The Athletic has published its final top 50 player rankings for the 2026 World Cup, and Rodri sits at the center of them after Spain won the tournament. The Spain captain, back near his best after an ACL knee injury nearly two years ago, was voted the World Cup’s best player and helped drive a title run that was strong enough to put a second star on the shirts.
That is why readers are searching the FIFA Team Of The Tournament 2026 now: the World Cup is over, the rankings are out, and the final judgment is no longer about one match but the whole month. Spain filled nine places in the top 25, a sign of how complete their run was, while Messi was described as the most impactful player at the tournament and Mbappe finished as Golden Boot winner with two goals against England in the third-place play-off.
The list matters because it is built from The Athletic’s player ratings model, an objective assessment of each player’s contribution in a match rather than a simple popularity contest. That helps explain why the final standings can track both star power and week-to-week influence. Rodri’s place at the top fits that logic: he returned from injury to captain Spain, controlled games, and ended the tournament with the kind of authority that separated him from the rest of the field.
Spain’s strength also runs through the rest of the rankings. Cubarsi was called the best defender in the tournament after shutting down Julian Alvarez and Messi in the final and drawing a red-card foul from Enzo Fernandez. Laporte led Spain’s defence and was praised for his passing from the back. Those pieces matter because they show the title was not carried by one match-winner alone but by a team with multiple players shaping the tournament at both ends of the pitch.
There was still room for contradiction in a tournament full of high numbers and sharp verdicts. Kane scored six goals, but he faded badly in the knockout rounds and was even viewed as a possible substitute in the semi-final loss against Argentina. Haaland, by contrast, failed to score against England in Miami and went through a rare blank in 21 international appearances. Olise also pushed his case with seven assists and a first World Cup goal off the bench against England, a reminder that the top 50 captures more than the names that dominated the final weekend.
What comes next is the debate the rankings are designed to provoke: whether Rodri’s return and Spain’s spread of talent make this the clearest final order possible, or whether the complete top 50 tells a messier story than any one honor can. Either way, the tournament is now finished and the argument over who truly defined it has moved from the pitch to the page.
