They will not present the Golden Ball award, which honors the best player at the World Cup until all matches have been played in Qatar 2022.
After all, the most important ones are yet to come.
The field of legends, stars, and newcomers who follow this award, however, surely understand that they have a target to chase.
In the first four rounds, one player has dominated the World Cup, and although England managed to keep Kylian Mbappe quiet in the quarter-finals, France’s star winger will challenge Morocco’s defense in Wednesday’s semi-final like never before.
So who else has a chance? There are more good candidates than we could fit on this list:
5. Achraf Hakimi -Morocco
If you’re looking for a candidate in the middle of the Atlas Lions and looking anywhere but at defense, you’re doing it wrong.
This team survives because of its defense, which has not allowed a goal to any opposition player in five World Cup games: not Cristiano Ronaldo, Kevin De Bruyne, Alvaro Morata or anyone else.
Hakimi has played more minutes at the World Cup than any of his teammates except Sofian Amrabat and Hakim Ziyech. Hakimi led Morocco in tackles, and 13 of his 19 tackles were won by his team and 12 of those came in the defensive third. He never once made a mistake that led to an opponent’s shot.
He will need at least one big attacking game – and Morocco to win the World Cup – for Hakimi to have a real chance at the award.
4. Luka Modric -Croatia
Here they are again. There may never have been a more resilient team in World Cup history, given all the times they’ve come back from deficits to stay alive – not just in this tournament, but in 2018 as well.
There are many reasons they continue, but Modric is a good place to start. If we’re being honest, the work done by Marcelo Brozovic in the center is even more impressive, and probably Mateo Kovacic on the opposite side of midfield.
Modric is consistently accurate as a passer. He, at 37, is clearly relentless; He plays a lot of minutes, and they’re busy minutes because he’s often on the ball and being challenged or fouled.
If Croatia somehow wins this thing, its true best candidate will reveal itself, and Ivan Perisic would be foolish to advance. But this team belongs to Modric unless it is established otherwise.
3. Antoine Griezmann -France
Griezmann became France’s career assists leader in the win over England, and the only post he took from the game, as someone surprisingly handed the Man of the Match trophy to Olivier Giroud.
Did those people watch the game? Griezmann was a thoroughly dominant player, constantly tearing through England’s defense and winning six tackles, five passes into the box and two assists. England were busy with Kylian Mbappe, but it was Griezmann who crossed the middle and fired into the box.
If Griezmann plays two more games like this, even if Mbappe scores two more goals, he can become the Golden Ball winner.
2. Lionel Messi -Argentina
Messi gave his team everything they needed to reach the semi-finals with a win over the Netherlands – and then he showed the intensity that has made him one of the greatest players in the world.
His assist on Argentina’s first goal against the Dutch was a work of art, and he then converted two penalties – one to momentarily put his team two goals ahead in regulation – and the other to start Argentina’s successful penalty shootout.
Messi scored the decisive, game-winning goal against Mexico in group play — a powerful strike from 28 yards — and did the same in the round of 16 against Australia, opening the scoring with a perfectly placed, rolling shot inside the far post.
The 35-year-old Messi doesn’t seem to create as many significant chances as he did a decade ago, but he remains busy in defence. He tops the World Cup in expected goals, shots and shots on target. He is second only to Mbappe in the penalty area.
If Argentina win it, you know who will be walking away with the trophy in each hand.
1. Kylian Mbappe -France
Injuries have robbed France of three players who would likely start for them at this World Cup, but they have the best players in the world playing like the best in the world.
They have won every game Mbappe has started – he was rested in the meaningless third group game – and he has scored in all but one of those games.
He leads the race for the Golden Boot with five goals, one short of Harry Kane’s tally to capture that trophy in 2018, and Mbappe can still play two games.
Mbappe is the biggest reason we should all know that even with the current curse – the last three World Cup champions failed to get out of their group in the next cycle – and with so many major injuries, France will still be a threat. Depart Qatar with the winner’s trophy.
FotMob.com’s statistical model gave Mbappe a 9.3 rating in the Round of 16 win against Poland, a game in which he had three of his four shots on goal and completed 31 of his 35 passes. He wasn’t as effective against England, but his threat added to Griezmann’s damage.
Mbappe is 23 years old. How crazy is this, want to know what he is doing at this age? By the end of the year Cristiano Ronaldo turned 23, he had 42 caps and 19 goals. Lionel Messi had 35 caps and 7 goals. Mbappe has 64 caps and 33 goals. yes