Paul Fennessy
10. Declan Rice (England/Arsenal)
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Arguably the standout player in the Premier League this season. Declan Rice was key to Arsenal ending their 22-year wait for glory, and he will be pivotal too if England can put 60 years of hurt behind them. There are plenty of technically superior midfielders in the tournament, but in terms of physicality, energy and reading of the game, few can match the 27-year-old. An important question will be how Rice deals with the fatigue he is bound to be feeling. At the time of writing, he has played 61 games in all competitions this season. Particularly in such a demanding midfield role, that’s an incredibly high number. Compare it to others mentioned on this list with a much lighter workload, such as Achraf Hakimi (43) and Ousmane Dembélé (41), plus many also have the advantage of playing in a league less intense than England’s top flight.
9. Achraf Hakimi (Morocco/PSG)
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Is there a better attacking full-back in the world right now than Hakimi? The 27-year-old had been a fitness doubt ahead of the recent Champions League final, so fans didn’t get to see the best of him on that occasion. But in general, he has been a revelation for PSG with his power down the right flank, perfectly complementing the more subtle qualities of similarly influential players like Désiré Doué and João Neves. He has made over 100 appearances in five years for the reigning Ligue 1 champions, following previous stints at Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan. For Morocco, too, he is indispensable. Hakimi was an inspirational figure as his side became the first African team in history to reach a World Cup semi-final in 2022, memorably scoring a winning ‘panenka’ penalty in the round of 16 against the country of his birth, Spain. Mohamed Ouahbi’s side would be doing well to match the feat of their predecessors, and they will need Hakimi to be at their best if they are to succeed.
8. Pedri (Spain/Barcelona)
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The likes of Vitinha and João Neves have gained more plaudits of late, primarily owing to the Champions League successes of PSG, but Pedri remains one of the world’s top footballers. Still only 23, he has registered more than 200 appearances for Barcelona and won 41 caps for Spain. Following in a long line of technically accomplished Barcelona midfielders like Pep Guardiola, Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, who are capable of dictating a game, Pedri has been key to helping Barca win three of the last four La Liga titles. His best showing for Spain has probably been Euro 2020, where he made the Team of the Tournament and won the award for the best young player. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that he made his professional debut at 16 and has been playing more or less regularly ever since, Pedri’s career has been marred by injuries – he was an important figure in the early stages of the Euro 2024 triumph, but a ligament issue suffered in the eighth minute of the quarter-final clash with Germany ruled him out of the remainder of the tournament.
7. Michael Olise (France/Bayern Munich)
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Born in London to a Nigerian father and a Franco-Algerian mother, Olise felt more connected to France than to any of the other three countries he was eligible for, and so Les Bleus were the ones lucky enough to avail of his services. A hat-trick in a pre-tournament friendly against Northern Ireland was a reminder of the winger’s quality. Despite France’s attack being stacked with alternative top-class options, the 24-year-old is expected to start, while the likes of Man City’s Rayan Cherki, Inter Milan’s Marcus Thuram and PSG’s Bradley Barcola will probably have to settle for a place on the bench. Olise has also had to deal with some pre-tournament transfer speculation. The former Reading and Crystal Palace player has had a phenomenal season, scoring 27 goals from 61 appearances in all competitions. The Bundesliga Player of the Season, who led the league’s assists charts on 19, has consequently been linked with a €150 million move to Real Madrid, though Bayern, with whom he has a contract until the summer of 2029, insist he is going nowhere.
6. Ousmane Dembélé (France/PSG)
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The reigning Ballon d’Or holder and the Ligue 1 Player of the Year two seasons on the bounce, there are more prolific strikers in the world than Dembélé, though 19 goals from 41 appearances this season is not to be sniffed at. However, the 29-year-old’s all-round game, his selflessness and especially his pressing are among the reasons why Luis Enrique values him so highly at PSG. He effectively replaced Mbappé in leading the line for the Ligue 1 giants, but he will likely play alongside the Real Madrid star at the World Cup. The latter’s presence means Dembélé will probably shift to the wing, where he has proven to be similarly effective in the past. Having already helped PSG triumph in the Champions League for the second season running, if he can inspire a World Cup win to boot, it would be no surprise to see him retain the Ballon d’Or next October.
