Best players of the top five leagues in Europe this season

The top five football leagues in Europe might not be over, but with all of them suspended indefinitely, we can surely look at the top player from each league.

In this list, we will be using player stats, their team's success and their contribution to that success in the season so far.

La Liga - Lionel Messi

Let's start off with the easiest candidate, the Argentine maestro, Lionel Messi.

The 32-year-old has not been enjoying the most prolific of seasons but still managed 19 goals and 12 assists for Barcelona till now.

He was out injured for the better part of the first few months but was starting to kick into gear as the season went on. 

Out of his 21 games he has been man-of-the-match in 13 of those - more than any other player in the top five European leagues - and has an average rating of 8.61 on whoscored. 

His team Barcelona have endured a mixed season with manager Ernesto Valverde getting sacked and Quique Setien coming to the fore but they are still atop of La Liga, although a lot of that goes down to Real Madrid's inconsistencies this season.

The Blaugrana are also in the Uefa Champions League and were in a decent position to go through after the first leg against Napoli at Naples - which was a 1-1 draw - but you can't count on Barca's second leg performances given their last two seasons where they collapsed.

Bundesliga - Robert Lewandowski

Robert Lewandowski is probably the best number 9 on the planet and he has once again shown his class and brilliance by raking in the goals for Bayern Munich this season.

The 31-year-old Polish striker has netted 25 goals in the Bundesliga so far, topping the goalscoring charts there, and has scored 11 times in the Champions League, where he is also leading the goal charts.

He is the highest-rated player in the Bundesliga and the third highest-rated player in all of Europe according to whoscored with a rating of  8.16 this season. 

As a result of his goals, he finds his team on top of the Bundesliga, despite a shaky start and a managerial sacking. 

The Bavarians are also dominating in the Champions League where they thrashed a young Chelsea side 0-3 at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of their Round of 16 match. 

If Erling Haaland played the entire season in Borussia Dortmund, he would have given Lewandowski a run for his money in the goalscoring charts at Germany.

Another player who has had a stellar season is Jadon Sancho of Dortmund and he is the second-highest-rated player in the German top division with a rating of 7.90. 

Ligue 1 - Neymar

Neymar has arguably had his best season at Paris Saint-Germain before since his arrival from Barcelona.

The Brazilian was starting to show glimpses of his Barca form and what made PSG splash a record 222 million euros to buy him from the Catalan club.  

The 28-year-old faced stiff competition from his teammate Kylian Mbappe but Neymar gets our vote by the slightest of margins.

Neymar played in 15 games this season only, scoring 13 goals and assisting with six whereas Mbappe played 17 games and scored 18 times with five assists.

But what pips the Brazilian ahead of the Frenchman is the number of times he was voted man-of-the-match.

Neymar was the MotM eight times whereas Mbappe was voted six times and Neymar also has a higher 8.58 rating in whoscored compared to Mbappe's 8.14. 

Another thing that goes in Neymar's favour are his Champions League performances, especially in the Round of 16 games against Borussia Dortmund, where he was instrumental in helping PSG go through to the Quarterfinals, something that had become a monkey on their back over the past three seasons.  

Serie A - Ciro Immobile

This was a tough one because Ciro Immobile faced stiff competition from Cristiano Ronaldo and Josep Ilicic. 

But the player from Lazio, who has scored 27 goals in Serie A this season, accounting for nearly half of the 60 goals his club have scored overall, gets our nod.

As a result, he is also leading the European Golden Boot race. 

His goals have helped Lazio keep within touching distance of the top spot at Seria A, held by Ronaldo's Juventus. 

Ronaldo scored 21 goals out of his team's 50 which is no easy feat but given the defending league champion Juve's squad depth and strength, Immobile edges ahead. 

Another player who is worth a big shout is Ilicic of Atalanta for his 15 goals this season.

He is also the highest-rated player according to whoscored in the Serie A with a rating of 7.95. The Atalanta player was immense in the Champions League second leg Round of 16 match against Valencia, where he scored four goals as his club reached the quarterfinals for the first time.

Despite Ronaldo's consistency and Ilicic's hot form, we still have to go with Immobile for his goals and for helping his team to such an unprecedented position in the league.  

Premier League - Kevin de Bruyne 

Despite the sketchy league form for Manchester City this season, they have had one constant beacon of light and that is Kevin de Bruyne. 

The Belgian midfielder has been instrumental to just about everything good that City have done this season. 

The 28-year-old so far has 16 assists from 25 appearances with eight goals and leads the assists chart in Europe's top five leagues.

But his best moment came against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu, where he first assisted, and then scored, to help City get a win against Europe's most decorated club. 

He is also the highest-rated player from the Premier League with 7.92 on whoscored.

Liverpool have arguably been the best team in Europe but it has been a total team effort from them as they are inches away from winning the league. 

Jordan Henderson, their captain has been their most influential player and he would have been in with a shout if he didn't get injured. 

Overall, it has to be said that some of the names were easier to pick out than others and it has given us a stark reminder of the quality European football possesses. 

Some of the usual suspects were there (Messi, Lewandowski), and some were big surprises (Immobile).

One thing is for sure if things continue the way they have been, this year's Ballon d'Or list and winner will be a very interesting one and a tightly-fought contest.