Chris Wood
#9 · Forward · age 34 · (C)
All-time top scorer; Premier League striker; second World Cup
87
WC26 rating
- Recent form
- 67
- Career peak
- 99
- League level
- 100
- Competition pedigree
- 64
- International pedigree
- 100
- Longevity
- 69
Independent rating — league strength (Opta-anchored) × competition tier × position-normalized output. Not affiliated with EA or FIFA.
Career by season
Source: transfermarkt + sofascore · fetched 2026-05-29
Wood arrives at his second World Cup as captain, all-time top scorer, and the only New Zealand player who is unambiguously a top-five-league elite-level striker. He carried the All Whites through CONCACAF/OFC qualifying with goals against Fiji, the Solomons, and a memorable winner against New Caledonia, and now leads them into a group with three teams that contain him is the key to their hopes.
His Premier League season at Forest has been the best of any 33-plus striker in Europe; the question is whether 16 years of top-flight football will leave him fresh for the tournament. Bazeley will play him as a lone striker in a 4-2-3-1, with Stamenić and Bell shielding behind and Cacace overlapping from left-back to deliver crosses. Every All Whites attack will be designed to find his head.
Strengths
- Aerial dominance in the box
- Two-footed finishing
- Big-game composure
Recent form
Forest's first-choice center-forward; key player in their 2024-25 European campaign.
His 24 Premier League goals for Nottingham Forest in 2024-25 made him the oldest player in the league's top scorer top-five and earned him second place in the Premier League Golden Boot race.