We know that they make a difference on the field. But how do the World Cup stars play?
Diving into statistics, FolhaStats broke down the performance of some of the tournament’s main names: positioning, role in the team and main qualities.
The analysis includes statistics from six players in the first phase of the World Cup: Lionel Messi (Argentina), Kylian Mbappé (France), Vinicius Júnior (Brazil), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Harry Kane (England) and Erling Haaland (Norway).
The data comes from Opta, a sports statistics platform, and was analyzed on Sunday (28) by the FolhaStats team.
Lionel Messi (Argentina)
The Argentine star is the World Cup’s top scorer so far, with six goals in three matches.
The artillery did not come for nothing: Messi is the player who took the most shots on goal, on average, among the six compared, with 3.4 shots per 45 minutes played, compared to 2.7 by Mbappé, the runner-up in this metric. He is also the only one who scored a goal from a dead ball, from a free kick.
In addition to his efficiency in attack, Messi is Argentina’s guiding force in midfield: he touched the ball the most among those analyzed, with 97 passes, and even leads in tackles, with four. Despite dominating possession of the ball, they have not had any assistance so far.
Analysis of the physical aspect makes his achievements even more impressive, as number 10 is the player who ran the least among the six, covering, on average, 3.8 km every 45 minutes played. The mark is well below the average, of 4.6 km per stage.
It is worth considering, however, that so far the Argentine has only faced weak opponents. Algeria, Austria and Jordan did not pose a challenge to the current world champion in the group stage, accumulating goalkeeping and marking errors in the three matches.
The star’s heat map shows his preferred position: in the middle, especially in front of the penalty area, where his teammates insist on supplying him with the ball.
Kylian Mbappé (France)
The French number 10 is the leader in assists among the six stars, with two, and has four goals.
The goals given by Mbappé mark an interesting contrast between him and Messi: while Argentina revolves around their number 10, France has a more balanced team.
Mbappé has a big playmaking responsibility, being the second with the most passes among those analyzed (87 touches), and has options like Dembélé to touch the ball and share the team’s artillery. Messi, on the other hand, scored six of Argentina’s eight goals in the competition, without assists.
The Frenchman was also the most efficient player in long balls, hitting six.
Its heat map shows flexible performance. He plays more on the left of the attack, but floats throughout the opponent’s area. Thus, he pushes the marking and opens up spaces for his teammates, in addition to exploiting runs behind the defenders.
Versatile in attack, Mbappé has less presence in the defense field than names like Messi and Harry Kane.
Vinicius Junior (Brazil)
The Brazilian national team striker has four goals and one assist in the World Cup so far, being the player on Carlo Ancelotti’s team who has participated in the most goals in the tournament.
Vinicius Junior is also the player who attempted the most dribbles among those analyzed, with 22 attempts, of which he made 7. Despite the mistakes, he is the player who completed the most dribbles among the six: Mbappé has four dribbles, and Messi, three.
More than feints, the factors that have defined Vinicius’ good performance so far have been precision and speed. He is the second one who ran the most, with 28 km covered in the three matches (average of 4.9 km every 45 minutes).
He perfectly symbolizes the Brazilian attack: agile, using speed to mark opponents’ exits and score goals on the counterattack after stealing the ball. This is how the first goals against Haiti and Scotland were constructed.
When it came to finishing, Vini was precise: of the 12 shots he attempted, 4 resulted in a goal (33% conversion, above the average of 29% of the six stars analyzed), showing that the stigma of poor finishing that he carried at the beginning of his career has been overcome.
He started the competition playing almost exclusively on the left, but his heat map tilted a little to the right, especially in the match against Scotland, when he played more freely in attack.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
The Portuguese star has not yet stood out as much as the opponents analyzed here: he scored two goals, like 22 other players in this World Cup, and did not provide an assist.
Of the players analyzed, he played the most minutes: 271, compared to 266 for Mbappé, in second place.
Even with more time, he produced less. His finishing performance, the best tool that Cristiano Ronaldo has at this point in his career, is low: he kicked 13 balls, of which 6 were on goal (46% accuracy, below the average of 58% of the six analyzed).
The goal conversion rate is also the lowest, at 14% (13 shots to score two goals).
In the match against the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ronaldo missed important chances, which reignited the debate about his starting role in the Portuguese team.
Unlike what happened at other times in his career, he now positions himself as a fixed center forward in the area, occasionally picking up the ball outside of it. Therefore, he participates little in the construction of the game.
Of Portugal’s starters, he is the one who touched the ball the least, with just 67 passes. Even goalkeeper Diogo Costa played more than him, with 75 passes.
The fact is that, after the lackluster match against Colombia, which closed the group stage, the feeling remains that Portugal still hasn’t known how to fit the star into its strategy, something that the Argentines, with Messi, have done efficiently so far.
Erling Haaland (Norway)
Even though he is the player with the fewest minutes in this comparison, as he was rested in the match against France, the Norwegian striker shares the second place in the World Cup with Vinicius Junior, Dembelé and Mbappé, with 4 goals.
Like Cristiano Ronaldo, Haaland plays more firmly in the opponent’s area, waiting for opportunities to score.
If the Portuguese player barely touches the ball, the Norwegian participates even less in the construction of plays, making just five passes every 45 minutes played, well below the average of 12 passes per stage of the stars analyzed.
Messi only played 20 minutes more than Haaland in the group stage, but the comparison between the two’s total passes is striking: the Argentine played 97 times, compared to the Norwegian’s 20, of which he made just 10.
If Haaland’s role is restricted to attacking, he doesn’t fall short in this regard. It has the best shot accuracy among those analyzed, with 70% of shots on target.
Alongside Messi, he also has the best goal conversion rate: 40%, or two goals for every five shots.
Harry Kane (England)
The Englishman, a center forward like Haaland and Cristiano Ronaldo, has a different positioning than the two.
Harry Kane circulates almost throughout the field, although he is more concentrated in the penalty area and in some parts of the midfield.
This makes him the player who ran the most among the six analyzed, with 31.9 km covered in three games and an average of 5.4 km every 45 minutes.
At his club, Bayern Munich, Kane draws attention for his fluid positioning: sometimes he drops back and plays as a midfielder, throwing balls to the wingers and helping to get out of the defense.
In the national team, he has been trying this same type of game, but without finding it easy.
After Haaland, he is the player who passed the ball the least among the six compared, with 50 touches, and has no assists. Therefore, he has not yet been able to play the role of builder striker that he usually plays in Germany.
Kane has also finished poorly: of the 13 shots he took, 6 were on target (46% accuracy, the worst, alongside CR7). Thus, its conversion rate into goals is 23%, the second lowest in the comparison.
One of those off-target shots came in the goalless draw against Ghana, in which the Englishman missed a clear chance to open the scoring, sending a shot over the goal.
