The best XI in international football
The highest-rated player available at every position in international football, drawn from 27,641 real career records across 316 squads. Nobody voted. The record book chose.
| Pos | Player | From | Record | Legend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GK | Hugo Lloris | France 2020s | 145 caps | 95 |
| RB | Cafu | Brazil 1990s | 142 caps · 5g | 95 |
| CB | Sergio Ramos | Spain 2010s | 180 caps · 23g | 95 |
| CB | Nílton Santos | Brazil 1950s | 75 caps · 3g | 94 |
| LB | Djalma Santos | Brazil 1950s | 98 caps · 3g | 94 |
| RM | Pelé | Brazil 1960s | 92 caps · 77g | 95 |
| CM | Rivelino | Brazil 1960s | 92 caps · 26g | 95 |
| CM | Ronaldinho | Brazil 1990s | 97 caps · 33g | 95 |
| LM | Neymar | Brazil 2010s | 130 caps · 80g | 95 |
| ST | Ronaldo | Brazil 1990s | 98 caps · 62g | 95 |
| ST | Miroslav Klose | Germany 2010s | 137 caps · 71g | 95 |
Forty-four national sides, 1930s to today, and the one competition in the dataset where the ranking is caps and international goals rather than club appearances.
International records are shorter and more concentrated than club ones — a striker might play 60 games and score 40 — so this XI rewards a different kind of career from the club pages. It is also the board the World Cup mode deals from, which is why it is worth knowing who sits at the top of it.
What the table is doing
This eleven draws on 4 different teams and spans the 1930s to the 2020s. 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 in international football chosen?
By record, not opinion. Every player in international football 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 27,641 records across 316 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.