guardian journalists on the panel.

So how exactly did they go about ranking players for the top 100? Stephen McMillan explains:

We asked each judge one simple question: who have been the 40 best players in the world in 2013? They ranked their answers in order, from 1-40. We awarded 40 points for a No1 choice, 39pts for No2, and so on down to one point for their 40th choice.

The results, which have been unveiled in a countdown from December 20, are now published in full. You can see the top 100 listed in the table below with both this year's ranking and that of 2012. The spreadsheet also includes details of the points awarded to each player on the list.

Ronaldo remains in second place while Zlatan Ibrahimovic has climbed two places to third. There have been some impressive leaps into the top ten; Ribéry up 24 places to fourth, Gareth Bale up 33 places to seventh and Suárez jumps from 21st place in 2012 to ninth in 2013.

Bayern Munich and Barcelona are the top represented clubs on the list with 11 players each, while Real Madrid have nine players in the top 100 - one fewer than last year. Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund have eight and seven respectively. Manchester City, who had eight players in last year's list, now have six in the top 100.

Only four British players make this year's selection; Gareth Bale in seventh, Wayne Rooney 28th, Aaron Ramsey 49th and Frank Lampard in 88th. As last year, Spanish, Brazilian and German players dominate the list.

Despite so few British players making the list, the Premier League remains the best represented league in the top 100 with 29 players (up from 27 in 2012) and is followed by La Liga with 26. The Bundesliga is the third most represented league with 18 players in the list.

At just 19, Paris Saint-Germain's Marquinhos is the youngest player to be featured on the list beating Stephan El Shaarawy who made the top 100 last year aged 20.

The full breakdown by nationality, club, position and points scored can be found in the downloadable spreadsheet. We've also got numbers on the leagues that have been represented in the 2013 and 2012 list.

What do you think of the top 100? Who would you have voted for given the chance? We'd love to read your comments below.

