Football is a sport that captures the imagination of millions around the world.
The passion and excitement generated by the game is unparalleled, with fans and pundits alike debating endlessly about the best players, teams, and tactics.
While some footballers enjoy the limelight and adulation of fans, others remain underappreciated despite their exceptional abilities on the pitch.
In this article, we take a closer look at the 20 most underrated footballers in the world in 2026.
1. Nicolò Barella
Claudio Marchisio called Barella the best midfielder in the world, and an Italian football agent described him as a “tank” who makes Inter unstoppable.
Yet playing in Serie A means most of the world only notices him during European nights, and by then they are usually focused on Lautaro scoring.
He finished 2025/26 with 3 goals and 8 assists in Serie A, joint third in the league for assists, as Inter won both the Scudetto and the Coppa Italia.
He is an elite box-to-box midfielder who breaks up play, drives forward at pace, creates in tight spaces, and wins the ball back with a ferocity that leaves opponents rattled.
Italy failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, meaning Barella will not get the global stage he deserves this summer.
That absence only makes his invisibility in the wider conversation more of an injustice.
2. Alexis Mac Allister
Alexis Mac Allister is a World Cup winner, a two-time Copa America winner, and a Premier League champion with Liverpool.
He does not dribble past five men or smash 30-yard screamers; he receives the ball in tight spaces, passes at 86% accuracy, presses intelligently, and makes Liverpool’s midfield function.
He recorded 2 goals and 4 assists in the Premier League in 2025/26, but his real contribution is the composure he brings when everything around him is chaos.
At the 2026 World Cup he is Argentina’s midfield engine alongside Enzo Fernandez, creating space for Messi, yet it is always Messi getting the credit for the goals that follow.
He is one of the most intelligent midfielders in world football, and the global conversation still skips over him.
3. João Neves
João Neves was the most important player on the pitch in PSG’s 2026 Champions League final victory over Arsenal, and was still not on the back pages the next morning.
Flashscore’s match report noted he contested more ground duels than any player on the pitch across 120 minutes, made the most interceptions of any PSG player, won seven free-kicks alone, and had 11 touches in the Arsenal box.
He finished 2025/26 with 11 goals across all competitions, a 91.55% passing accuracy in Ligue 1, and a Champions League tackling rate in the 91st percentile.
He scored his first career hat-trick against Toulouse, including two bicycle kicks, and became the youngest Portuguese player to reach 30 Champions League appearances, breaking Cristiano Ronaldo’s record.
He plays for the best team in Europe surrounded by flashier players in a league considered uncompetitive, yet when PSG need someone to hold things together under pressure, it is always Neves who delivers.
4. Lautaro Martínez
ESPN ranked Lautaro Martinez only 27th among the 50 best players at the 2026 World Cup, behind wingers, fullbacks, and midfielders from lesser clubs.
He won the Serie A Golden Boot in 2025/26 with 17 goals in 29 appearances, the second time in three seasons he has claimed the award.
He scored 7 Champions League goals this season, becoming the first Inter player since Samuel Eto’o to achieve that in a single campaign, and is now Inter’s all-time third highest scorer.
The problem is that he plays alongside Messi for Argentina, and when Messi scores a hat-trick in the opening group game, there is no room for anyone else in the coverage.
Analysts have repeatedly highlighted his tactical intelligence as his most underrated quality: the way he reads spaces, presses without the ball, and creates freedom for others while getting none of the credit.
He is among the best strikers in the world and the most decorated Argentine scorer in Serie A history, still treated as a supporting act.
5. Mikel Merino
Mikel Merino fractured his shoulder in his very first Arsenal training session in a collision with teammate Gabriel, and still ended the season as a Premier League champion.
He won Euro 2024 with Spain, scored his first international hat-trick in a 6-0 win over Turkey in World Cup qualifying, and recorded 4 goals and 3 assists in just 22 Premier League appearances.
He led all of Europe’s top leagues in duels won in 2023/24 with 326, a number that captures the relentless intensity he brings to every game.
He added 2 Champions League goals as Arsenal reached the final and is heading to the 2026 World Cup as a key part of Spain’s squad.
Nobody talks about him because he wins the ball, covers space, and makes himself available in moments of pressure while someone else gets the glory, which is exactly what the best midfielders do.
The Spaniard is also one of the very few soccer players who can play multiple positions.
6. Deniz Undav
No German player scored more goals anywhere in the world in 2025/26 than Deniz Undav.
The Stuttgart striker finished with 19 Bundesliga goals, second only to Harry Kane in the entire division, and 25 goals across all competitions.
He was released by Werder Bremen’s youth academy for being too short and did not play professional football until his early twenties, grinding through Belgian lower leagues before anyone gave him a chance.
He is only the second player since James Rodriguez in 2014 to score and set up two more goals as a substitute at the World Cup, coming off the bench against Curacao and Ivory Coast to immediately change games for Germany.
His Stuttgart coach said: “We have a player in Deniz who frequently makes the difference.”
With Haaland, Kane, and Mbappe dominating all striker conversations, Undav remains almost invisible globally despite being one of Europe’s most clinical finishers.
