Even the best attacking midfielders in the world were deemed as luxury players not too long ago. They were seen as anachronistic throwbacks to a time of laissez-faire off-ball effort; expendable, if you want to really compete.
Things have turned 180 degrees and playmakers are now deemed to be as essential as anyone else. Attacking midfielders have a vital role to play in the modern game, not just in their influence with the final pass but everything leading up to it: intensity off the ball, setting the tempo and dictating a game.
No.10s are back, all right…
How our experts decided the best attacking midfielders in the world
While ‘attacking midfielder’ is a broad term that can used to describe any playmaker, trequartista or player ‘in the hole’, we asked our experts to compile a list of the best 10 midfielders in the world who are tasked with operating in a more advanced role – regardless of whether they play in a 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, or any other formation.
We wanted a reflection of the state of the attacking midfielder in 2025: while technical ability is perhaps the biggest marker for an advanced playmaker, this is a position in which game-changers thrive – so we wanted to draw on that aspect of the role. Historic importance was considered, too, as was their season as a whole.
15 players were nominated, with our experts giving 10 points to the best in the world, nine to the second-best, and so on: five others receive honourable mentions just missing the cut. Judgement calls were made for players who may fit into the best central midfielders in the world or the best defensive midfielders in the world.
This is just one of 10 lists we have compiling the best players in each position in the world. Along with our midfield rankings, we've looked at the best goalkeepers in the world, and focused both forward and backward from the centre of the park, producing lists of the best defenders (right-backs, centre-backs and left-backs) and attackers (right-wingers, left-wingers and strikers) in world football right now – while our list of the best players in the world right now looks at ability across the board.
Honourable mentions
Honourable mentions
The full list
10. Xavi Simons
Age: 21
Club: RB Leipzig
Nationality: Netherlands
The Dutch superstar was marked for stardom from a young age and had amassed one million Instagram followers by the age of 14, but now appears to be coming of age, following a string of eye-catching performances at Euro 2024, including the opening goal in the Netherlands’ semi-final defeat to England.
Simons called time on his Paris Saint-Germain tenure in January, when he signed a permanent deal with RB Leipzig which could prove to be a shrewd move, given how much he has kicked on during his two loan spells in the Bundesliga.
9. Dejan Kulusevski
Age: 24
Club: Tottenham Hotspur
Nationality: Sweden
The £25 million that Tottenham shelled out to Juventus for the Swedish attacking midfielder is looking like a bargain for a club whose transfer spending is always under the microscope.
His strength, work rate and versatility have been key in a testing season for Ange Postecoglou’s side and at the age of 24 is on his way to becoming a leader in this young side.
8. Kevin De Bruyne
Age: 33
Club: Manchester City
Nationality: Belgium
While the days when Kevin De Bruyne was an automatic selection at the top of these kind of lists are now in the rear-view mirror as injuries and Father Time slow the 33-year-old down, the Belgian remains one of the best passers in the Premier League and able to unlock even the most stingy defence.
PFA Player of the Year in 2020 and 2021 and previously Manchester City’s record buy, the strawberry blond genius is an all-timer and when is all said and done, he will simply go down as one of the Premier League’s greatest-ever players. Replacing him will be a mammoth task.
7. Dani Olmo
Age: 26
Club: Barcelona
Nationality: Spain
Dani Olmo took a slightly circuitous route to the very top. The Spaniard did not play in his homeland after leaving Barcelona as a youth player, joining Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia, before a move to RB Leipzig, where he emerged as a gifted and creative attacking midfielder.
A superb Euro 2024 campaign with winners Spain – he shared the Golden Boot with five other players after scoring three times – earned Olmo a move back to Barcelona, and he has impressed with the Blaugrana so far.
6. Martin Odegaard
Age: 26
Club: Arsenal
Nationality: Norway
Odegaard picks the ball up from deep and drifts at will in the final third as if this is his team.
Martin Odegaard’s absence was conspicuous in the autumn, his ankle injury stunting Arsenal a little, as Liverpool built a healthy lead at the top of the table. It’s not just that the Norwegian is the playmaker and press-leader in-chief for Mikel Arteta but that the entirety of the attack is shaped around his talents.
