Payet has been ranked fourth best player in Europe in 2016 by UEFA ‘barometer’, a player rankings tool.
BBC Sport posted the rankings, which have Cristiano Ronaldo topping the list, followed by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Antoine Griezmann. Payet follows in fourth, in a list that is based on both club and country form since January 1st 2016.
It only features players who are from nations featuring in Euro 2016 – hence no Messi or Suarez.
“The barometer runs official player statistics through a specially designed algorithm to create rankings based on player performances,” according to UEFA.
Uefa added: “The data considered for each player is specific to the position type.
“For example, tackles and interceptions are considered to be key statistics for defensive midfielders, while successful dribbles and crosses are core stats for wingers.”
Payet and James Milner are the only Premier League based players in the top 10, whilst there is a surprise inclusion for Robbie Brady at number 53.
Payet has had an outstanding 2016 for both West Ham and France and is well in contention to start for France this summer. According to the London Evening Standard, Didier Deschamps said yesterday, “Everytime Payet touches the ball something happens”, which is a complete turnaround after the France manager was considering dropping Payet altogether before his outstanding form in recent months.
The full rankings are available here.
