William Saliba
#17 · Defender · age 25
Arguably the best young centre-back in world football.
87
WC26 rating
- Recent form
- 59
- Career peak
- 82
- League level
- 100
- Competition pedigree
- 98
- International pedigree
- 70
- Longevity
- 65
Independent rating — league strength (Opta-anchored) × competition tier × position-normalized output. Not affiliated with EA or FIFA.
Career by season
Source: transfermarkt · fetched 2026-05-29
Arguably the best young centre-back in world football arrives at his first World Cup having long since shed the “young” qualifier. Saliba locked down the right side of France’s centre-back pairing across Euro 2024, partnered Upamecano through the qualifiers, and now anchors a back line that conceded the fewest goals in European qualifying. At 25 he combines the recovery speed of a 21-year-old with the positional reading of a 32-year-old veteran.
The interesting question for North America is whether Deschamps trusts him to play a higher line than France traditionally use — Saliba’s Arsenal defending lives on the halfway line in a way the national team’s never has. If the answer is yes, France become genuinely intolerable to play against in transition. If no, he is still the best one-on-one centre-back in the tournament.
Strengths
- Recovery pace — covers ground that most centre-halves cannot
- Aerial dominance against both crosses and direct balls
- Composure on the ball under press; comfortable splitting lines with passes
Recent form
Arsenal's defensive cornerstone; partnership with Upamecano now firmly first-choice for France.
Arsenal's run to back-to-back Champions League semifinals coincided exactly with Saliba's emergence as the league's best centre-back — they conceded the fewest league goals in both seasons.