Youri Tielemans
#17 · Midfielder · age 28 · (C)
Set-piece specialist; named captain by Rudi Garcia
96
WC26 rating
- Recent form
- 74
- Career peak
- 99
- League level
- 100
- Competition pedigree
- 98
- International pedigree
- 95
- Longevity
- 70
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
Tielemans is the engine of Belgium’s midfield now that Witsel has shifted to a rotation role and De Bruyne sits higher. He plays a more disciplined role for country than club, screening Onana in front of the back four while De Bruyne floats. The set-piece partnership with the captain — Tielemans on outswinging right corners, De Bruyne on left — is the team’s clearest source of dead-ball danger.
Eighty caps at 28 puts him on a track to finish his career as one of the most-capped Belgians ever. This is his second senior World Cup and the first where he is unambiguously a first-name-on-the-team-sheet starter.
Strengths
- Long-range shooting from the top of the box
- Set-piece delivery on both sides
- Vertical passing through midfield lines
Recent form
First-choice for Villa and Belgium; quietly one of the most consistent No. 8s in the Premier League.
His FA Cup final winner from 25 yards in 2021 was the first by a Belgian player in the modern competition and is still the goal his Leicester chants reference.