Messi, Bellingham & Rodri: Picking Our World Cup Best XI

With the World Cup coming to an end, it only feels right to pull together 442's definitive World Cup 11. So here it is. Let's kick things off, pun intended, with the goalkeeper position. My brain tells me Unai Simon for his clean sheets, a save percentage of over 90% and of course Spain's World Cup in general. But my heart is telling me Vosginia. I mean, when else will we witness a story quite like Cape Verde's 40-year-old goalkeeper stopping Spain's scoring, helping his team qualify for the knockouts on an unbeaten group stage record, and push Argentina all the way to extra time? Sure, I may be buying into the social media hype a little bit on this one, but being a top goalkeeper on the bigger stage is Unai Simon's bread and butter. This is above and beyond for Vosginia. For those same reasons, I could have also picked Curaçao's Eloy Rumi, Iran's Ali Reza, Birenband or Norway's Oskar Nyland. But as far as I'm aware, you can only name one goalkeeper in your starting 11, so Vosginia it is. Into the fence now and starting it right back, there's Spain's semi-final hero, Pedro Porro. Now, I'm not just talking about his well-taken goal versus France, nor his well-timed header versus Austria, but his all-round play throughout the tournament, which has seen him justify his selection and then some. He's got two Man of the Match awards, two goals, and has made up part of a record-breaking Spanish defence, who went five games straight without conceding a goal before the Belgium quarterfinal. Also, big props to Ashraf Hakimi in another good World Cup showing for him in Morocco, as well as Alex Freeman bombing up and down the right wing for host USA, but Porro just edges it this time. The first of the two centre-backs has to be Lisandro Martinez. Now, for someone who's been through injury hell in the past couple of seasons, to regain his form, make it to the World Cup, it's been a spectacular effort. He's actually missed over 330 days of football in the last two years, yet has stepped onto the world stage and looked as comfortable as ever. Of course, his defensive ability has helped push Argentina all the way to the final, but going forward, his impact has been brilliant, too. A goal, an assist, and 93.6% pass completion. Elite. It's actually a close call between him and centre-back partner Cristian Romero, but Martinez takes the spot. And the other centre-back spot belongs to Dayot Upamecano. Now, during the Frenchman's time in the competition, nobody made more interceptions than him, and no defender won possession more times or made more tackles than him. A complete stalwart at the back. Did the tournament end in disappointment for him and his team? Sure, but you can't knock his contributions over the entire tournament. I'm Rick Laporte and Pau Kobasi are both up there, for largely the same reason that Pedro Porro and our left-back are. It honestly could have been decided on a toss of a coin. Oh, and we'll have to give a big shout-out to Pico Lopez as well. Cape Verde will go down in 2026 folklore, and so will he. The last man in the back four, then, and yes, we return to Spain, because Marco Carrera's tournament has been exceptional on a team and personal level. He's contributed to that sturdy defence I've been banging on about. He's got three assists while simultaneously locking up some of the best right-wingers the World Cup has to offer. And lastly, did he seal a dream move to Real Madrid from Chelsea for around 50 million quid? You bet he did. All in all, not a bad month for the former Chelsea man. He was named in the team of the tournament for Spain's successful Euro 2024 campaign, and I'm sure, regardless of what happens in the final, he'll be well-placed to take a spot this time around, too. Honestly, looking at other options, I thought Nuno Mendes was good for Portugal, but their lack of progression keeps him out. Jed Spence could have made either full-back slot with some great performances, and Nathaniel Brown made a good go of his first international tournament with Germany, but none came close to Cucureia. Just no awkward song afterwards this time, please, Marc. We start the midfield with the more defensive of the duo, of which there doesn't need to be one, because this team doesn't really need to make sense. It's not like they're playing anyone, or it needs to be realistic, but I'm doing it anyway. The defensive-minded position is filled by Rodri. I mean, his career will be looked back on as elite. Top, top level. But to watch him is rather unremarkable, and the same could be said about his World Cup. Could I, off the top of my head, give you a moment where I've gone absolutely mad over something he's done? No. But he's doing absolutely everything else. Keeping Spain ticking over, he's there to break up dangerous counter attacks and can be relied upon in all areas of the pitch. I think central midfield is difficult to choose, but actually, this one's fairly easy. Alongside him, and Enzo Fernandez has been as good as you'd expect him to be, if not better, which is very good. Keeping Argentina tenacious and aggressive from front to back, even popping up with a few important goals. Stephen Estakio was a great watch for host Canada during their run to the last 16, and Johan Manzambi has been fantastic for Switzerland, but playing a little bit more attacking than a true central midfielder. Although, to be honest, the same thing goes for Jude Benningham too, but this is where I'll stick him. An all-timer of a World Cup, it'll go down in the history books as a definitive summer in an