Welcome to Goal.com's greatest players of 2008 - the Goal.com 50!
A team of 25 Goal.com reporters representing leagues from: England's Premier to Spain's Liga; Italy's Series to Turkey's Super; Argentina's Apertura to Australia's A-League and beyond, all cracked our fingers, scratched our skulls, and banged our heads against brick walls devising a selection of stand-out performers deemed worthy of our votes.
Each journalist then went away and ranked the shortlist of 75 players in order of whom they believe were more deserving of the moniker: 'Greatest player of 2008'. Individual performances were noted from January to December 2008, as was team contribution, together with prizes and accolades awarded. The final lists were cut off at 50.
Once the results were in, the data was collated by adding together all of each footballer's corresponding ranks. So for example, if Ashley Young was positioned at 38 on one reporter's list, and ranked 49 on another, his total for the two would be 87.
However, if a player was completely omitted from a received shortlist, then he would be assigned penalty points. The winner, therefore, would be the player who had the lowest overall score.
Every day we will be updating this page with two new entrants, but for now:
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