I’m calling it now: this has been an odd World Cup for defenders and midfielders. While the superstar attackers have all turned up – to the extent that Harry Kane misses out on this team – central defenders and central midfielders have either quietly gone about their business or suffered lapses.
Still, head above the parapet time. Here is my best XI of the tournament. Shout at me on social media if you want, but please do be aware that there is usually a queue.
Goalkeeper – Orlando Gill (Paraguay)
The first problem position. Cape Verde’s Vozinha got all the plaudits but their defending was absolutely a communal effort. Diogo Costa was almost faultless but then a) Portugal have a decent defence and b) Portugal were rank bad all tournament.
This became a choice between two goalkeepers: Mostafa Shobeir of Egypt and Orlando Gil of Paraguay. Gill gets the nod on the basis that he made the most saves of any goalkeeper in the tournament and I watched him be brilliant live.
Right-back – Pedro Porro (Spain)
Tottenham’s Pedro Porro was quality for Spain (Photo: Reuters)Until Spain beat France in the semi-final, Achraf Hakimi was nailed on for a place in this team. But a) Porro played brilliantly against France and scored, and b) there are other reasons why I am more than happy to leave Hakimi out.
Between Marc Cucurella and Porro, Spain have two full-backs who have arguably produced their best performances over the last two years in this tournament. Their attacking invention has allowed the wingers to drift close to Mikel Oyarzabal and make Spain increasingly hard to defend against.
Left-back – Nuno Mendes (Portugal)
No left-back created more chances. No left-back completed more dribbles. No regular left-back made more passes per game. No left-back played more accurate through balls.
This tournament was a waste of time for Portugal because Roberto Martinez considered it more important to give Cristiano Ronaldo a retirement lap than to commit everything to winning the tournament. Nuno Mendes lost out more than anyone.
Central defender – Pau Cubarsi (Spain)
You could make a decent case for picking Aymeric Laporte here, but Cubarsi impressed me so much during the tournament given his age and relative inexperience (he had only 12 international caps before the group stage started).
Cubarsi was also the right choice to win the Young Player of the Tournament award. The completeness of his game at 19 is astonishing and Spain have two teenage pillars to build around.
Central defender – Dayot Upamecano (France)
There were doubts about Upamecano before this World Cup; the suspicion was that he occasionally loses concentration and makes poor mistakes. But we saw almost none of that in the US.
In fact, I think Upamecano was the best French defender who also had the good fortune to miss the appalling first half against England in Miami. At 27, he merits being the natural partner to William Saliba for Zinedine Zidane.
Central midfielder – Rodri (Spain)
Rodri – Spain’s midfield general (Photo: Getty)One of the stories of the entire tournament. Rodri has spent most of the last two years either recovering from a serious injury, recovering his match fitness after so long out or struggling to recapture the peaks he reached before the injury. Then he walked into a major tournament and immediately put every other midfielder in the shade.
Spain did not win the World Cup just because of Rodri, but they would not have won the World Cup without him either. His performance against France in the semi-final was one of the most dominant in recent World Cup memory.
Central midfielder – Elliot Anderson (England)
Anderson came into this tournament as one of the form midfielders in Europe last season, completed a then-British record move to Manchester City and somehow ended the summer still flying a little under the radar.
His work off the ball, including an unerring ability to be in the right place at the right time, was a game changer for England. I made him the second best in the team after Bellingham and the second best central midfielder behind Rodri.
Attacking midfielder – Jude Bellingham (England)
The greatest individual major tournament by any England player, by my reckoning. That Bellingham ended it with a wonderful individual goal to confirm his place as the highest goalscorer in a single major tournament for England was entirely fitting.
Bellingham isn’t just a goalscorer – he drives and drags England forward more often than is ideal – but his ability to make penalty-box runs defined England’s run to the semi-final. To think that some people thought that he shouldn’t be in the team at all.
Attacking midfielder – Lionel Messi (Argentina)
Lionel Messi shone – but not in the final (Photo: Reuters)He’s 39; that is the phrase to repeat to yourself until the enormity of what Messi achieved in this World Cup sinks in. In 2023 he chose to leave European football, ostensibly to extend his Argentina career and give him a shot at another World Cup.
It probably paid off. Messi was quiet in the final but he scored or assisted 12 goals along the way, a ludicrous return even in a team designed exclusively to get the best out of him. And if this is it, it has been an honour to report on the denouement.
Striker – Kylian Mbappe (France)
You can insert caveats around the expansion of the tournament reducing the quality of opponents slightly and point out that Mbappe has been part of three excellent France teams, but who cares? He has scored 22 World Cup goals in 22 matches to become the highest scorer in the competition’s history and scored 10 here.
Mbappe came into this tournament with question marks surrounding his defensive contributions at Real Madrid. And he spent six weeks largely proving that it doesn’t matter if you are one of the most reliable contributors in the history of the international game.
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Striker – Erling Haaland (Norway)
Kane can consider himself unfortunate not to be here, obviously. But then Haaland led his team to their best ever World Cup performance and did so in the manner of an insouciant meat robot, goofy smile as he thwacks you out of the competition.
Haaland has broken America in this tournament. On every sports show, it was him who the more casual followers of soccer gravitated towards. And the performance against Brazil, when he produced the best individual display of any centre forward this summer, gets him the nod.
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