7. Serhou Guirassy
Serhou Guirassy scored 17 Bundesliga goals and 22 across all competitions for Dortmund in 2025/26, and the year before was joint top scorer in the entire Champions League with 13 goals.
That made him only the second African player in history to achieve that Champions League feat after George Weah in 1994/95, and yet his name barely registered outside Germany and Guinea.
He scored four goals in a single Bundesliga match against Union Berlin, and his hat-trick against Barcelona in the 2024/25 Champions League quarter-finals was one of the best individual European performances of that entire season.
Guinea’s minimal global football profile and the consistent overlooking of Bundesliga strikers who never move to England or Spain mean Guirassy operates in beautiful obscurity.
At 30 years old, he is approaching his peak, and the numbers he is putting up demand far better recognition than he currently receives.
8. Loïs Openda
Loïs Openda scored the fastest hat-trick in Ligue 1 history in just four minutes and 30 seconds in 2023, then moved to the Bundesliga and hit 24 goals in his debut season.
He joined Juventus on loan from RB Leipzig in September 2025 and became their leading Serie A scorer in the second half of the season, adapting to a third different top league with barely a settling-in period.
The Guardian ranked him in the world’s top 100 male footballers, with analysts comparing his transition speed to Kylian Mbappe and recording a top sprint of 36.86 km/h.
What keeps him underrated is that he always operates behind bigger-name signings, whether at Lens, Leipzig, or now Juventus, meaning he rarely gets the spotlight even when he is the best performer on the pitch.
Clinical, relentless, and still only 26, Openda deserves to be in every conversation about Europe’s best centre forwards.
9. Donyell Malen
Donyell Malen joined Roma on loan from Aston Villa in January 2026, scored on his debut, scored a brace against Cagliari, repeated it six days later against Napoli, and finished as Roma’s top scorer in Serie A with 14 goals in the second half of the season.
Roma activated the €25 million purchase clause at the end of the season after qualifying for the Champions League.
He has never had the system built around his strengths at any club, moving from chaotic Dortmund to mid-table Villa before landing at Roma, and his numbers at each stop have always been better than the recognition he received.
He is both-footed, ferociously quick, and a natural finisher who once scored five goals in a single Eredivisie game for PSV against Vitesse.
Roma may be the place where the world finally realises what kind of attacker he is.
10. Mikel Oyarzabal
Opta Analyst found that Oyarzabal had 12 goals and 5 assists across 17 semi-finals and finals in his career, having scored in every single final he has played.
Two Copa del Rey finals, two Nations League finals, an Olympic final, the Euro 2024 final — six finals, six goals.
He scored 15 goals and 4 assists in La Liga in 2025/26, won the Copa del Rey with Real Sociedad, and then scored twice against Saudi Arabia in the first half of Spain’s second World Cup group game.
Opta also found that in his last 13 international starts, he contributed to 19 goals, a record bettered in Europe over the same period only by Erling Haaland.
He plays for Real Sociedad and was always surrounded at international level by players who attracted more attention, which is the only reason a forward this clutch is still being called underrated.
He is one of the best left-footed forwards in world football, and Lamine Yamal gets the headlines every time they share a pitch.
11. Ibrahim Maza
Ibrahim Maza had played just 70 minutes of top-flight football before joining Bayer Leverkusen from Hertha Berlin in summer 2025.
By May, he was nominated for the Bundesliga Rookie of the Year award.
Leverkusen’s sporting director Simon Rolfes called him “one of the most interesting young attackers right now” with “outstanding technical abilities and vision for teammates.”
He recorded 3 goals and 5 assists in 26 Bundesliga appearances, earned regular starts in the second half of the season, and was described by coach Kasper Hjulmand as a “top, top player who learns very fast.”
Algerian fans have nicknamed him “Mazadona” and he became the youngest player ever to score for Algeria after representing them at the 2026 World Cup.
At 20 years old, he is one of the most exciting attacking midfielders in European football that almost nobody outside Germany has properly noticed.
12. Abde Ezzalzouli
Abde Ezzalzouli registered 10 goals and 8 assists in La Liga in 2025/26, making him joint sixth in the entire division for assists and one of Real Betis’s most important attacking players.
He also scored in the UEFA Conference League final against Chelsea as Betis became the first Spanish club to reach that stage.
He came through Barcelona’s academy, spent years in the shadows at lower clubs, and has developed into one of the most effective left wingers in Spain’s top flight.
In the 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations, he captained Morocco to the title with 3 goals and 3 assists in 4 games.
He was selected for Morocco’s 2026 World Cup squad but was sent home on June 11 with an injury, a cruel blow after his finest professional season.
13. Martin Baturina
Martin Baturina helped a club that was in Serie B just two years ago secure Champions League football in 2025/26, and still barely registers in global football conversations.
The Como winger contributed throughout the season with the direct, dribbling play that has drawn comparisons to Croatia’s finest attacking talents.
He is 23 years old, represents Croatia at the 2026 World Cup, and is part of a new generation from a country with one of the richest footballing pedigrees in Europe.
