10 Best Players Of The 2018 World Cup
The best of the best.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup came to a thrilling conclusion with one of the highest-scoring finals of all time. In fact, not since England's glorious triumph in 1966 has a World Cup final seen so many goals, and the last match was a fitting end to one of the more exciting and unpredictable tournaments of recent memory.
Before the big event got underway, fans eagerly awaited the appearances of the game's superstars, predicting great things for the likes of Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Lionel Messi. But, like with any major tournament, the 2018 World Cup didn't go quite to plan. The big trio all managed to score, with Ronaldo having a particularly brilliant opening match, but none of them turned out to be the real stars of the show.
Instead, a few youngsters, a few lesser-known players, and a few overlooked stars set themselves apart as the very best players of this World Cup. Some of them didn't get as far as they might have liked, but they can all look back at this tournament with pride, having done their countries proud and led by example with some fantastic performances all the way through.
10. Denis Cheryshev
He wasn't the flashiest or trickiest player at this World Cup, but Denis Cheryshev was one of its undisputed stars and the perfect symbol of Russia's surprising run all the way to the quarter finals. He'd never scored for Russia before the tournament began but had four goals for the national side by the time it ended.
Funnily enough, the Villarreal winger wasn't even set for a starring role in the side and started the first game on the bench, but came on after an unlucky injury to Alan Dzagoev. From that point on, he shone. He scored two goals in Russia's dominant opening win with Saudi Arabia, adding another in the next game against Egypt.
But the 27-year-old saved the best for last, blasting in a beautiful curling strike to open the scoring of Russia's quarter final clash with Croatia. They couldn't go on to win that game, but Cheryshev played a huge part in their fantastic run and is easily one of the World Cup's best breakout stars.