playRyan O’HanlonNov 13, 2026, 10:00 AM ETCloseRyan O’Hanlon is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He’s also the author of “Net Gains: Inside the Beautiful Game’s Analytics Revolution.”Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsFor as much as I make fun of the Ballon d’Or process and how ridiculous the mushy, vague, contradictory criteria are, I think the voting journalists have probably gotten it right in each of the past three years. At least, they haven’t gotten it wrong.When I wrote up my theoretical ballots in each of the past three years, my three choices were Rodri, Ousmane Dembélé and Harry Kane — the three eventual winners. Once you move beyond the top pick, though, things start to get really weird.
Imagine watching the 2025-26 Premier League season and then finding out that Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella got more Ballon d’Or votes than Arsenal’s Gabriel Magalhães and William Saliba — combined.Since the award tends to identify one of the best players on one of the best teams in the world, it does tend to identify a worthy winner. But it rarely identifies any other worthy winners.Remember when Mohamed Salah led the Premier League in goals and assists two seasons ago for a dominant Liverpool team? He finished fourth, with a vote total closer to 30th than first.Who, then, is the best player in the world right now? Or rather, who are the best players in the world right now?In August, we launched the 10 Best List, a recurring look at who I’d estimate to be the — you got it — 10 best soccer players in the world.
We’re back, post-Harry Kane Ballon d’Or, to update the list.As a reminder, I’m using this as my guidance: “If you added this player to an average round-of-16 Champions League team, how much more likely would the team be to win the tournament?” And if a player is injured or has been injured recently, I’m dropping him out of the top 10.All right, let’s get to the list.10. Vitinha, midfielder, Paris Saint-GermainPrevious rank: UnrankedBecause of the injury rule I made up, we’ve had to drop Dembélé (No. 1) and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (No. 3) from the list. The former hasn’t played since before Halloween, while the latter is out for the season with a torn ACL. And yet it seems like PSG remain the best soccer team in the world without either of them.Last year, Arsenal finished the league phase of the UEFA Champions League with 23 goals, more than anyone else.
PSG currently have 20 goals — through four Champions League games, two of which were against Manchester City and Barcelona.So, they have to have someone on the list. I don’t think Vitinha would be a controversial pick here for pretty much anyone other than a guy who published a book that devotes an entire chapter to the issues with evaluating, measuring and valuing midfield play. But that guy also happens to be writing this article.There are two ways to really impact the game as a midfielder: contribute goals and assists while also doing the normal, expected amount of midfielder stuff … or do an incredible, outlier amount of the midfielder stuff. Vitinha has taken 2,259 touches over the past two Champions League seasons, while no other player has even reached 1,700.
And he combines the massive volume with impressive execution; per Gradient Sports, he was the highest-graded passer among all players who at least reached the quarterfinals.Put more simply: Almost every PSG possession involves Vitinha, and PSG have won back-to-back Champions League titles. He’s clearly doing something right.9. Pedri, midfielder, BarcelonaPrevious rank: UnrankedPSG are tricky to analyze because their best players barely play any games, while Barcelona are tricky to analyze because they play such an outlier style from every other team. They’ve scored 17 more goals than every other team across the Big Five leagues, but they’ve also allowed more goals than 30 other teams across the Big Five leagues.In other words, they’re clearly sacrificing defensive solidity to boost their attack, so their attackers presumably all benefit from that decision.At the same time, Barcelona’s defensive personnel is just not anywhere near the same level as the other best teams in the world, even though Barcelona are one of the best teams in the world.
So yeah, maybe their attackers are so good that they make up the gap.Anyway, Pedri is Gradient’s third-highest-graded passer across the Big Five leagues so far this season, because he can do it all:Some of Barcelona’s defensive frailty stems from the 5-foot-9 dude standing in their midfield, but there’s not a midfielder more dangerous than Pedri when the ball is at his feet.8. Erling Haaland, forward, Manchester CityPrevious rank: 6In case you were wondering: Yes, it was possible for Haaland to be even less involved in Manchester City’s buildup play than he already was.His expected goals, his goals and his shots are all pretty much where they always are: top of the Premier League. And although he doesn’t have an assist, his expected-assists numbers are right where they’ve always been.Haaland has never really added much on-ball value outside of the penalty area, but this season he’s actually slightly negative for the amount of expected possession value he has created. (Possession value sums up every on-ball action a player makes by how much they increase or decrease their team’s chances of scoring.) His touches in the attacking third and in the opposition penalty area are the lowest they’ve been at City. He’s pressing less than ever before.
And he’s receiving fewer than 12 passes per game — the fewest since he arrived in the Premier League.7. Declan Rice, midfielder, ArsenalPrevious rank: 10Per the player-rating model from the stats app Futi, Rice is only the fourth-highest-rated player in the league. But the players ahead of him are Rayan Cherki and Jérémy Doku, neither of whom are necessarily even first-choice starters at Manchester City, and his teammate Bukayo Saka, who is currently injured.Rice’s profile has changed this season, shifting him more toward the Vitinha end of the spectrum. As the deepest of Arsenal’s three midfielders, he’s touching the ball more than ever before — 12 more touches per 90 minutes than his Arsenal average — and his penalty-area touches have been cut in half.
That has led to a decrease in goal-scoring threat but not a decline in creating chances from open play. Just ask Liverpool what happens when he does decide to get forward.Rice has been the best all-around midfielder in the world for a couple of years now; the fact that Arsenal remain the best team in the Premier League with him playing a totally new role is further proof.6. Kylian Mbappé, forward, Real MadridPrevious rank: 7Based on the numbers alone — heck, even from watching the games and ignoring the numbers completely — he probably should be first or second.Through 16 matches in Spain and Europe, Mbappé has generated 14.47 non-penalty xG. The bigger the circle, the higher the xG value of the shot:The gap between Mbappé in first is the same size as the gap between the guy in second and the guy in ninth.
And it’s not as if Mbappé is only scoring goals: While he accounts for the same percentage of Madrid’s overall xG as Haaland does for Manchester City, Mbappé is Gradient’s highest-graded LaLiga forward for on-ball attacking (essentially, your ball-carrying skill), and he’s in the top 25 across the Big Five leagues and Champions League for expected assists.The two reasons he’s not higher are interrelated: (1) he might be the worst pressing forward in Europe, and (2) the best team in the world became the best team in the world as soon as he left.5. Harry Kane, forward, Bayern MunichPrevious rank: 4Is he taking on even more responsibility as he gets older?Like the rest of his Bayern teammates, Kane is in the middle of a finishing slump. He’s one of the all-time great strikers of the ball and xG overperformers, so we should expect an avalanche of goals to arrive soon.Kane, though, is contributing mo
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