England shirt, and he's been keeping up the top scorers in the competition the whole way. Carrying England on his back, making a nation believe, if I get any more excited, I'll start singing Hey Jude right here, right now. You get the point. Jude's in. Now the number 10 role. Is there a crazy amount of hate for the Argentinian team amongst claims of conspiracy and cheating? Yeah, there is. But denying the fact that Messi is, yet again, age 39 now, put on display after display of the highest order is just wrong on so many levels. The greatest to ever do it has turned up to the biggest tournament in the world and smashed records on his way to the final. The most goals and assists in World Cup history, now on the chance to go back to back with a trophy, it was going to be hard to leave him out or even displace him in this team. Big props to his male side, Bari, though. He was Morocco's shiny light throughout the tournament, so much so he earned a big money move to buy Munich from PSV. But I'm sure even if you asked him, he'd find it difficult to select himself ahead of Messi. Video aside for a second, though, here's a hypothetical question for you. Imagine you're on your holidays during the World Cup, or what's left of it, or you're travelling somewhere for work and you can't get your World Cup fix. You've got your TV licence sorted to watch the coverage in the UK, but not abroad, so what do you do? Well, our office friends at Tom's Guide have the answer. Because they've tested a wide range of VPNs, a Norton VPN stands out as a strong option. Fast, reliable, and it comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee. Enough to cover the World Cup and beyond, so you can try it risk-free. And the best bit, for all 442 viewers, there's also an exclusive offer available. All you have to do is click the link in the description to learn more. Back to the video, then, and moving into the attacking third now, and it's probably where the most controversy lies, because there is no right answer. Has Michael Alisse been at his absolute tip-top best? Probably not, but five assists during France's run to the semi-finals is a pretty good return. He's not the one, though, and neither is Ismail Nassar, despite a very good showing of four goals and one assist in four games for Senegal. It could have been Lamine Yamal. I think he's been good for Spain in a way where he's consistent threat and has actually carried the ball forward more than any other attacker bar Lionel Messi in the tournament, but he doesn't quite have the goal contributions to back that all up. It's not the defining metric for a winger, but when it comes up against a record like Ousmane Dembele's, it's hard to argue for anyone else. Dembele's five goals and two assists in seven games saw him take arguably a share of the spotlight alongside Kylian Mbappe. You could argue that he scored those five in only three games, but then again, a World Cup hat-trick is hardly something to scoff at. From the right to the left, and Leandro Trossard was incredibly instrumental for Belgium in their run to the quarter-finals, actually playing on both the left and the right side of the Red Devils attacking three. Yandier Mandet was fun to watch, wasn't he? The group stage saw him complete over 10 chances and over 10 dribbles, so you can kind of see why so many clubs are linked with him and want him. But alas, neither of those two take the top spot. Nope, that belongs to Julian Quiñones. The Mexican winger was outrageously good, a combination of speed, skill and a deadly eye for goal that saw him back four times in Mexico's run to the last 16. Yes, you could throw the argument out there that left-wingers went further than he did, but if we're talking about how individually good a player was for his team, who by the way, did have a good tournament themselves, Quiñones has got to be there for me. I mean, his goal-scoring exploits saw him score more goals than games in the Saudi Pro League, finishing first above Tony and Cristiano Ronaldo in the goal-scoring charts. So maybe his scoring should have been no surprise, but still, what a tournament. Lastly, but not least, here we go with the central striker, from which you could pick any of the big guns who have shone in front of goal. Mbappe scored a ridiculous eight times with three assists to boot, which means with 20 goals across three World Cups, he'll move past Lionel Messi at the next one without doubt and take the record for himself. And maybe I'm being a bit harsh here, but he's not the one I'm going for. Neither is Harry Kane. I'll admit, I'm one of his biggest fans, and he's done wonders for England throughout the tournament, but Bellingham has done more, and the others have scored more. So that's basically what I'm going off. I do feel harsh not picking Oyathebal for Spain, though. He's definitely got his unsung hero vibe about him. Without his goals, Spain wouldn't have made it all the way to the final showpiece. You could argue for every one of these forwards, and to be honest, there is no right answer. But I'll go for Erling Haaland. I think it's a mixture of his goals, seven of them in five games, the fact that he was playing for a nation not expected to mix it with the big boys, but still made the quarterfinals, and he single-handedly put Brazil to the sword in the round prior. Like I said, no wrong choices, but Haaland's first tournament didn't seem to phase him at all. World class. So that's all for my team of the tournament. Let me know who you agreed with, completely disagreed with, and who you would have had in the comments section below.