Vini Jr. started his career with the Brazilian club Flamengo and showed so much promise that when he was just 16, Real Madrid reportedly paid around $50 million to secure his rights when he turned 18. Sky Sports reported that it was the second-largest signing from Brazil in history. The largest? Neymar’s.
Vini Jr. has been worth the money, though, and then some. He has developed into an electric left winger with the speed, athleticism and dribbling ability to solve any defense.
He has helped Real win La Liga and Champions League titles in the same year, twice — in 2022 and again in 2024. In the 2022 Champions League final, he scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Liverpool. Then, in 2024, he scored again as Real beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0. That year, he also finished second to Rodri for the Ballon d’Or award.
Not only is Vini Jr. one of the best players in the world, but he has also spoken out against racism in soccer and done charitable work in his native Brazil. He’d be hailed as a hero even more if he were to deliver the country’s first World Cup win since 2002.
Jamal Musiala, Germany
Jamal Musiala spent much of his childhood in England, developing his game in Chelsea’s youth academy, playing for England’s youth teams with his close friend Jude Bellingham.
But in the summer of 2019, around the time of Brexit, the 16-year-old Musiala left to join Bayern Munich in Germany. He was born there, to a German mother and a British Nigerian father, before he moved to England as a young boy.
When Musiala arrived at Bayern, his new teammate Leroy Sané gave him a nickname — Bambi, presumably for his tall, slender build. He was just 17 when he made his debut for Bayern and became the youngest player in team history to that point to play in the Bundesliga.
In the end, Musiala decided to represent Germany on the international stage. Not England.
“I’ve thought about this question a lot,” Musiala told The Athletic. “‘What is best for my future?’ ‘Where do I have more chances to play?’ In the end, I just listened to the feeling that over a long period of time kept telling me that it was the right decision to play for Germany, the land I was born in.”
Now, Musiala is 23 and one of the best young players in the world, an attacking midfielder who’s a magician with the ball at his feet, who also has a knack for finding the back of the net. From 2022 through 2025, he scored 34 goals in 82 Bundesliga matches for Bayern.
On the German national team, he’s joined by two Bayern teammates — right back Joshua Kimmich and center back Jonathan Tah. Combined with Florian Wirtz, the point-guard-esque midfielder who plays for Liverpool, they are Germany’s talented core.
Last summer, Musiala sustained a major injury during the Club World Cup, a fractured fibula and a dislocated ankle, and he seems to still be working his way back into form. If he’s healthy, expect him to be at the center of the action for Germany.
For England, he will always be the one who got away.
Alphonso Davies, Canada
Canada is more known for hockey than soccer, but don’t get it twisted — this is a legitimate World Cup squad that could surprise this summer. Davies, 25, one of the best defensive players in the world, is a major reason. He began his career with MLS’ Vancouver Whitecaps, for whom he was the first player born in the 2000s to play in a game.
In 2019 he made the move to Bayern Munich for a then-record MLS transfer fee and helped deliver a Champions League title just one year later. He has been a star for the perennial European powers ever since.
Davies will be integral at left back for Canada … if he can get on the field. A hamstring injury he sustained against Paris Saint-Germain in a Champions League semifinal leg on May 6 will keep him out for “several weeks,” according to the team. The setback is on top of an ACL tear he sustained last year that forced him to miss most of this past season. Will that lack of recent game experience plague him in the World Cup?
Canada needs Davies to be physically fit to have a chance to advance deep in the tournament. If he misses any time, it will turn to forward Jonathan David and midfielder Ismaël Koné to step up and lead it on the world stage.
