The 10 Best Left-Backs in the World in 2026, Ranked
A Champions League winner, the defender who broke Serie A's assist record and the left-back who played every game of Spain's World Cup win. The ten best left-backs in the world right now, with the numbers behind each one.
The best left-back in the world in 2026 is PSG's Nuno Mendes, who won the Champions League and Ligue 1 and was the left-back in UEFA's Champions League Team of the Season, with Inter's record-breaking Federico Dimarco and Manchester City's Nico O'Reilly next. Below is the full top ten, with a stat line for each player from the 2025-26 season.
How the list is ranked
Three things, in this order:
- The 2025-26 club season. League appearances as a measure of availability, the trophies the player's team won, and the end-of-season selections that judge individual players: UEFA's Champions League Team of the Season, the PFA Team of the Year, the UNFP Ligue 1 Team of the Year and the Serie A Top 11 voted by the players' union.
- The 2026 World Cup. It is the most recent evidence there is, so it counts. Players whose countries did not qualify, Dimarco and Miloš Kerkez among them, are not marked down for that alone.
- Goals and assists, where they help separate two close cases. A left-back is a defender first, so they never decide a place on their own.
Only players who mainly played on the left of the defence in 2025-26, as a full-back or a wing-back, are eligible. Reputation and transfer value are not criteria. Stat lines are for 2025-26 and give league appearances and goals, then all competitions.
The top ten at a glance
| Rank | Player | Club in 2025-26 | Age | League apps (goals) | All comps apps (goals) | Major honours 2025-26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nuno Mendes | PSG | 24 | 20 (4) | 41 (6) | Champions League, Ligue 1 |
| 2 | Federico Dimarco | Inter | 28 | 35 (6) | 47 | Serie A, Coppa Italia |
| 3 | Nico O'Reilly | Manchester City | 21 | 34 (5) | 53 (9) | FA Cup, League Cup |
| 4 | Marc Cucurella | Chelsea | 28 | 34 (1) | 50 (1) | World Cup |
| 5 | Alejandro Grimaldo | Bayer Leverkusen | 31 | 29 (8) | 46 (14) | — |
| 6 | Piero Hincapié | Arsenal | 24 | 25 (1) | 39 (1) | Premier League |
| 7 | Alejandro Balde | Barcelona | 23 | 28 (0) | 42 (0) | La Liga, Supercopa |
| 8 | Nicolás Tagliafico | Lyon | 34 | 20 (0) | 30 (0) | — |
| 9 | Theo Hernández | Al-Hilal | 29 | 31 (5) | 44 (9) | King's Cup |
| 10 | Miloš Kerkez | Liverpool | 22 | 34 (2) | 48 (2) | — |
Ages are as of 19 October 2026. Hincapié's figures are for Arsenal only. Sources disagree on Dimarco's goals across all competitions, so only his league total is given.
1. Nuno Mendes (PSG, Portugal)
2025-26: 20 Ligue 1 appearances, 4 goals; 41 appearances, 6 goals in all competitions.
Twenty league games is low for a No.1, and injuries explain it. A knee sprain against Bayern on 4 November 2025 cost him several weeks, and thigh problems followed in the spring. He was also rested on the night PSG clinched the title with a 2-0 win at Lens on 13 May.
In the games that decided the season, though, he was there. He played 17 times in the Champions League, with two goals, and started the final against Arsenal in Budapest on 30 May. PSG won 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw, even though David Raya saved his kick. He was the left-back in UEFA's Champions League Team of the Season and in the UNFP Ligue 1 Team of the Year, and was on the shortlist for the UNFP's Player of the Year, which went to Ousmane Dembélé. He also scored in the shootouts that won PSG the UEFA Super Cup against Tottenham and the Trophée des Champions against Marseille.
At the World Cup he started all five of Portugal's games and scored a direct free kick in the 5-0 win over Uzbekistan. In the round of 16 against Spain he went off after 56 minutes with what media reports described as a thigh problem, and Portugal lost 1-0.