5. Vitinha (Portugal/PSG)
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Not many people go from the fringes of the Wolves team – the English club declined to make a loan move permanent at the end of the 2020-21 season – to arguably the world’s best midfielder in the space of a couple of years. Vitinha’s rise at PSG has been remarkable. He has been a regular there for the past four seasons, and it is impossible to imagine Luis Enrique’s side’s two Champions League triumphs without the 26-year-old’s integral presence in the centre of the pitch. A case could be made that no country has better midfield options in general than Portugal – not just Vitinha, but Man City’s Bernardo Silva, Man United’s Bruno Fernandes and PSG teammate João Neves deserve to be considered among the world’s best players. Whether the same can be said of their 41-year-old striker, Cristiano Ronaldo, is less certain, but Roberto Martinez’s side certainly have the potential to go deep in the competition.
4. Erling Haaland (Norway/Man City)
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The best pure striker in the world. Erling Haaland scored 27 Premier League goals this season (and 112 from 132 appearances in total), five more than his nearest challenger, Brentford and Brazil’s Igor Thiago. The fact that he wasn’t even really in the conversation for English football’s Player of the Season suggests his prolific record is taken for granted to an extent. He is not expected to be as dominant at this World Cup, given that he is playing for a Norway side making their first appearance at the tournament since 1998. They are also in a tricky-looking group, with France, Senegal and Iraq. Haaland and fellow Premier League star Martin Ødegaard will therefore need to be at their very best to inspire the other, less talented players around them.
3. Harry Kane (England/Bayern Munich)
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Like his England teammate Rice, Kane has played a ridiculous amount of football over the last few seasons. Yet at 32, the Bayern Munich forward is performing as strongly as ever, with an astonishing 67 goals from 57 appearances in all competitions, rendering him another strong Ballon d’Or contender. His appetite for the game is palpable, to the extent that it would be no surprise to see him emulate Cristiano Ronaldo by playing into his 40s. And what separates Kane from other strikers, aside from the former Tottenham man’s scarcely believable goal return, is his all-around play. Were he not such a lethal finisher, you could easily imagine him playing in midfield. He comes deep more than most forwards, and his ability to pick out a pass is on par with anyone in the world right now. But like teammate Rice, the only doubt is whether he can maintain those high standards, having already played so many games this season. He was the Golden Boot winner at the 2018 World Cup and shared the top scorer prize at Euro 2024, though he has sometimes struggled to impact games in the latter part of major tournaments. Despite scoring three goals, he didn’t look fully fit at the last Euros and was substituted in all four of the Three Lions’ knockout games.
2. Kylian Mbappé (France/Real Madrid)
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So far, his Real Madrid move has not worked out as well as he would have hoped, but there are still few, if any, individual talents in world football to match Kylian Mbappé. He has already been a fundamental part of one World Cup triumph for France in 2018, and came desperately close to making it two in a row – despite becoming the second player to score a hat-trick in the competition’s final (after England’s Geoff Hurst) and 54th in total, France were pipped to the 2022 trophy by Argentina on penalties. Perhaps it is no surprise that many of Mbappé’s greatest moments have come on the international stage – often accused of not working hard enough off the ball, he is the ultimate individual talent, which is why he often thrives more than in the increasingly systemised club game. Not everyone has been fully won over since his move to Madrid in 2024 – last month, an ‘Mbappe out’ petition reached almost 70 million signatures. But that issue is a testament to the demanding nature of Real’s fans more than his performances on the pitch. In this supposedly underwhelming stint, the France star has still managed 48 goals from 51 appearances this season, coupled with 46 from 65 in the 2024-25 campaign.
1. Lamine Yamal (Spain/Barcelona)
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Another prodigious talent, at 18, Yamal has already won three La Liga titles, the European Championships and made over 150 appearances for Barcelona. He was instrumental to the Euros triumph in particular, when he was the best player representing by far the most impressive team in that competition, becoming both the youngest player and scorer in the tournament’s history, netting a brilliant goal in the semi-final win over France. The 2025-26 La Liga Player of the Season still has a long way to go before he can genuinely be compared to the two best players of the last 20 years, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. But his stats right now are similarly impressive to the two aforementioned superstars when they were his age. The danger, of course, is premature burnout. A hamstring injury suffered last April ruled him out of the remainder of the club season, though reports in recent days suggest Yamal will be fit for Spain’s opening match against Roberto Lopes’ Cape Verde on 15 June.