The world's top 100 best footballers 2013 Click heading to sort table. Download this data 2013 2012 Name Position Club Nationality Age at Dec 20 2013 1 1 Lionel Messi Forward Barcelona Argentina 26 2 2 Cristiano Ronaldo Forward Real Madrid Portugal 28 3 5 Zlatan Ibrahimovic Forward PSG Sweden 32 4 28 Franck Ribery Midfielder Bayern Munich France 30 5 4 Andres Iniesta Midfielder Barcelona Spain 29 6 13 Neymar Forward Barcelona Brazil 21 7 40 Gareth Bale Midfielder Real Madrid Wales 24 8 3 Xavi Midfielder Barcelona Spain 33 9 21 Luis Suarez Forward Liverpool Uruguay 26 10 11 Sergio Aguero Forward Manchester City Argentina 25 11 7 Robin van Persie Forward Manchester Utd Netherlands 30 12 17 Mesut Ozil Midfielder Arsenal Germany 25 13 10 Edinson Cavani Forward Napoli Uruguay 26 14 66 Arjen Robben Midfielder/forward Bayern Munich Netherlands 29 15 25 Philipp Lahm Defender Bayern Munich Germany 30 16 6 Radamel Falcao Forward Atlético Madrid Colombia 27 17 16 Thiago Silva Defender PSG Brazil 29 18 70 Robert Lewandowski Forward Borussia Dortmund Poland 25 19 9 Yaya Toure Midfielder Manchester City Ivory Coast 30 20 19 Bastian Schweinsteiger Midfielder Bayern Munich Germany 29 21 8 Andrea Pirlo Midfielder Juventus Italy 34 22 29 Manuel Neuer Goalkeeper Bayern Munich Germany 27 23 27 Marco Reus Midfielder/forward Borussia Dortmund Germany 24 24 20 Gianluigi Buffon Goalkeeper Juventus Italy 35 25 33 Thomas Muller Forward Bayern Munich Germany 24 26 57 Arturo Vidal Midfielder Juventus Chile 26 27 14 Sergio Busquets Midfielder Barcelona Spain 25 28 31 Wayne Rooney Forward Manchester Utd England 28 29 36 Cesc Fabregas Midfielder Barcelona Spain 26 30 32 Juan Mata Midfielder Chelsea Spain 25 31 NE Francesco Totti Forward Roma Italy 37 32 18 David Silva Midfielder Manchester City Spain 27 33 67 Mario Balotelli Forward Milan Italy 23 34 34 Mario Götze Midfielder/forward Borussia Dortmund Germany 21 35 NE Diego da Silva Costa Forward Atlético Madrid Brazil 25 36 37 Oscar Midfielder Chelsea Brazil 22 37 15 Xabi Alonso Midfielder Real Madrid Spain 32 38 42 Daniele De Rossi Midfielder Roma Italy 30 39 24 Gerard Pique Defender Barcelona Spain 26 40 53 Toni Kroos Midfielder Bayern Munich Germany 23 41 43 Dani Alves Defender Barcelona Brazil 30 42 23 Vincent Kompany Defender Manchester City Belgium 27 43 NE David Alaba Defender/Midfielder Bayern Munich Austria 21 44 NE Ilkay Gündogan Midfielder Borussia Dortmund Germany 23 45 22 Sergio Ramos Defender Real Madrid Spain 27 46 48 Carlos Tevez Forward Juventus Argentina 29 47 NE Thibaut Courtois Goalkeeper Atlético Madrid Belgium 21 48 77 Mario Mandzukic Forward Bayern Munich Croatia 27 49 NE Aaron Ramsey Midfielder Arsenal Wales 22 50 79 David Luiz Defender Chelsea Brazil 26 51 64 Nemanja Vidic Defender Manchester Utd Serbia 32 52 NE Axel Witsel Midfielder Zenit Saint Petersburg Belgium 24 53 NE Dante Defender Bayern Munich Brazil 30 54 NE Giuseppe Rossi Forward Fiorentina Italy 26 55 35 Karim Benzema Forward Real Madrid France 26 56 NE Gonzalo Higuain Striker Napoli Argentina 26 57 NE Jan Vertonghen Defender Tottenham Hotspur Belgium 26 58 97 Marek Hamsik Midfielder Napoli Slovakia 26 59 100 Paulinho Midfielder Tottenham Hotspur Brazil 25 60 51 Marcelo Defender Real Madrid Brazil 25 61 80 Luka Modric Midfielder Real Madrid Croatia 28 62 NE Kevin Strootman Midfielder Roma Netherlands 23 63 39 Javier Mascherano Defender/midfielder Barcelona Argentina 29 64 NE Hugo Lloris Goalkeeper Tottenham Hotspur France 26 65 44 Petr Cech Goalkeeper Chelsea Czech Republic 31 66 45 Mats Hummels Defender Borussia Dortmund Germany 25 67 73 Santi Cazorla Midfielder Arsenal Spain 29 68 NE Keisuke Honda Midfielder CSKA Moscow Japan 27 69 NE Víctor Valdés Goalkeeper Barcelona Spain 31 70 NE Arda Turan Midfielder/Forward Atlético Madrid Turkey 26 71 NE Federico Marchetti Goalkeeper Lazio Italy 30 72 47 Angel Di Maria Midfielder Real Madrid Argentina 25 73 NE Álvaro Negredo Forward Manchester City Spain 28 74 NE Laurent Koscielny Defender Arsenal France 28 75 NE Toby Alderweireld Defender Atlético Madrid Belgium 24 76 NE Marco Verratti Midfielder PSG Italy 21 77 NE Pablo Zabaleta Defender Manchester City Argentina 28 78 NE Dario Conca Midfielder Guangzhou Evergrande Argentina 30 79 69 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Forward Borussia Dortmund Gabon 24 80 NE Michu Forward Swansea City Spain 27 81 NE Miralem Pjanic Midfielder Roma Bosnia-Herzegovina 23 82 NE Samir Handanovic Goalkeeper Inter Slovenia 29 83 54 Samuel Eto’o Forward Chelsea Cameroon 32 84 NE Juan Zuniga Defender Napoli Colombia 28 85 NE Lukasz Piszczek Defender Borussia Dortmund Poland 28 86 NE Marquinhos Defender PSG Brazil 19 87 NE Mehdi Benatia Defender Roma Morocco 26 88 NE Frank Lampard Midfielder Chelsea England 35 89 94 Shinji Kagawa Midfielder Manchester Utd Japan 24 90 NE Koke Midfielder Atlético Madrid Spain 21 91 NE Yohan Cabaye Midfielder Newcastle Utd France 27 92 NE Lucas Moura Midfielder PSG Brazil 21 93 NE Blaise Matuidi Midfielder PSG France 26 94 NE Isco Midfielder Real Madrid Spain 21 95 NE Alexis Sánchez Forward Barcelona Chile 25 96 NE Asmir Begovic Goalkeeper Stoke City Bosnia-Herzegovina 26 97 NE Emmanuel Emenike Forward Fenerbahce Nigeria 26 98 NE Branislav Ivanovic Defender Chelsea Serbia 29 99 98 Javi Martinez Defender/midfielder Bayern Munich Spain 25 100 58 Eden Hazard Midfielder Chelsea Belgium 22

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