2. Federico Dimarco (Inter, Italy)
2025-26: 35 Serie A appearances, 6 goals, 18 assists; 47 appearances in all competitions.
Dimarco had the most productive season of anyone on this list. His 18 league assists set a Serie A record for the three-points-for-a-win era, beating the 16 shared by Papu Gómez (2019-20) and Ronaldinho (2009-10). With his six goals that made 24 goal contributions, the highest total in the league, and he was named Serie A's MVP, the first defender to win the award. He was also the left-back in the Serie A Top 11 voted by the players.
Inter won the league and the Coppa Italia, beating Lazio 2-0 in the final on 13 May, and Dimarco played the full 90 minutes. Lega Serie A describes him as a left wing-back in Inter's 3-5-2, and that is the one caveat: his job is closer to a winger's than to a back-four full-back's.
What keeps him off the top spot is Europe and the summer. Inter were not a Champions League finalist, and Italy did not reach the World Cup, losing the play-off final on penalties in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 31 March. Dimarco started that game.
3. Nico O'Reilly (Manchester City, England)
2025-26: 34 Premier League appearances, 5 goals, 3 assists; 53 appearances, 9 goals in all competitions.
O'Reilly is the left-back in the PFA Team of the Year, the only defender in it not from Arsenal. He also won the PFA Young Player of the Year and the Premier League's Young Player of the Season, at 21.
He decided the League Cup final on 22 March, scoring both goals in City's 2-0 win over the eventual champions, and started the 1-0 FA Cup final win over Chelsea on 16 May. Pep Guardiola has used him in more than one position: "He's played full-back, played holding midfielder when Rodri was not there."
At the World Cup he played seven times and started five for England, who finished third. He lost his place to Djed Spence for the 2-1 semi-final defeat by Argentina and came on in the 83rd minute.
4. Marc Cucurella (Chelsea, Spain)
2025-26: 34 Premier League appearances, 1 goal; 50 appearances, 1 goal in all competitions.
On club form alone Cucurella would be lower. Chelsea won nothing, losing the FA Cup final to City, and he missed about three weeks with a hamstring injury against Leeds in February.
The World Cup is what lifts him. He started all eight of Spain's matches at left-back, including the final against Argentina on 19 July, which Spain won 1-0 after extra time, and he played all 120 minutes of it. He was the left-back in the World Cup best XI chosen by FIFA's fan vote. Real Madrid had already signed him: he joined from Chelsea on 15 June in a deal Sky Sports reported as worth up to £51.8m.
5. Alejandro Grimaldo (Bayer Leverkusen, Spain)
2025-26: 29 Bundesliga appearances, 8 goals; 46 appearances, 14 goals in all competitions.
Nobody on this list scored more. Grimaldo finished with 14 goals and 12 assists in all competitions, numbers that would be good for a winger. Leverkusen gave him little to show for it, finishing sixth, and at the World Cup he was Cucurella's understudy and did not play. He left for Atlético Madrid at the end of June.
6. Piero Hincapié (Arsenal, Ecuador)
2025-26: 25 Premier League appearances, 1 goal; 39 appearances, 1 goal in all competitions for Arsenal.
Arsenal won the Premier League for the first time in 22 years, sharing left-back between Hincapié and Riccardo Calafiori, who made 26 league appearances. Hincapié gets the place because he was the one Mikel Arteta picked for the big games: he started both the League Cup final and the Champions League final at left-back. Arsenal lost both. Sky Sports' verdict on the first was that he "looked every inch a centre-back playing out of position". His loan from Leverkusen was made permanent from 1 July. Ecuador went out of the World Cup in the round of 32, losing 2-0 to Mexico, and he was sent off in stoppage time.
7. Alejandro Balde (Barcelona, Spain)
2025-26: 28 La Liga appearances, 0 goals; 42 appearances, 0 goals in all competitions.
Barcelona won La Liga with 94 points and beat Real Madrid 3-2 in the Supercopa final in January, where Balde started at left-back. A hamstring strain in September was the only interruption. Against that, he was not in La Liga's team of the season and was left out of Spain's World Cup squad.
