After six weeks of epic action in North America, the expanded 48-team, 104-match 2026 FIFA World Cup finally came to an end on Sunday, as Spain overcame deposed champions Argentina to deliver their second crown.
With the dust now settling on the race for the trophy, it is now time for us to grant our individual accolades.
Kylian Mbappe won the golden boot thanks to his 10 goals all tournament, while Spain trio of Pau Cubarsi, Rodri and Unai Simon won the Young Player, Golden Ball and Golden Glove awards respectively.
Before the FIFA selection panel picks its team of the tournament, Striver.Football chose to select the eleven players who we believe deserve to make the list given the records they set, as well as their influence helping their respective sides achieve their targets.
For this line-up, we chose to deploy a strict 4-1-2-1-2 central diamond formation, and came up with a list of players that could actually play alongside each other in a properly balanced set up.
Goalkeeper And Defence
For a start, it was very difficult for us to leave out any of Spain’s entire defensive unit, which executed the most watertight defensive campaign in World Cup history by conceding only one goal in 8 matches.
Goalkeeper: Unai Simon (Spain)
The FIFA World Cup Golden Glove winner kept an incredible 7 clean sheets in 8 matches, breaking the all-time single-tournament shutout record.
Simon went 650 consecutive tournament minutes without conceding a goal, serving as an unshakeable foundation for La Roja while building play calmly under high pressure from his six-yard box.
The only goal he conceded was to Charles De Ketaelare in the quarter finals against Belgium, a game they won 2-1 in Seattle. His achievement is even more impressive when you consider he managed to keep David Raya and Joan Garcia, two of the world’s best goalkeepers, on the bench, and justified Luis De La Fuente’s faith in him.
Right Centre-back: Pau Cubarsi (Spain)
The 19-year-old earned the FIFA Young Player Award after starting all 8 games. He registered a spectacular 96% passing accuracy and completely dominated the final against Argentina with 139 touches and 21 line-breaking passes, demonstrating spatial awareness well beyond his years.
Left Centre-back: Aymeric Laporte (Spain)
The perfect veteran partner to Cubarsi, Laporte started every single match. He led the champions with 3.6 clearances and 1.9 interceptions per match, providing total aerial authority and physical security on the ground during tight knockout fixtures against Portugal and France.
He also gave them that left-footed balance during their build up play from the back, as his passing range helped them bypass the opposition press by switching diagonals toward Pedro Porro and Lamine Yamal to try and create 2v1 situations in attack multiple times.
Right-back: Pedro Porro (Spain) and Left-back: Marc Cucurella (Spain)
In a narrow diamond system, the full-backs act as the primary wide engines. Porro was a massive two-way weapon, scoring 2 goals from the right-back spot while completing 91% of his passes.
On the left, Cucurella played the joint-most minutes of any outfield player (750) and recorded a tournament-high 304 high-intensity sprints among all finalists, completely locking down his flank.
They also complemented their wingers, Yamal and Alex Baena respectively, by making overlapping and underlapping runs when required to help maintain their numerical superiority at all moments especially in attack.
Midfield
Our diamond features unparalleled ball retention, high-intensity box-to-box work rates, and historic creative output.
Defensive Midfielder: Rodri (Spain)
The heartbeat of the tournament and official FIFA World Cup Golden Ball winner. Rodri shattered his own single-tournament record by completing 756 successful passes at a staggering 93.2% accuracy rate, while also leading the World Cup in total high-intensity runs (919) to crush opposition transitions.
Right Central Midfielder: Michael Olise (France)
Operating on the right side of the central diamond, the Bayern Munich playmaker put on a creative masterclass.
Olise registered 7 assists in the tournament, breaking Pele's 56-year-old record (6 assists in 1970) for the most assists in a single World Cup over the last six decades.
His ability to drift infield for France and help their midfield pivot avoid being outnumbered was a testament to his versatility, and his creativity was a huge reason behind Mbappe’s historic feat.
Left Central Midfielder: Jude Bellingham (England)
Although he played as a second striker behind Harry Kane, we opted to put Bellingham on the left of the four-man midfield diamond.
Bellingham enjoyed a historic individual tournament. Netting 7 goals, he became the highest-scoring midfielder in a single tournament in World Cup history while breaking the all-time scoring record for an English player at a single edition.
His seventh goal against France was simply top-drawer. He reminded everyone of his blistering days at Borussia Dortmund by receiving the ball near the halfway line and progressively carrying it forward, before nonchalantly dribbling past Maxence Lacorix and Dayot Upamecano to slot it home.
Attacking Midfielder: Lionel Messi (Argentina)
Pulling the strings at the tip of the diamond, the legendary playmaker guided Argentina to the final by racking up 8 goals and 4 assists (12 total goal contributions).
Messi led the entire tournament in big chances created (7) and total key passes (25), proving utterly decisive in the half-spaces.
He reminded everyone of what an Enganche really is, walking 64 per cent of the time, but justifying his perceived lack of work ethic without the ball with killer effectiveness whenever he received it after his teammates won it back for him.
Attack
Up front, this team pairs the tournament's top scorer with its most efficient, lethal penalty-box executioner.
Centre-forward: Kylian Mbappe (France)
The tournament's Golden Boot winner with 10 goals. His telepathic connection with Michael Olise yielded 5 direct goal combinations, the highest single-player partnership metric recorded in modern World Cup history.
Mbappe also completed 28 successful dribbles, tearing defenses apart whenever handed space.
Centre-forward: Erling Haaland (Norway)
The ultimate penalty-box marksman, Haaland carried dark horses Norway all the way to the quarterfinals, scoring an incredible 7 goals in just 5 appearances.
Showing ruthless efficiency, he converted his 7 goals from just 14 shots on target, maintaining a tournament-high goal-per-minute ratio among starting center-forwards.
