UEFA metric ranks England's Milner Europe's 5th best

Europe's football governing body, UEFA, has released a statistical analysis ranking the continent's top players ahead of next month's Euro 2016, and while the first name on the list comes as no surprise, the fifth most certainly does.

Real Madrid and Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo came out on top, followed by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Antoine Griezmann, Dimitri Payet, and James Milner.

Yes, James Milner. That James Milner. The soft-spoken, hard-working Yorkshire Figo; the purveyor of grit and grind, hater of panache and flair.

Hardly the footballer whose virtues show up on the stat sheets, Milner's skill set is better analysed using the same advanced metrics that have become status quo in North American leagues. That's where UEFA's algorithm comes into play.

"The barometer runs official player statistics through a specially designed algorithm to create rankings based on player performances," a statement on UEFA's website said Tuesday.

Taking into account form with both club and country since Jan 1, the UEFA "barometer" metric was sorted by position.

"The data considered for each player is specific to the position type.

Players are sorted as 'keepers, full-backs, central defenders, defensive midfielders, central midfielders, attacking midfielders, wingers, and forwards

"For example, tackles and interceptions are considered to be key statistics for defensive midfielders, while successful dribbles and crosses are core stats for wingers."