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The 2026 World Cup is almost upon us. The tournament has seen superstars like Pele, Diego Maradona and Kylian Mbappe rise to prominence \u2013 but who will this year\u2019s top stars be?<\/strong><\/p>\n With over 1,000 players to pick from across 48 different nations, we had plenty of scope for choice \u2013 let\u2019s take a look at who we think will be in the 2026 World Cup XI when all is said and done.<\/p>\n We have picked players based on a number of factors. Of course, their team will need to make significant inroads in the competition for them to be in with a chance of being in the best XI \u2013 and that\u2019s just for starters. Who do you think will be in the 2026 World Cup team of the tournament?<\/p>\n Arguably the best goalkeeper in the world at the moment, Diogo Costa is enjoying an absolutely phenomenal campaign in the Primeira Liga with Porto at the moment.<\/p>\n With just 15 goals conceded in 31 league games, alongside 19 clean sheets, it\u2019s hard to find someone superior. Furthermore, Portugal will enter the tournament as one of the favourites \u2013 it\u2019s highly likely that they will have a deep run into the latter stages.<\/p>\n This might seem like an unorthodox pick, but after Achraf Hakimi suffered a hamstring injury that could see him ruled out of the World Cup, Nahuel Molina looks like the leading choice to be the tournament\u2019s best right-back. <\/p>\n He has often found himself on the bench for Atletico Madrid this season, but he is a constant presence in Argentina\u2019s squad. With an acute eye for goal, La Albiceleste\u2019s penchant for expansive football will allow him to harness the true extent of his abilities.<\/p>\n Marquinhos is amongst the best defenders in the world right now. He can do it all \u2013 he\u2019s strong in the air, incredibly brave and possesses sublime technical ability to allow him to play the ball out of defence. <\/p>\n Furthermore, his leadership abilities are top notch. Players need to stand up and be counted at the World Cup \u2013 Marquinhos certainly isn\u2019t one to shy away from a fight.<\/p>\n While Brazil are far from the peak of their powers at the moment, Marquinhos and Gabriel should be able to form a formidable defensive partnership at the World Cup if they are allowed to do so. <\/p>\n While Marquinhos provides the brains, Gabriel is on hand to provide the brawn. His goalscoring record has been very solid this season, scoring three goals and notching up four assists \u2013 such an X-factor can be invaluable during international tournaments.<\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 2026 World Cup is almost upon us. The tournament has seen superstars like Pele,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4601","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\/4601","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=4601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}GK: Diego Costa<\/h2>\n
RB: Nahuel Molina<\/h2>\n
CB: Marquinhos<\/h2>\n
CB: Gabriel<\/h2>\n