World Cup 2026: The most valuable players on each of the 48 teams

Who is the most valuable player on each World Cup team?

Instead of creating what would clearly be an arbitrary ranking, we’re going to rank them by what their transfer market value is at the club level.

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Sure, a player like Argentina’s Lionel Messi may be the most indispensable part of his team. But thanks to his age (38), he would go for a relative pittance ($17 million) if another club wanted to purchase him from Inter Miami.

Based on the values from TransferMarkt, here are the players with the biggest valuations on each of the 48 teams at the World Cup. Given that soccer clubs prioritize potential and goal-scoring ability when buying players, you’ll notice that this list is heavily skewed towards younger attackers.

Maza just completed his first year at Bayer Leverkusen after playing for Hertha Berlin. In 28 Bundesliga appearances this past season, he had three goals and four assists.

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Argentina

Alvarez came to Atletico Madrid from Manchester City in the summer of 2024. Since then, he’s scored 25 league goals and is again the subject of transfer rumors as Real Madrid’s bid has been rejected by Atleti and Barcelona is also interested.

Bos moved to Europe after two seasons with A-League champions Melbourne City. He spent two seasons at Westerlo in the Belgian Pro League before spending this past season at Feyenoord, where he had seven assists in 28 Eredivisie appearances in 2025-26.

Laimer just completed his third season at Bayern and has spent the past nine seasons in the German Bundesliga after starting his career in his home country.

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Doku has become an important attacking piece at Manchester City since his arrival from Rennes at the start of the 2023-24 season. He has 19 goals across all competitions in the past three seasons.

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Bosnia-Herzegovina

Muharemovic helped lead Sassuolo back to Serie A in 2024-25 and started every league game for the team this season as it finished 11th and easily avoided relegation back to Serie B.

Brazil

• F Vinicius Junior, 25, Real Madrid ($161 million)

Vini Jr. has scored 69 goals over the past five La Liga seasons for Real Madrid and is one of the best attackers in the world. Can he replicate that form for Brazil at the World Cup this summer?

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Davies has been in the Bayern system ever since he started 27 matches for the Vancouver Whitecaps as a teenager in 2018 before moving abroad. He has been limited by injuries over the past two seasons and will miss the start of the World Cup.

Costa joined Villarreal from French side Toulouse ahead of the 2024-25 season. He appeared in just two La Liga games after tearing his ACL in August of 2025, but is healthy for the World Cup.

• LW Luis Diaz, 29, Bayern Munich ($81 million)

Diaz moved from Liverpool to Bayern Munich in the summer of 2025 for a reported fee of $88 million. Diaz scored 15 goals and added 14 assists in his first Bundesliga season.

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Côte d’Ivoire

Diomandé came to Leipzig last summer after a season at Leganés in La Liga. He made 28 starts and had 12 goals and eight assists. He could be on the move again with a huge World Cup.

• CB Josko Gvardiol, 24, Manchester City ($81 million)

Gvardiol’s breakout came during the 2022 World Cup when he was at RB Leipzig. He went to Man City in the summer of 2023 and has been an integral piece of the City defense since.

Obispo has been a part-time player for PSV throughout his career. He started every match he played in while on loan at Vitesse during he 2019-20 and has made 40 appearances with 14 starts over the past three Eredivisie seasons for PSV.

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Czechia

• CB Ladislav Krejčí, 27, Wolves ($25 million)

Krejčí moved to Wolves before the transfer window closed in August of 2025. He started all but one EPL game he played in, however, Wolves were relegated and finished last.

DR Congo

Like Wolves, Sunderland moved up to the EPL from the Championship in 2025. Unlike Wolves, Sunderland excelled in the EPL. And Sadiki was a big reason why. The defensive midfielder started 33 games as Sunderland finished seventh in the league table.

Caicedo has been at Chelsea for the past three seasons after a big-money move from Brighton as part of Chelsea’s effort to sing numerous high-dollar young players to long contracts.

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Marmoush joined Man City during the January transfer window in the 2024-25 season. He started 14 games for City immediately after his arrival, but was used more as a sub than a starter during the league season in 2025-26.

England

• MF Jude Bellingham, 22, Real Madrid ($150 million)

Capable of being one the most dynamic attacking midfielders in the world, Bellingham joined Real Madrid from Borussia Dortmund three seasons ago for $110 million. As Real Madrid had a tumultuous season, Bellingham had just six goals and four assists in 2025-26. That was his lowest combined total since 2020-21.

Mbappé had 42 goals across all competitions in 2025-26 as he scored 15 Champions League goals across 11 games and had 25 league goals in 31 appearances.

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Wirtz came to Liverpool from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2025 for $130 million. He had just five goals and three assists in 33 league appearances as Liverpool finished fifth in a rocky campaign.

Ghana

Semenyo joined Man City in January for a fee near $75 million. After scoring 10 EPL goals for Bournemouth in 20 starts, he added seven goals and an assist in 17 league games for City.

Isidor scored 12 goals in the Championship for Sunderland in 2024-25 as the Black Cats earned promotion. He made 32 appearances with 11 starts in the Premier League in 2025-26 and scored six goals.

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Ghayedi’s team plays in the United Arab Emirates league and he scored six goals this past season.