8. Nicolás Tagliafico (Lyon, Argentina)
2025-26: 20 Ligue 1 appearances, 0 goals, 3 assists; 30 appearances, 0 goals in all competitions.
Tagliafico's club season was modest. His summer was not. A calf strain on 11 June kept him out of Argentina's opening group games, but he started the last-16 and quarter-final wins over Egypt and Switzerland, the semi-final win over England and the final. Sports Mole noted he marked Lamine Yamal for all 120 minutes of the 1-0 defeat.
9. Theo Hernández (Al-Hilal, France)
2025-26: 31 Saudi Pro League appearances, 5 goals; 44 appearances, 9 goals in all competitions.
Theo scored in the King's Cup final, a 2-1 win over Al-Kholood on 8 May, and Al-Hilal finished two points behind champions Al-Nassr. He started France's first two World Cup games, then lost his place to Lucas Digne after errors, and was back for the third-place defeat by England.
10. Miloš Kerkez (Liverpool, Hungary)
2025-26: 34 Premier League appearances, 2 goals; 48 appearances, 2 goals in all competitions.
Kerkez makes the list on availability: among the ten, only Dimarco played more league games than his 34. Liverpool finished fifth and won nothing, and Hungary missed the World Cup after a 3-2 defeat by Ireland in November, in which his cross set up a goal.
Just missing out
Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal) was a Premier League champion with 26 league appearances, but Arsenal said in January he and Hincapié had both been out since the start of 2026, and Hincapié started the finals.
Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich) returned from a torn ACL in December and then had three muscle injuries, the last in the Champions League semi-final against PSG. He made 23 appearances as Bayern won the double, and at the World Cup played the last 15 minutes of Canada's round-of-32 win over South Africa.
Álvaro Carreras (Real Madrid) played 28 La Liga games in his first season at the club, but Madrid won nothing and he was not in Spain's World Cup squad.
What the list says about the position
The top three do different jobs. Mendes plays in a back four; Dimarco is a wing-back who supplies chances like a winger; O'Reilly has played full-back and holding midfield under Guardiola. Our guide to full-backs, wing-backs and inverted full-backs explains how those jobs differ.
For the other flank, see the best right-backs in the world in 2026, where Mendes's PSG teammate Achraf Hakimi is No.1. For the players who defined the position before this group, see the best left-backs of all time, and for the defenders beside them, the best centre-backs in the world in 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the best left-back in the world in 2026?
On the 2025-26 season and the 2026 World Cup, PSG's Nuno Mendes. He won the Champions League and Ligue 1, and was the left-back in both UEFA's Champions League Team of the Season and the UNFP Ligue 1 Team of the Year.
What is Federico Dimarco's assist record?
Dimarco provided 18 assists in Serie A in 2025-26, a single-season record for the league in the three-points-for-a-win era. The previous record of 16 was shared by Papu Gómez (2019-20) and Ronaldinho (2009-10). He was also named Serie A's MVP, the first defender to win it.
Who is the best left-back in the Premier League?
Manchester City's Nico O'Reilly. He was in the PFA Team of the Year for 2025-26, won the PFA and Premier League Young Player awards, and scored both goals in City's 2-0 League Cup final win over Arsenal.
Who played left-back for Spain at the 2026 World Cup?
Marc Cucurella. He started all eight of Spain's matches, including the 1-0 extra-time win over Argentina in the final on 19 July 2026, and was the left-back in the World Cup best XI chosen by fan vote. He joined Real Madrid from Chelsea in June 2026.
Why is Alphonso Davies not in the top ten?
He played only 23 games in all competitions for Bayern in 2025-26. He returned from a torn ACL in December 2025, then had three more muscle injuries, the last in the Champions League semi-final against PSG in May. At the World Cup he played 15 minutes for Canada.
Did Nuno Mendes play at the 2026 World Cup?
Yes. He started all five of Portugal's matches and scored a direct free kick in the 5-0 win over Uzbekistan. He went off after 56 minutes of the 1-0 round-of-16 defeat by Spain on 6 July, with what media reports described as a thigh problem.