The best XI of the 2020s
The highest-rated player available at every position in the 2020s, drawn from 3,997 real career records across 61 squads. Nobody voted. The record book chose.
| Pos | Player | From | Record | Legend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GK | Hugo Lloris | France 2020s | 145 apps | 95 |
| RB | Sergio Ramos | Spain 2020s | 180 apps · 23g | 95 |
| CB | Andy Robertson | Liverpool 2020s | 276 apps · 11g | 94 |
| CB | Virgil van Dijk | Liverpool 2020s | 272 apps · 27g | 94 |
| LB | Jan Vertonghen | Belgium 2020s | 157 apps · 10g | 94 |
| RM | Raheem Sterling | Manchester City 2020s | 225 apps · 91g | 95 |
| CM | David Silva | Manchester City 2020s | 309 apps · 60g | 95 |
| CM | Ángel Di María | Argentina 2020s | 145 apps · 31g | 95 |
| LM | Neymar | Brazil 2020s | 130 apps · 80g | 95 |
| ST | Sergio Agüero | Manchester City 2020s | 275 apps · 184g | 95 |
| ST | Kylian Mbappé | France 2020s | 106 apps · 66g | 95 |
An incomplete decade, and the table should be read that way. Careers still running have not finished accumulating, so a player who will end the decade with 300 appearances currently ranks on whatever they have so far.
It is included because the game deals 2020s squads like any other, and a player drafting from them deserves to see the same reference the other decades get — not because the answer is settled.
What the table is doing
This eleven draws on 7 different teams. Each player is ranked against others in the same position, decade and team type, so a goalkeeper’s appearance record and a striker’s goal record can sit in the same list without one drowning the other. The full derivation, including where it is least certain, is in the methodology.
Public records contain errors, so this list can too. Every name above links to its squad page, and every squad page links to the Wikidata record behind the figures — if something here is wrong, it can be checked in two clicks, and corrections are welcome.
Common questions
How is this the best xi of the 2020s chosen?
By record, not opinion. Every player in the 2020s is ranked on their real career output — appearances, goals, assists and honours — and the highest-rated available player fills each position in a 4-4-2. The pool here is 3,997 records across 61 squads.
Can I check these numbers?
Yes, and that is the point. Each player links to the squad page they came from, and every squad page links each name to the Wikidata record the figures were extracted from.
Can I play with this XI?
Not this exact eleven — the game deals you a random team and decade each turn and you draft from what you are given. That constraint is the game. These pages show what the strongest possible eleven would look like if you were never constrained at all.