The prestigious French newspaper, l'Equipe, has become just the latest international media outlet to shower FC Barcelona with accolades, naming the trio of strikers that make up the so-called trident — Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez — as the best three in the world.
Nineteen of the paper's journalists ranked the top 100 players in the world, with Messi, not surprisingly, taking the top spot, followed by Neymar in second and Suárez in third.
The trident combined to score 137 goals — 48 each by Messi and Suárez and 41 by Neymar — in 2015, fuelling FC Barcelona's all-time record of 180 team goals in a calendar year.
Plenty more Barça in Top 100
Following the blaugrana sweep of the podium, team captain and midfielder Andrés Iniesta was the next highest ranked player, coming in 8th. Six more Barça players also made the top 50, including midfielder Ivan Rakitic (16th), midfielder/defender Javier Mascherano (18th), midfielder Sergio Busquets (24th), full-back Dani Alves (34th), centre-back Gerard Piqué (36th) and full-back Jordi Alba (50th).
Both of FC Barcelona's regular goalkeepers also cracked the top 100. Claudio Bravo, who is Barça's regular keeper for La Liga matches, is number 59 on the list. Marc-André ter Stegen, who usually plays in Barça's Copa del Rey and Champions League games, came in 77th.
In between the two keepers in 75th place is midfielder Xavi Hernández, who captained Barça to their second treble last season before leaving for Qatar's Al Saad over the summer.
The complete list is here.
