It’s team of the tournament time as the 2022 World Cup draws to a close, and this one’s straightforward enough. Only one rule – you can only select one player per country, which is bad news for Antoine Griezmann, Olivier Giroud and Julian Alvarez.
We imagine they’re devastated.
GK: Andries Noppert (Netherlands)
One of the very best stories of the World Cup. A couple of years ago, a 26-year-old Noppert was an out-of-work goalkeeper who couldn’t get a game in the second tier and was contemplating a career switch to become a very tall policeman. Yet a goalkeeping crisis at Go Ahead Eagles offered Noppert a chance, from where a move to Heerenveen followed and eventually, most absurdly of all, a call-up to the Dutch squad for the World Cup. His international debut was at the World Cup, which remains remarkable despite this particular World Cup being the one World Cup at which such nonsense was at least theoretically possible. And he was great, in a Dutch side that… wasn’t really all that. He faced 22 shots on target and saved 18 of them. His five appearances at this World Cup comprise over 10 per cent of his career professional first-team games.
RB: Sergino Dest (USA)
Always end up skimping on the full-backs in these XIs, don’t you. Under-appreciated, are full-backs. We’re not pretending he pulled up multiple trees in Qatar but he did fine. Better than ‘one appearance all season for Milan on loan from Barcelona’ would lead you to expect, but not quite as good as ‘Manchester United urged to move for USA star’ might.
CB: Josko Gvardiol (Croatia)
Probably the best centre-back at the tournament despite being so comprehensively mugged off by Lionel Messi in the semi-final. Not the first, won’t be the etc. and besides the game was long gone by then. His composure and game-reading ability at just 20 would mark him out in any team, never mind among Croatia’s old warhorses. Scored a really lovely goal in the third-place play-off, which is one step up from scoring a really lovely goal at five-a-side on a Monday, but still.
CB: Kalidou Koulibaly (Senegal)
Despite Senegal going out in the last 16, only one player has made more clearances than Koulibaly in Qatar, and that man is his centre-back partner in this side. Only six players won more tackles than Koulibaly’s nine. Five of those players reached the semi-finals and the other is also in this side. No spoilers, but it was Jude Bellingham.
LB: Aziz Behich (Australia)
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