Team Strength 87 — Mbappé leads, Yamal dazzles, and Spain dominate the group-stage XI
Worth notingThe XI averages a 91 rating across the eleven.
Manager
Thomas Tuchel (England): 18 pts from 6 matches vs ~10.0 expected on ranking.
Team Strength
Biggest Omission
Bukayo Saka posts an impact score of 79.7 — comfortably inside the top 15 at the tournament — and still can't find a way past Yamal and Vinícius Júnior for a winger berth.
Closest selection battles
The picks that were nearly different — players who narrowly made the XI over their position rivals.
Tournament deep dive
Refreshed each cycle from the live data feed. Match results, group tables and knockout ties update automatically as fixtures complete.
Who created the most
Coming soonTeam xG, possession + shot volume across the tournament.
Live once the tournament kicks off.
Shots by team
Coming soonRanked bar chart — total shots with on-target overlay.
Live once the tournament kicks off.
Golden Boot & Playmaker
Coming soonTop scorers and top creators with live counts.
Live once the tournament kicks off.
Group stage
Top 2 from each group + the 8 best 3rd-placed teams advance to the Round of 32.
Knockout Bracket
The 48-team format opens with a Round of 32. Empty shell shown now; tie pairings populate as group results land. Final on 19 Jul 2026.
iHow the scoring works
How the scoring works
The AI World Cup XI is picked by a statistical model, not by opinion. The same model powers both the live World Cup 2026 XI and our historical retrospectives like Qatar 2022.
The basics
Every player gets a single Impact Score out of 100, built from what they've actually done on the pitch. A striker is judged mostly on attacking output; a centre-back mostly on defending. The maths picks the XI — the AI only writes the explanations you read.
The number on each card is calibrated against others in the same position so the pitch reads at a glance. Compare a defender to other defenders, not to strikers — and every player carries their rank within their role ("#1 CB of the tournament").
What moves the needle
- Knockout matches count for more. A standout quarter-final is worth more than a quiet group game.
- You have to play to qualify. A minimum amount of pitch time is required before a player is eligible at all.
- Early on, we flag low confidence. Selections from a small sample are marked as provisional until more matches are in.
Team Strength
The Team Strength score (0–100) combines the XI's position-weighted Impact Scores into a single composite, with small contributions from the manager and bench. We weight Attack and Defence equally at 30% each, Midfield at 25%, with Manager and Depth providing smaller adjustments. The five sub-scores show where the XI's strength sits, so a 78 with an elite attack and shaky defence reads differently from a 78 with balance across the line.
What we don't do
We don't use Expected Goals or any tracking data we'd have to buy in — and we don't pretend to. Where our provider gives us team-level context (xG for a match), it's labelled as context, not part of the score. We'd rather be honest than fake an "official" number.
Built for the love of the game. The opinions are the model's.