Who’s the best football player in the world? It’s a topic of constant debate among those who follow the beautiful game. For years, there’s been the big debate over Messi vs. Ronaldo. But right now, I’d say it’s Harry Kane — and no, it’s not because of any England or Spurs bias. Have you seen what he’s done at Bayern this season? But his ability to drop deep, use his vision to pick out deep runners with his range of passing, and then arrive in the box when he needs to, doesn’t necessarily transfer over to FC 26, where a different style of player traditionally reigns.

The pacey bursts and powerful strikes of Kylian Mbappé or the lightning-quick two-footed dribbling of Ousmane Dembélé is the kind of thing that finds its way into the FC meta (France’s array of attacking talent really is frightening, isn’t it?). But what you think is what we want to work out here today.

EA’s new World’s Game mode allows you to play through a global international tournament of your choosing, full of soccer’s biggest stars. So, to celebrate, we’ve created this face-off game full of 40 of the best players available, all of whom are participating in the real World Cup being played across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Therefore, sorry to the likes of the ludicrously entertaining Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, whose nation of Georgia failed to qualify. So, get voting, and we’ll let you know who comes out on top!

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.