Judging players across leagues, as Eurosport-Yahoo! has done with its Top 50, is always going to be difficult.
Here I have listed the players I think have been the best and worst over the past season in Europe.
The Premier League has a larger share of the top players in the world, though not necessarily any of the very best, and teams from England once again dominated the Champions League.
But is it the league that people in Europe like to watch the most? I'm not so sure. How many people across the continent want to watch Bolton v Wigan, or Wolves v Birmingham? Over here, we know it as a big Midlands derby, but no one else will be interested.
The most exciting league to watch next season will probably be the Spanish league. All of the players I have marked out year either play in La Liga or will be next season.
For me, Lionel Messi is the best footballer in the world. For such a young player, he's been performing at a high level for a long time now. We rave about our young players, and how we should give them time, but nobody is talking about giving Messi time, and he is still just 21. When he gets fouled, he is straight back up, and there is no petulance about him.
Kaka has had another sensational season for Milan, and you can't blame him for moving to Real Madrid after the loyalty he's shown the club. After staying with them after the whole Calciopoli fallout, he's been such a key part of their success. If he had gone to Manchester City, people would have lost a lot of respect for him, but Real are a club with a history worthy of the player.
David Villa has done brilliantly to keep Valencia in and around the European places. He always performs against the top sides in Spain, and he is not just a goal scorer but an adept all-round attacker. His international goal record is phenomenal.
The two men at the heart of Barcelona's success have been the midfield duo Andres Iniesta and Xavi. Iniesta in particular has really arrived in the upper echelons of the world game this year, after being in the shadow of Ronaldinho and Deco for much of his career.
As reigning world player of the year, Cristiano Ronaldo has to be up there, almost by default. His record and achievements at Manchester United have been wonderful, but all his negative traits mean that I can't hold him in as high regard as the other names on my list.
None of the other top players in the world have the same personality issues as Ronaldo.
Football isn't just about playing well and scoring goals, it's about how you act on and off the pitch and how you treat your fellow professionals and fans. Nobody boos any of the other top players, but Ronaldo gets booed wherever he goes.
Just as Barcelona have provided some of the best players, credit must go to Pep Guardiola for making brave decisions in getting rid of some big names when he took over. A couple of these names feature among the players who I think have been big disappointments in the past year.
Ronaldinho, for instance, has just completely dropped off the radar. He had a poor end to his final season at Barcelona, and even before that he had fallen out with Franck Rijkaard over his lifestyle. Fortunately for him, he ended up at another of Europe's great clubs, Milan. Even then, though, he couldn't rediscover the form that made him world player of the year. In the end, he was even overlooked by Brazil for their Confederations Cup squad.
Deco had a great first game for Chelsea, and for a while under Scolari they looked a different side; they were trying to play football rather than be so direct. However, he quickly went into reverse gear, and went increasingly went missing in matches.
Scolari brought him in, but even he started leaving him out of the side. Even when Guus Hiddink came in, he barely got near the team, and now he is looking for a way out via a reunion with Jose Mourinho. Xavi's partnership with Iniesta has proved to be far more effective, which leads me to believe that the players around Deco made him look better than he actually is.
Michael Ballack is another Chelsea player who has really disappointed me. When I first saw him for Bayer Leverkusen, then Bayern Munich and Germany, he always had something about him. He seemed to typify German football, so clean-cut and elegant, and he could handle whatever was asked of him.
However, as time has gone on since his arrival at Chelsea he seems more and more content to simply go through the motions. Whether that's because Frank Lampard has the role that he wants I'm not sure, but truly great players should be able to rise above that. That 40-yard chase of the referee during the Champions League semi-final is the most I've seen him run all season.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is another with a big reputation, but few people outside Italy or the media have seen him play a great game for club or country. I saw him at Old Trafford this season, and he should have had a hat-trick. Towards the end he bottled a header against Patrice Evra, who is much shorter than him. I don't believe he would survive in the Premier League, where you have to be that little bit braver and have more urgency about your game.