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The heart and soul of any football team is its midfield. While the strikers get all the headlines for putting the ball in the back of the net, the midfielders are the ones who set the platform for them to earn the plaudits.
The World Cup in Russia enjoyed a number of stellar performances from midfielders such as Luka Modric, Paul Pogba and Kevin De Bruyne. It was refreshing to see Modric being awarded the Golden Ball for his exploits in Russia over dazzling forwards Kylian Mbappe and Eden Hazard.
Midfielders can be tasked with a variety of tasks. While some midfielders make a living breaking up the opposition’s play, some help control the tempo of the game and create chances for their frontmen. The variety provided by midfielders makes them the most essential commodity of any team.
Through the course of this article, we would look at the 5 best midfielders in the world, taking into account their consistency and importance to the team. The players considered are essentially central midfielders who might have played up front occasionally to suit their team’s needs.
Presenting before you the top 5 midfielders in the world:
#5 Marco Verratti (Paris Saint-Germain)
Marco Verratti is an Italian footballer who plays for the French champions, Paris Saint-Germain. Verratti started his senior career at Pescara in 2009 before PSG came calling in 2012. He has been an ever-present element in their setup and has become a midfielder of the highest quality.
The diminutive Italian is a master at keeping possession and controls the tempo of games with his technical ability. He is a metronomic passer of the football and completed 92 passes per game last season with an accuracy of 91%. In addition to this, he averaged 1.2 key passes per game to go with 5 assists.
Verratti has a defensive side to his game as well. He made 3.3 and 2.3 tackles per game in the Champions League and Ligue 1 respectively. His only weakness is his discipline. He accumulated 9 yellow cards throughout the campaign while being sent off twice.
Apart from his disciplinary record, Verratti is the fulcrum around which the star-studded PSG team operates. It was a shame that he couldn’t make the World Cup, owing to Italy’s loss in the play-off to Sweden.
Verratti makes this list due to the multiple facets of his game and the consistency he offers. Hence, he slots into our list at No. 5.
#4 N’Golo Kante (Chelsea)
The French midfielder has taken the world by storm since his move to England. He was a vital component in Leicester’s title-winning machine. After the 2015-16 season, he made the move to Chelsea and helped them win the title in his first season at Stamford Bridge.
At present, Kante is the best defensive midfielder in the world. At the World Cup, he was France’s midfield general and played a massive role in their World Cup triumph.
Kante has had a stellar career in England and has an astonishing tackle success rate of 68% across three seasons. His game-reading is second to none, having made 85 interceptions and 26 clearances throughout the 2017-18 Premier League. To supplement this, he is an efficient user of the football and made 63.24 passes per game last season.
However, his biggest asset is his defensive play and the knack of breaking up the opposition’s moves. He excels in being the ‘destroyer’ which enables his team to get on the front foot.
Though Kante might not be as technically adept as the other players on this list, he gets in for his work-rate and his ability to not let the opposition control the midfield.
#3 Toni Kroos (Real Madrid)
Toni Kroos has been around the upper echelons of football for the better part of this decade. Having plied his trade for Bayern Munich earlier, he now finds himself at arguably the biggest club in the world, Real Madrid.
Kroos was an integral part of the Real Madrid side which swept one and all on their way to an unprecedented 3rd successive Champions League. After the high of the Champions League, Kroos came crashing down as Germany couldn’t defend their title in Russia, bowing out in the group stage.
Kroos had a decent World Cup and single-handedly kept the Germans alive with his last-gasp winner against Sweden. However, he showed signs of exhaustion throughout and uncharacteristically misplaced a few passes.
Kroos’ biggest strength is his ability to play precise passes and control the speed of the game. Apart from this, he is very good at breaking the opposition’s ‘pressing’ lines, which helps the team play out from the back and retain possession.
In the 2017-18 season, Kroos scored 5 goals and assisted a further 8. He averaged around 75 passes per game with an astounding accuracy of 93%.
Toni Kroos has been one of the best central midfielders over the past few years and shows no signs of stopping. Thus, Kroos ranks at No.3 in our list.
#2 Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
Kevin De Bruyne has been unstoppable since he moved to the blue half of Manchester. After an unconvincing spell at Chelsea, he hit the ground running at Wolfsburg following which he made the switch to the Etihad.
De Bruyne had a stellar World Cup for Belgium and powered them to a 3rd place finish. His best game came against the mighty Brazilians where he chipped in with a stunning goal.
He was equally outstanding in the Premier League, scoring 8 goals and bagging 16 assists. In addition to the assists, he created 19 big chances throughout the course of the season.
However, the biggest positive for him under Pep has been the defensive side of his game. He made 62 tackles last term with a 69% success rate to go with his 207 ball recoveries. Slowly but surely, De Bruyne is establishing himself as the complete central midfielder.
His biggest attributes are his creativity and his final ball. De Bruyne possesses the rare gift of being able to produce something out of nothing. Hence, it wasn’t a surprise when the Belgian Wizard conjured magic on a regular basis at the Etihad.
At this juncture, De Bruyne is one of the best midfielders in the world and rightly takes his place in the Top 2 of our list.
#1 Luka Modric (Real Madrid)
Luka Modric, the little magician from Croatia has been one of the best midfielders over the past decade. Though he had a rough start at Real Madrid, he quickly overcame it and is one of the first names on their team sheet now.
Modric won the prestigious ‘Golden Ball’ at the World Cup this summer. Modric was simply brilliant in Russia and dragged Croatia to their first-ever World Cup final. He controlled each and every game he played with his exquisite range of passing.
He, along with Kroos, formed a formidable partnership at the heart of Real Madrid to catapult the club into the history books, courtesy a third consecutive Champions League.
Throughout the season, he averaged 59 passes per game, with an accuracy of 89%. However, the most distinguishing aspect of his game is the ability to manoeuvre out of tricky situations using his dribbling prowess.
The best midfielders in the game never let the opposition get close to them and this is exactly what Modric prides himself on. On many an occasion, he has beaten the press by playing quick one-touch passes.
For the completeness of his play and his consistency for club and country, Modric edges ahead of De Bruyne in the race to be crowned the best midfielder on the planet.
Honourable mentions: Paul Pogba and Ivan Rakitic
