Barcelona's Lionel Messi is the No1 again in the Guardian's list of the top 100 footballers, though it was not as clear-cut this year

It's back. Forensically assembled, unashamedly to the point and drawn up by an international panel of experts including Alessandro Nesta, Hope Powell and Kasey Keller, the Guardian's list of the top 100 footballers of 2013 is now ready to emerge blinking into the light in its entirety. Today we have revealed the final top 10.

It is, as always with this kind of reckoning-up, a deliciously more-ish prospect, not least in a sport that remains utterly committed to the notion of a hierarchy of talents, to distinguishing the good from the great. This is an apparently universal urge. In October Sir Alex Ferguson's description of Steven Gerrard as "not a top, top player" was the cue for excitable headlines, polemical analysis, an opening of tribal wounds and above all evidence that Ferguson, even in retreat, still knows how to jab his fingernails into the most tender of pressure points.

And so here we are again – and with a familiar figure adorning the top of the tree. Lionel Messi has had a difficult end to the year, the sustained physical peak of his Guardiola years derailed by a recurrence of those historically twangy hamstrings. As quiet years go this still looks like an unusually boisterous affair, with 38 goals in 36 matches and a La Liga title to his name, plus no sign even in moments of physical discomfort of any diminishing in his preternatural powers. The gap has narrowed. In 2012 Messi was unanimously enthroned. This year six of 15 judges went elsewhere for their No1, including three votes for Cristiano Ronaldo, who has been operating at the peak of his powers all year. But such is the genius of Messi. Even in an off year he is still undeniably on.

Beyond him the top 10 contains the usual heavyweights. The points of tension here are perhaps more a question of jockeying for position. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is an undeniably spectacular third best player in the world, with a talent that expresses itself in moments of high-grade explosion that are beyond any other footballer. But there are those who will say in Ligue 1 he resembles at times an Olympic swimmer in a bathtub.

In addition there is the usual positional premium for the gadflies of attack and attacking midfield. Has Andrés Iniesta really been the world's seventh best footballer this year, palpably superior to Philipp Lahm (15), Bastian Schweinsteiger (20) and Arturo Vidal (26)? Iniesta has two assists in 21 matches this season, has scored three goals all year – half as many as John Terry – and was bullied to the periphery in the Champions League defeat by Bayern Munich. And yet there is also movement in here. Most notably Gareth Bale has come haring up on the outside, zipping in at No7, up 33 places. And why not too? Bale was irresistible in the second half of the Premier League season even while carrying the injury that stalled his start in Spain, since when he has been a thrillingly decisive presence on the right of midfield for Real Madrid.

Other big climbers include Neymar, up seven to No6. He might have been in the top four after his incisive role in Brazil's Confederations Cup victory. All being well next year could belong to him. Luis Suárez was banned for biting this year but still snuffles up 12 places and into the top 10 despite playing only two matches in European club competition all year.

There are, of course, casualties too, with Iker Casillas leading the field among those going the other way. Last year Casillas was No12. This time he did not register a single vote and drops out completely. Also among the retreating glitterati are Sergio Busquets, Xabi Alonso and poor old Willian, whose six months of repose in Dagestan see him drop from No26 to outside the top 100.

In terms of nationality the Premier League remains best represented with 29 players, ahead of La Liga with 26, the Bundesliga with 18, Serie A with 17 and Ligue 1's six. Spain, though, has six of the top eight and the Premier League two of the top 10, a reflection perhaps of the stratification of talent in both leagues. Similarly the Bundesliga staged an in-house Champions League final but has only five players in the top 20 – contentious perhaps but also tribute to the brilliant team-building of both Bayern and Borussia Dortmund and to a sense that this was as much a triumph of collectivism and tactical coherence.

In terms of nationalities there are few surprises. Spain have 16 players, Brazil 11 and Germany 10. England drop to joint ninth with two – yes, two – players in the top 100. It is a salutary paring away, with Ashley Cole, John Terry and Joe Hart dropping out and Wayne Rooney (28) chaperoned by Frank Lampard, a new entry aged 34 at No88 (although not the oldest debutant: Francesco Totti, 37, is the highest new entry at No31). No doubt Lampard's presence will be cast as parochialism by some but this is to belittle a year in which he scored 19 goals and lifted the Europa League trophy. If the veil of judging secrecy can be lifted to illustrate a point: Lampard's greatest advocate here was Nesta, who never played in the Premier League but does have a World Cup winner's medal, two Champions Leagues and three Serie A titles to his name.

It is to be hoped this list will bring as much fascination, acrimony and relentless circular argument as it did in its compilation and writing up. In questions of ultimacy and talent-ranking there are, of course, no certainties beyond the obvious fact that the debate is often just as interesting as the result itself.