Forget Messi and Ronaldo: Who is the third best player in the world?

Whichever side of the argument you fall on, no one disputes that these two titans of the game are the two greatest footballers walking the planet.

But who, you might ask, is the THIRD best player in the world? We know it's Messi, Ronaldo and the rest, but who is the best of the rest?

We ask the question after Sergio Aguero scored a brilliant Champions League hat-trick against Bayern Munich on Tuesday night.

That led Nick Miller to write that "if you absolutely insist on ranking these things, [Aguero] surely must only be behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as the greats of this generation."

And we do insist. Here are the 10 players who we think have a claim to being the third best player in the world.

Is he the best player in the Premier League? Almost certainly. The Manchester City striker was marked out as a prodigy at a very young age and since making his debut as a 15-year-old for Independiente has never looked like veering from the course of greatness. No player in English top flight history has scored goals as regularly as the Argentina star and his tally of 17 goals in 18 games in all competitions this season demonstrates the kind of potency that marks him out as possibly the most efficient striker operating in football at this moment.

Money doesn’t always equate to quality – just ask Arsenal fans who have to pay football’s most expensive tickets to endure constant disappointment – and while Gareth Bale is the most expensive player in history, he certainly isn’t the best. However, he departed England as the best player in the Premier League and last season settled in wonderfully well at Real Madrid, scoring the crucial goal in the Champions League final win over Atletico Madrid.

Winner of 11 league titles at six different clubs, Ibrahimovic was once the best paid player on the planet and although he is now 33 and has been struggling with injury of late, he still has six goals in eight starts this season. But to reduce Zlatan to mere statistics would be criminal. He is a football artist, who scores the kind of instinctive, imaginative and sometimes downright acrobatic goals that other players wouldn't even dare to conjure up in their dreams. There isn’t a manager in world football who wouldn’t jump at the chance to have Sweden’s all-time record goalscorer in their club. Well, except Pep Guardiola.

Rather less bombastic than his Bayern colleague below but no less influential, Lahm used to be the best full-back in football before Pep Guardiola decided to switch him to a midfield role last season, and he quickly became one of the very best deep midfielders in the game - or a pivote, as Guardiola would have it. Lahm has an innate understanding of football that few in the game possess. He always takes the right option, dictates the pace and flow of the game and never gives the ball away. He also captained the all-conquering Germany - though he has had now retired from international football - and still leads Bayern.

The role of the sweeper-keeper is not a new one. It has a proud history in football and modern practioners include Victor Valdes, Hugo Lloris and, by his own account, Lukasz Fabianski. But it is Neuer who has truly made the role his own, with his heat maps providing constant entertainment during the World Cup. Oh, and he is also possibly the greatest shot stopper in the world and a huge influence behind the Bayern Munich team that won the double last season and the Germany team which triumphed at the World Cup.

Another member of Barcelona’s formidable front three, Neymar is the poster boy, heart-throb, captain and star striker for the most football-obsessed nation on earth. At just 22 years of age he has already scored 42 goals for Brazil and this season has become prolific for Barca too, outscoring even the great Messi in La Liga. Once a YouTube prodigy at Santos, Neymar has matured into a devastating and unpredictable forward.

The Frenchman took his failure to win the Ballon d'Or last season very badly as the acclaim he felt he was merited was cruelly denied him. And he had had a superb season, proving to be Bayern’s best player as they won a historic treble. This year has been rather less impressive due to injury but Ribery remains a thrilling talent with the ball at his feet, operating with similar elan to the next man on our list on the other Bayern flank.

Robben seems to become an even more impressive physical specimen with every year that passes. As a balding young winger he suffered constant injury problems with Chelsea and Real Madrid, but in recent seasons at Bayern he has eradicated his fitness problems and become one of the most consistently brilliant players in the game. Everyone knows Robben is devastating when cutting in from his position on the right wing- scoring the winning goal in the 2013 Champions League final for Bayern - but he showed during an excellent World Cup campaign for Netherlands that he is also a threat when running at pace through the centre.

James took the World Cup by storm this summer with six goals for Colombia seeing him win the Golden Boot in Brazil. Those electric displays inevitably drew the attention of Real Madrid and with five goals and five assists in 12 Liga games so far he has slotted into Carlo Ancelotti's team with impressive ease. Now one of the key players in the team that is defending the Champions League title this season, James has become a marketing phenomenon, but it is his remarkable use of a football which sees him make this list.

The Premier League's best player finally extricated himself from Liverpool this summer but only after damaging his already battered reputation with his bite on Giorgio Chiellini. Still, a four-month absence from football did little to diminish his ability and he has looked a lively presence up front for Barcelona since making his debut. Described on this very website during the World Cup as Diego Maradona's spiritual heir, Suarez is a relentless goal machine with incredible work ethic and a selfless streak which makes him a complete forward.