Odegaard is a natural tempo-setter who’s stepped up to create plenty both in open ball and dead ball situations this term. He’s the heartbeat of this team and when Arsenal look to be at their brilliant best, it’s no coincidence that you can see Odegaard picking the ball up from deep and drifting at will in the final third as if this is his team.
5. Antoine Griezmann
Age: 33
Club: Atletico Madrid
Nationality: France
Griezmann is the David Bowie of the sport, having proven himself capable of reinventing his very profile. He’s a genuine legend.
Antoine Griezmann will perhaps go down as the greatest player in Atletico Madrid’s modern history – despite never winning a league title for the club. And that’s not just because he rinsed Barcelona in a £100m+ transfer and returned without missing a beat: he’s been the reliability in which Diego Simeone has built countless iterations of this team.
As a fluid forward about to roam around the pitch, Griezmann is still generating gold in his twilight. He has always had the discipline to work hard off the ball but he’s the real spark, still, in Atleti’s side, providing magic both creatively and to finish chances in the box. One of the modern greats who assisted more than anyone else for two World Cups running, Griezmann is the David Bowie of the sport, having proven himself capable of reinventing his very profile. He’s a genuine legend at this point.
4. Cole Palmer
Age: 22
Club: Chelsea
Nationality: England
The former Manchester City star’s 2024 was frankly ridiculous. After playing his way into England’s Euro 2024 squad with a string of brilliant performances with Chelsea, he showed he belonged on the biggest stages of all, setting up the goal that settled England’s semi-final in Germany, before netting an equaliser against Spain in the Three Lions’ ultimately doomed final.
Palmer carried this momentum into the new season, hitting new heights when he netted four first half goals against Brighton in September. The goals has slowed slightly in 2025, but he will be one of the first names on the list when Thomas Tuchel names his first England squad.
3. Florian Wirtz
Age: 21
Club: Bayer Leverkusen
Nationality: Germany
A generational talent of rare intelligence and technical ability, if he doesn’t win the Ballon d’Or, I’ll eat my Lederhosen.
Ed McCambridge
Having broken onto the scene at 17, Florian Wirtz spent the first two years of his senior career establishing himself as perhaps the most exciting youngster in Europe before a tear of his anterior cruciate ligament looked set to prevent him from ever touching that lofty potential. Two years down the line, Wirtz has played a leading role in Bayer Leverkusen’s invincible league triumph, winning the Bundesliga Player of the Season award and reestablishing himself.
Drawing interest from the world’s biggest teams, Wirtz looks destined to be recognised among the greatest players on earth as he continues his whirlwind development in the coming years. “Alongside Jamal Musiala, he’s considered the jewel in Germany’s footballing crown and already a guaranteed starter for the Nationalmannschaft,” says FourFourTwo's German football expert, Ed McCambridge. “A generational talent of rare intelligence and technical ability, if he doesn’t win the Ballon d’Or, I’ll eat my Lederhosen.
2. Jude Bellingham
Age: 21
Club: Real Madrid
Nationality: England
What more can you say about the man who’s rapidly on course to become his country’s defining star of a generation?
The Stourbridge Madridista’s unique combination of maturity, physical acumen and acute intelligence made him one of the standout teenagers in English football from the minute he made his Birmingham debut: now, he’s lighting up the Bernabeu with whatever Real Madrid require of him. Last season it was goals, this term it may be the need to deliver a little more creativity.
Bellingham’s got the complete skillset, though and looks destined to become England’s first Ballon d’Or winner since Michael Owen in 2001. Now if he could only avoid the same burnout…
1. Jamal Musiala
Age: 21
Club: Bayern Munich
Nationality: Germany
Musiala draws defenders like a magnet and has this almost unique ability to shift his body in one movement to bypass them.
23 goals and assists in his first 30 appearances in all competitions is a very good return. Jamal Musiala certainly delivers in output for a no.10 and with a team built around him, he has the efficiency that Vincent Kompany demands.
But to judge him purely on numbers alone is no fun at all – and Musiala is one of the most exciting players to watch in the world. He draws defenders like a magnet and has this almost unique ability to shift his body in one movement to bypass them. He’s nicknamed Bambi for his leggy dribbling style and there’s a grace about watching him that you rarely feel in this ultra-physical era of the game.
Musiala is the jewel that Bayern is built around and he’s still, crazily, just 21 years old.