Como are not a glamour club and Croatia’s coverage tends to centre on Modric, Gvardiol, and Kovacic, which means Baturina operates well below the profile his quality deserves.
14. Matheus Nunes
Matheus Nunes is one of the most technically gifted midfielders at Manchester City, which is a significant statement given the squad Pep Guardiola has built.
Playing for City as anything other than a headline name means your work goes unnoticed regardless of how important you are to the system.
He is an elegant, two-footed player who switches between deep-lying playmaker, press-trigger, and advanced runner without ever looking out of place.
His passing range, vision, and ability to carry the ball through lines make him exactly the kind of player pundits describe when they talk about football players with the best vision.
Portugal bring him to the 2026 World Cup for his controlled progression and tactical flexibility, even as the wider world continues to undervalue him.
15. Hwang In-beom
ESPN described Hwang In-beom as potentially South Korea’s most important player at the 2026 World Cup, and said their entire tactical structure depends on his fitness and form.
The Feyenoord midfielder breaks up attacks, distributes under pressure, and specialises in the pre-assist pass that unlocks defences — the kind of pass that never appears on a highlights reel but always appears in the build-up to the goal that does.
He recovered from a late-season ankle injury to start the tournament, and delivered a goal and an assist in South Korea’s 2-1 comeback win over Czech Republic before being named Player of the Match.
Playing for Feyenoord and a country without global football pull means Hwang operates in quiet excellence while the world stays distracted.
16. Luka Vušković
Luka Vuskovic is 19 years old, 193cm tall, scored 6 goals from centre-back in the 2. Bundesliga in 2025/26, and was nominated for the Bundesliga Rookie of the Year award.
He is owned by Tottenham, was on loan at Hamburger SV this season, and has already played top-division football in four different countries.
Analytics firm LCP described him as the perfect modern centre-back profile: physical, excellent on the ball, aerial threat, and a set-piece weapon at both ends.
He scored two headers, one penalty, one direct free kick, and two goals from open play in the league this season — extraordinary output for a 19-year-old defender.
He is part of Croatia’s 2026 World Cup squad and is one of the most exciting defensive prospects in European football.
17. José Giménez
José Giménez joined Atletico Madrid in 2013 as a teenager and has been one of the most consistent centre-backs in European football for over a decade.
He replaced Diego Godin as the defensive leader, formed new partnerships, adapted to different systems under Simeone, and kept winning trophies including two La Liga titles.
He is ferocious, technically composed, dominates aerially, and sets the competitive tone for Atletico’s entire defensive structure.
The reason he is perpetually overlooked is that Atletico’s identity is built around the collective, and their defensive solidity has been taken for granted by pundits for years.
He is at the 2026 World Cup with Uruguay, still performing at the highest level after 13 years at one of Europe’s most demanding clubs.
18. Ademola Lookman
Ademola Lookman scored a hat-trick in the 2023/24 Europa League final and was named CAF African Footballer of the Year for 2024.
He is only the third player in history to score a hat-trick in a major European final.
The move to Atletico Madrid placed him in a system where output is naturally compressed by Simeone’s approach, which is one reason his name has not stayed at the top of conversations it should dominate.
He is a winger who plays on either flank, drifts inside to finish, and operates at pace or in tight spaces with equal comfort.
A player who scores hat-tricks in European finals should never be called underrated, and yet here we are.
19. Isi Palazón
Every Barcelona fan has a nightmare involving Isi Palazón, and every Rayo Vallecano fan has a love story to tell about him.
He recorded 3 goals and 3 assists in La Liga in 2025/26, as well as 3 goals and 3 assists in the UEFA Conference League as Rayo reached the competition’s latter stages.
He was handed a seven-match ban late in the season for arguing with a referee, effectively ending his La Liga campaign early, which tells you everything about the fire and personality he brings.
He is described by those who watch him regularly as a vocal leader who connects deeply with the working-class Vallecas community and leads by example on and off the pitch.
His left foot is one of the most dangerous in Spain’s top flight, and playing for a mid-table club his entire career has cost him the recognition it deserves.
20. Rodrigo De Paul
Rodrigo De Paul won the Copa America in 2021, the Finalissima in 2022, the World Cup in Qatar, and the Copa America in 2024, and was essential to all four, yet the conversation around that Argentina squad still centres on Messi, Mac Allister, and Enzo Fernandez.
He is the kind of box-to-box midfielder coaches love and casual fans overlook: tireless, combative, technically reliable, and capable of covering enormous ground in both directions.
He has been a cornerstone of Atletico Madrid’s midfield since 2021, adapting his role across multiple seasons under Diego Simeone.
He is at the 2026 World Cup with Argentina as part of Lionel Scaloni’s trusted core, still doing the work that makes everyone around him more effective.
Some players win World Cups from the front page; De Paul won his from the shadows.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS:
- Hakan Çalhanoğlu (Inter Milan)
- Manuel Akanji (Man City)
- Bilal El Khannouss (Stuttgart)
- Nathan Ake (Man City)
- Pedro Porro (Tottenham)
- Josko Gvardiol (Man City)
- Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton)
Which underrated footballer do you think deserves the most recognition right now? Let us know in the comments below!
