The 10 best wingers in world football RANKED: Is Yamal No.1?

Who is the best winger in world football right now? Superstars from Barcelona, PSG and Bayern Munich are all up there and the World Cup has boosted their reputations.

Europe’s biggest clubs are packed with elite wide attackers, yet only a select few can claim to be the very best. Narrowing our ranking down to just 10 names wasn’t easy, but we got there in the end.

Without further ado, here’s our ranking of the 10 best wingers in world football.

10. Antoine Semenyo

We’ve loved watching the rise of the Chelsea-born Ghana international, who fully deserved a move to an elite club after improving season on season.

A transfer to a club like Man City was inevitable after consistently proving himself one of the standout wingers in the Premier League over the past 18 months at Bournemouth.

He made an exceptional start for Pep Guardiola’s side, capping off his excellent first half-season with an inspired match-winner in the FA Cup final.

But he had a very forgettable World Cup, and his place in this top 10 is severely under threat if Bukayo Saka can refind some form and fitness.

9. Jeremy Doku

We’ve resisted putting Doku in this list, but he really came alive at the business end of the Premier League season.

The Belgian is undoubtedly one of the best dribblers on the planet, and now he’s finally adding top-level decision-making and finishing into the mix.

Maintain those levels and he could be top five. Easily. But we’ll wait and see whether he can produce more consistently over a prolonged period before making that call. Unfortunately, it didn’t really happen for him at the World Cup, dropped and reduced to a fringe role in Belgium’s run to the quarters.

8. Desire Doue

The PSG wonderkid might lack the wow factor of previous Golden Boy award winners like Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Lamine Yamal, but he’s undoubtedly an exceptional talent.

Doue’s breathtaking performance in last season’s Champions League final was one for the history books.

He had a direct hand in PSG’s first three goals against Inter, assisting the first before notching a brace himself – only the second teenager to score and assist in a final since Manchester United’s Brian Kidd in 1968 and the first player with three goal involvements since Inter’s Sandro Mazzola in 1964.

We expected him to go stratospheric that night, but that hasn’t come to pass (yet).

This season hasn’t followed the same trajectory. Fitness problems have restricted him and he couldn’t provide France with the spark they needed from the bench in their semi-final defeat.

7. Vinicius Junior

After throwing the mother of all hissy fits after missing out on the 2024 Ballon d’Or, Vinicius spent almost a year looking like a sad joke.

He didn’t look anything like one of the best players on the planet in a desperately disappointing 2024-25 season. Call us amateur psychologists, but it looked as though he was struggling badly with having the limelight stolen by Real Madrid’s latest Galactico.

We’re still pondering awkward questions over whether Vini and Kylian Mbappe can feature together in a functional team, but gradually the Brazilian’s starting to look like his old self.

He looked excellent in the group stage, repeatedly stepping up and finally out of Neymar’s shadow. But he drew a blank in both knockout games as the Selecao suffered their earliest World Cup exit since 1990. Not what they expect of their superstars.

6. Luis Diaz

The Colombian registered a good-not-great total of 13 goals and five assists in Liverpool’s Premier League-winning season.

But few of those came in the latter half of the campaign and the consensus was that he was replaceable when he departed for Bayern Munich.

That hasn’t proven to be the case. Diaz’s departure might not have left a chasm when it comes to goal contributions, but his pressing and work rate have been much-missed.

Liverpool’s loss was Bayern’s gain. Vincent Kompany’s side have stepped things up a level since the addition of Diaz’s tenacity and intensity.

The numbers have improved too, albeit with the caveat that goals come easier in the Bundesliga – particularly for the perennial champions. Still, he’s scored more for Bayern than Arjen Robben or Franck Ribery ever managed in one season. That stat quietly blew our minds.

He had his moments in the World Cup, but it looked a struggle to singlehandedly carry the attack and he looked gassed by the time they were out.

5. Raphinha

We recently made an argument that Raphinha might just be the best player on the planet. Mea culpa: that was probably a bit too strong.

Raphinha was decent when he was fit and available, but both his 2025-26 campaign and World Cup were frustratingly marred by injuries.

But we stand by the central thesis: he is absolutely integral for Hansi Flick’s Barcelona. Like Diaz at Bayern and Liverpool before, his intensity helps set the tone and makes the team tick. That is invaluable.

We reckon that Barcelona would have made it past Atletico in the Champions League were he there, and Brazil really could’ve done with him in the knockout stages.

He’s irreplaceable, but we’re now asking ourselves whether his body is up to the rigours that his all-action game demands.

4. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia

Forget the numbers.

We could compile a stats-led rundown of Europe’s wide men, observing that Kvaratskhelia’s output of eight goals and four assists in Ligue 1 last season is inferior to that of some bang-average footballers, but that would be boring.

Who cares if Kvaradona isn’t putting some French farmers to the sword every week if he can come on and do what he did against Chelsea and Bayern?

The tedious discourse around the death of maverick entertainers probably has some truth in today’s systemised game, but the Georgian is a wonderful outlier on that front.

We’re genuinely reminded of the likes of Ronaldinho, Georgi Kinkladze and Ricardo Quaresma when he has the ball at his feet. True ingenuity will never die.

3. Ousmane Dembele

His Ballon d’Or-winning campaign was always going to be difficult to top, and this season probably fell just short.

Injuries interrupted his rhythm, while France’s World Cup ended in semi-final disappointment against Spain.

But his Champions League pedigree remains beyond question, delivering decisive goals in every knockout round before equalising against Arsenal in the final.

Admittedly, that was more as a centre-forward, but he still belongs among the very best wide attackers of his generation.

2. Michael Olise

It would be easy to overlook Olise, given Harry Kane’s top billing and the Bundesliga tax narrative, but that would be folly. A genuine Ballon d’Or contender. Yes, that good.

Had Olise created more magic in the second leg of Bayern’s Champions League ding-dong with PSG, we’d have considered putting him top.

Unfortunately it didn’t quite happen for him, but it’s still been an outrageously good season. Thirty-one(!) assists in all competitions for Bayern and plenty more for Les Bleus in the World Cup.

He couldn’t produce another moment of magic as France crashed out to Spain, although that hardly changes the bigger picture. A proper superstar.

1. Lamine Yamal

La Masia’s most talented graduate since Lionel Messi has been around for long enough now that we’ve become accustomed to him.

It’s three years since he made his debut, and he’s now racked up over 150 appearances for club and country.

Every so often it’s good to step back and remind ourselves that what he is doing a teenager is simply not normal. Messi and Ronaldo weren’t doing anything like this at the same age.

Use whatever metrics you want. Goals, assists, chances created, dribbles. Yamal is scarily good on all fronts but the data only serves to back up what we can see with our own eyes.

Quite clearly the best, most dangerous wide attacker in world football. After easing his way back from that hamstring injury, he announced himself on the World Cup in style by winning the decisive penalty as Spain beat France to reach the final.

If there was ever any doubt he would deliver on the biggest stage, it didn’t last long.

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