The Athletic has published a provisional ranking of the top 50 Fifa World Cup players set to be involved in 2026, with the list to be updated over the next five weeks as the tournament picture sharpens. It is not meant to be a simple order of the 50 most gifted footballers in North America next summer, which is part of what makes the early release worth reading.
The timing matters because the countdown is now public and the first ball will be kicked between Mexico and South Africa on Thursday. Readers looking for a clean answer about who matters most at the World Cup will find a list that tries to weigh form, fitness and the chances of actually playing for a national side, not just raw reputation.
At the top end, the names do the heavy lifting. Ousmane Dembele arrives as the reigning Ballon d’Or winner after a Champions League knockout run for PSG in which he scored against Chelsea, Liverpool twice, Bayern Munich three times and Arsenal. Harry Kane, meanwhile, is hard to ignore after 61 goals across all competitions for Bayern last season, and Thomas Tuchel is expected to build England’s attack around him.
That is where the ranking becomes more revealing than a straight talent list. Lamine Yamal gets the narrowest nod over Michael Olise, even though Yamal will turn 19 at this World Cup and Olise made a serious Ballon d’Or push last season. Vitinha’s place is backed by a Champions League final in which he completed 141 passes, a number that underlines why Portugal might have the best midfield in the competition.
Kylian Mbappe is also there, but not at the very top of the attacker hierarchy in this version of the list. He is described as France’s third-best attacker, a reminder that the order is shaped by role, form and availability as much as by status. That makes the rankings more useful than a beauty contest, but also less tidy than a pure who-is-best debate.
The Athletic’s model will keep moving for the next five weeks, and that is the point: this is a living guide to the players most likely to define the World Cup before the competition even begins. By the time the tournament opens in North America, the only certainty is that the list will have changed again.