Iraq

Before MLS’s World Cup break, Qasem had a goal and an assist in nine starts and 14 overall appearances this season. In his first season at Nashville, in 2025, Qasem scored two goals and had one assist.

• MF Kaishū Sano, 25, Mainz ($46 million)

Sano spent his career in Japan’s domestic leagues before moving to Mainz in the summer of 2024. He’s started 68 games in his two Bundesliga seasons and scored his first league goal since 2023 this past season.

Jordan

Rennes made the leap from 12th to sixth in the French Ligue I standings in 2025-26 as Tamari scored six league goals across 33 appearances.

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Giménez has been with Milan the past two seasons after a transfer from Feyenoord. He has five goals and three assists in 30 league appearances during his time with Milan, but didn’t score a Serie A goal at all in 2025-26.

Hakimi has been an integral part of a PSG team that has won back-to-back Champions League titles. In 2025-26, he appeared in 13 Champions League games with one goal and six assists after scoring four goals and notching five assists in 17 UCL games in 2024-25.

The Dutch midfielder has become a mainstay in Liverpool’s midfield over the past two seasons. He started 37 league matches in 2024-25 as Liverpool won the Premier League, and made 36 appearances with 34 starts in 2025-26.

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After scoring 20 goals in 26 Premier League games in 2024-25, Wood was limited to just 15 league appearances this past season and scored three goals.

Norway

• F Erling Haaland, 25, Manchester City ($230 million)

The goal-scoring machine has topped 20 goals in each of his past six league seasons. In 2025-26, Haaland scored eight goals in the Champions League and had 27 EPL goals. He scored 36 goals in 35 games during his first EPL season in 2023.

Panama

• RB Amir Murillo, 30, Besiktas ($8 million)

Murillo joined Besiktas from Marseille in January and made 28 combined league appearances in 2025-26 in Ligue 1 and the Turkish Super Ligue.

Enciso scored three goals and had six assists for Strasbourg in Ligue 1 in 2025-26. He joined the team after spending the past three seasons in the Premier League for Brighton & Hove Albion and Ipswich Town.

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• MF João Neves, 21, PSG ($161 million)

Neves is one of the many dynamic players in an incredibly stacked PSG midfield. He made 35 total appearances in 2025-26 in the Champions League and Ligue 1 with seven goals and four assists.

Afif played the first four seasons of his career in Europe and is now a key piece of Al Sadd in Qatar as the team won the Qatar Stars League.

Abdulhamid scored two goals and had four assists in 25 Ligue 1 appearances for Lens in 2025-26. It was his first season in France after spending the 2024-25 season with Roma in Serie A.

Scotland

McTominay has been an indispensable part of Napoli’s team since leaving Manchester United at the start of the 2024-25 season. He’s made 64 league starts for Napoli with 22 goals and seven assists and scored four Champions League goals this past season.

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Senegal

Ndiaye has become an important player for Everton since joining from Marseille in the summer of 2024. He’s started 61 EPL games over the past two years and has scored 15 goals and added three assists.

Foster had three goals and two assists over 26 appearances and 15 starts for Burnley in 2025-26. However, Burnley was relegated back to the Championship after finishing 19th in the EPL.

• MF Kang-in Lee, 25, PSG ($32 million)

PSG has the luxury of rotating its squad heavily during Ligue 1 games to focus on the Champions League. Lee played in 10 UCL games with no starts in 2025-26 but had 18 starts in Ligue 1 with three goals and four assists.

Spain

• RW Lamine Yamal, 18, Barcelona ($230 million)

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Yamal appeared in seven fewer La Liga games in 2025-26 thanks to a hamstring injury at the end of the season, but still upped his goal tally from nine to 16 and also had 11 assists. He’s the overwhelming favorite to win young player of the tournament at the World Cup even if he misses the start of the tournament.

Sweden

Like Wirtz, Isak didn’t have an easy first year at Liverpool. Injuries and his holdout at Newcastle led to just 14 EPL appearances and eight starts. He had three goals and an assist after scoring 23 league goals and dishing out six assists in 2024-25.

Manzambi emerged as an undisputed starter for Freiburg in 2025-26. He started 26 of the 27 Bundesliga games he played in with five goals and four assists.

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Tunisia

• MF Hannibal, 23, Burnley ($18 million)

The former Manchester United academy player has been with Burnley for the past two seasons and talked two goals and eight assists with the team.

Türkiye

• MF Arda Güler, 21, Real Madrid ($104 million)

Güler joined Real Madrid from Fenerbahce in the summer of 2023. He’s scored 13 league goals and added 13 assists over 71 appearances and 43 starts.

United States

• F Folarin Balogun, 24, AS Monaco ($46 million)

Balogun had a breakout season at Monaco in 2025-26. After scoring 11 goals over his first 42 Ligue 1 appearances, Balogun scored 13 goals and had four assists in 30 matches. Can he carry that form over to the World Cup for the U.S.?

Uruguay

• Valverde is one of the best midfielders in the world and has started 127 La Liga games and 50 Champions League games for Real Madrid over the past four seasons.

Uzbekistan

Khusanov has made 47 total appearances for Manchester City since he arrived from Lens in January of 2025.