The FIFA world rankings for teams have become famous (or infamous) over the years, and as the organization with a monopoly on international football looks to modernize, they have just created an individual player ranking system after the World Cup.
In the past, there was a Castrol Performance Index used after World Cups to rate players, and they used analytics that went beyond the obvious to highlight that Sergio Ramos was the best overall player of the 2010 World Cup and Toni Kroos the 2014 World Cup - both Real Madrid legends.
And even in this new ranking system, Real Madrid are still dominating. As relayed by Prime Video Sport France, the new FIFA Rankings rated Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham as the two best players of the tournament, respectively, beating out Lionel Messi in third and Erling Haaland in fourth. One more Madridista made the cut, too, except he, Vinicius Junior, did not make the top five and was ranked in seventh, behind Belgium's Charles De Ketelaere in sixth.
Vinicius is still seen in a second tier
This rankings system seems to be very, very skewed towards goal scoring and other goal contributions, looking at De Ketelaere getting in over Vinicius, and there are no defenders or true midfielders ranked. Marc Cucurella, Pedro Porro, and Rodri all had exceptional World Cups for Spain with Rodri earning the Golden Ball yet none were ranked in the top 10.
So, of course, take it with a grain of salt and as with anything FIFA does, it's probably a lot worse than what was done by others and done before, but just comparing the attackers, it's clear that rankings like this are setting a standard for Vinicius Junior that he does not want.
Right now, Vinicius is seen by many as a great player but in a tier below Erling Haaland and his teammates Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham. A lot of that is because he has to do so much of the work to complete take ons before the goal is scored, and at the World Cup in particular, he was held back badly by how poor his teammates on Brazil were.
Even though Vinicius Jr. has two Champions League titles and is arguably the best player of the knockout stages since his breakout in 2021, Mbappe, Haaland, Bellingham, Ousmane Dembele, and Messi all get more hype than he does and were all in the top five of this ranking with Vini out. This will be even more motivation for Vini do go off in the 2026/27 season with his contract still hanging in the balance.
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