FIFA snub Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane as best player from World Cup named

Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane have all been overlooked as FIFA named a surprising top performing player in the 2026 World Cup so far.

The round of 32 kicked off on Sunday night when co-hosts Canada beat South Africa 1-0 with a last-gasp goal from Stephen Eustaquiao in Los Angeles.

Plenty more tasty action is to follow this week in the first knockout round of the inaugural 48-team tournament but already there is a shock player leading the name in FIFA's power rankings.

The world football governing body's rankings are powered by Aramco and under the guidance of Arsene Wenger, have brought a "new individual player ranking system based on data collected during matches".

The way it works sees all outfield players receive a score between 0 and 10 in attacking, creativity and defending, with goalkeepers scored in possession and their displays in between the sticks.

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Players receive overall scores from each game to give an overall mark and it's no surprise to see some of the usual suspects in the top ten.

For attacking, Messi is second on the list with a score of 8.34 after scoring six goals at the World Cup to become the tournament's all-time record goalscorer.

Michael Olise leads the way in the creativity metric with 8.03 after shining for France, with Canada's Luc De Fougerolles the top defender with a score of 7.38.

Paraguay's Orlando Gill and Ronwen Williams are ranked as the top two goalkeepers but the overall list for outfielders has Bayern Munich's new Moroccan star Ismael Saibari make the top ten after his three goals gave him an attacking rating of 7.08.

An attacking score of 7.33 sees Erling Haaland placed as the seventh top performer in his debut World Cup, with Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Jr in third and fourth respectively with scores of 8.13 and 7.92 when it comes to attacking.

Messi's magic performances in his sixth and final World Cup have returned an attacking score of 8.34 but it is only enough to put him in second spot.

That's because Germany's Denis Undav leads the way with an attacking mark of 8.36 despite being yet to start a game at the showpiece.

All three of his appearances have come from the bench but Undav has made the most of his game-time averaging a goal contribution every 17.2 minutes and a goal every 28.7 minutes.

He scored and assisted two in the 7-1 trouncing of Curacao in the group stages before coming off the bench and producing a match-winning brace against Ivory Coast.

The top 10 outfield performers in the World Cup according to FIFA

1.Denis Undav - Germany - 8.36 attacking - 6.78 creativity - 4.7 defending

2. Lionel Messi - Argentina - 8.34 attacking - 6.43 creativity - 5.14 defending

3.Kylian Mbappe - France - 8.13 attacking - 7.25 creativity - 4.59 defending

4.Vinicius Jr - Brazil - 7.92 attacking - 6.39 creativity - 4.75 defending

5.Johan Manzambi - Switzerland - 7.57 attacking - 6.6 creativity - 4.83 defending

6.Ousmane Dembele - France - 7.53 attacking - 6.65 creativity - 4.74 defending

7.Erling Haaland - Norway - 7.33 attacking - 5.02 creativity - 4.61 defending

8.Crysencio Summerville - Netherlands - 7.09 attacking - 6.73 creativity - 5.42 defending

9.Elijah Just - New Zealand - 7.09 - attacking - 6.28 creativity - 5.42 defending

10.Ismael Saibari - Morocco - 7.08 - attacking - 6.14 creativity - 5.3 defending