As the World Cup 2022 is over, the AI-based media intelligence solution Smelter.ai identified 26 football players from all national teams based on their popularity on social media. Out of them and considering players' positions on the field, analytics created the World Social Media Stars team – similar to the famous FIFA World XI. Lionel Messi beat everyone not only on the football field but also in the media coverage on Twitter and YouTube. He got himself first place in the World Social Media Team as a Captain and a Forward.

According to Smelter.ai, Messi has surpassed his all-time Portuguese rival – Christiano Ronaldo, by two times, undoubtedly winning the title of the G.O.A.T. (The greatest of all times) and put an end to this discussion forever. Nevertheless, Ronaldo became the Striker of the Team together with the Brazilian player – Richarlison. Other most popular Forwards would be Brazilian star Neymar and the Golden Boot winner Kylian Mbappé from France.

It’s worth mentioning that Forwards and Midfielders have taken the majority of places on the list, and just a few – Defenders; therefore, some players will take less familiar positions. Midfielder's position would be given to Jude Bellingham from the English national team and Luka Modrić – the captain of the Croatian national team. Argentina’s Enzo Fernández, the best young player of the World Cup 2022, usually plays as Midfielder but would be positioned as a Defender in this case. The actual top Defenders turned out to be Harry Maguire from England and Achraf Hakimi from Morocco. The most popular Goalkeeper became Guillermo Ochoa from Mexico.

Smelter.ai analyzed the best football players at the World Cup 2022. This year, the FIFA World Cup announced that each country could have a squad of 26 players. The top 26 were compiled by the number of mentions in the posts and comments on Twitter and YouTube from November 20 to December 18, 2022. The best 11 were taken from this list:


1. Lionel Messi ARG

2. Cristiano Ronaldo POR

3. Neymar BRA

4. Kylian Mbappé FRA

5. Richarlison BRA

6. Harry Kane ENG

7. Luka Modrić CRO

8. Olivier Giroud FRA

9. Jude Bellingham ENG

10. Gavi SPA

11. Bukayo Saka ENG

12. Marcus Rashford ENG

13. Guillermo Ochoa MEX

14. Harry Maguire ENG

15. Julián Álvarez ARG

16. Enzo Fernández ARG

17. Phil Foden ENG

18. Antoine Griezmann FRA

19. Romelu Lukaku BEL

20. Rafael Leão POR

21. Robert Lewandowski POL

22. Luis Suárez URU

23. Enner Valencia ECU

24. Pedri SPA

25. Achraf Hakimi MAR

26. Mason Mount ENG
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