You could argue Messi has Best, Rooney, Kaka, Ronaldo as competition over the upcoming years.
Leon?
But yes, we're hardly through a bad patch regarding world-class footballers. I think Cesc can also enter in contention if he stays at Arsenal (a team that plays around him at the moment). His figures this year are hard to ignore.
And I'd say that Messi has only been in contention for BPITW for the past two years, the first he's had injury-free.
I did mean him , but only in jest . Lets not kid ourselves, he is in the top 20 but not in the top 5 players in the world.