\n<\/p>\n
Now that the 2026 World Cup has come to a close, we can cast our minds back at some of its greatest moments and players. Who were the best wingers and wide midfielders in the competition this year?<\/strong><\/p>\n For reference, we will only be looking at wingers in this list. Attacking midfielders and wingbacks will not be taken into consideration.<\/p>\n Before we get into the top five, we\u2019d like to give a shout out to some honourable mentions. Ismaila Sarr was very unlucky to not have broken into our top five, with four goals and one assist. Had Senegal performed a little better, he\u2019d be in these rankings for sure.<\/p>\n Cody Gakpo is in a similar boat. He had a disappointing season in the Premier League with Liverpool, but made up for it by scoring three goals and notching up a single assist in four games for The Netherlands.<\/p>\n Additionally, Bradley Barcola was a dangerous man on the wing for France. His electric pace made him a real nuisance, but was often relegated to appearances from the bench. <\/p>\n We have already taken a look at the best goalkeepers, defenders and central midfielders in the World Cup. For reference, we will also only be looking at one player per nation.<\/p>\n One of the most exciting young players in the world, the 2026 World Cup presented an excellent platform for Real Madrid\u2019s Brahim Diaz to strut his stuff.<\/p>\n In an excellent Morocco outfit, Diaz was the star of the show. While he didn\u2019t score any goals, he made up for it by racking up four assists.<\/p>\n Playing a key role in their deep World Cup run, Morocco were comfortably the best African team in the competition for the second World Cup in a row.<\/p>\n Mexico were one of the most feared teams in the World Cup. Being one of three host nations and playing at the terrifying Azteca Stadium, it was easy to see why, but Julian Quinones was another reason as to why they were such an intimidating force.<\/p>\n A daring, aggressive runner with excellent movement and pinpoint finishing ability, Quinones was the focal point of their all-action attacking line. <\/p>\n Sadly, Mexico ran into a brick wall in the form of England in the last 16, but this was nonetheless a brilliant run from both them and their number 16. <\/p>\n Bukayo Saka threatened to peter out in this tournament, as Thomas Tuchel initially preferred to start Noni Madueke, but the Arsenal star soon took the bull by the horns when given the chance.<\/p>\n Scoring three goals and racking up three assists, Saka was a shoo-in for this list. Granted, three of those goals came in the ultimately-pointless third place playoff against France, but they all count.<\/p>\n Saka deserves extra recognition for turning up at the World Cup whilst not being fully fit. To perform as well as he did under those circumstances is very impressive indeed.<\/p>\n Brazil were one of the World Cup\u2019s biggest disappointments this year, but do not let that distract you from how great Vinicius Junior was throughout their campaign.<\/p>\n Many audiences referred to Brazil as a \u2018one-man team\u2019 in the tournament, with that one man being Vinicius. That might be a bit unfair, but it goes to show how important he was towards their efforts.<\/p>\n Scoring four goals and notching up a solitary assist in five appearances, the Real Madrid star was unstoppable whilst in full flow.<\/p>\n Despite a slow start to the tournament, Ousmane Dembele burst into life in the later stages of the campaign, showing everyone why he is the current Ballon d\u2019Or holder.<\/p>\n Granted, he did play one game as a number ten, but was allowed to thrive when he was shifted onto the right wing. All in all, the PSG man scored six goals and registered two assists.<\/p>\n He was one of four players to score a hattrick at this World Cup, alongside Lionel Messi, Jonathan David and the aforementioned Bukayo Saka. A real superstar \u2013 sadly, he will be 33 by the time the next World Cup rolls around. Have we seen the best of him in football\u2019s biggest competition?<\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now that the 2026 World Cup has come to a close, we can cast our…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}5.Brahim Diaz<\/h2>\n
4. Julian Quinones<\/h2>\n
3. Bukayo Saka<\/h2>\n
2. Vinicius Junior<\/h2>\n
1. Ousmane Dembele<\/h2>\n