Deciding the best right-wingers in the world certainly isn't an easy task to answer in the modern age.
The role has become one of the most important in football – and with that, it's hard to quantify what makes a winger tick. With 4-4-2 more or less resigned to history (we're aware of the irony…), a myriad of formations means wide men are a different breed than the classic crossers of the 1990s.
These days, they're also goalscorers, pressers, raumdeuters and more – and this lot represent the elite collection of difference-makers in the final third.
How our experts decided the best right-wingers in the world
We asked our experts to provide their own top 10 right-wingers in the world as of February 2025, based not just on technique and ability but form over 2024/25. Recent legacy was important, too: if a player had a stunning campaign last term, that was part of the consideration.
Top-rated players were awarded with 10 points, down to the 10th-rated with just the one. These scores were then collated, with a final ranking of 10 players: five players were nominated but failed to make the overall cut, featuring in our honourable mentions below instead.
Judgement calls were made over players who may play on the opposite flank, with the prospect of some stars eligible for our list of the best left-wingers in the world. When it comes to the sharp end of the pitch, we have a list of the best centre-forwards in the world, too, while we've covered matters further back: we have a list of the best goalkeepers in the world, while defence (right-backs, centre-backs and left-backs) and midfield (defensive midfielders, central midfielders and attacking midfielders) are both wrapped up with three specific lists a-piece.
If you're looking for the best players in the world right now, regardless of their place on the field, we also have a list for that. Let's get stuck into right-wingers…
Honourable mentions
Honourable mentions
The full list
10. Savinho
Age: 20
Club: Manchester City
Nationality: Brazil
Manchester City probably wished they made more signings in the summer of 2024 than that of £30 million arrival Savinho, especially given how quickly the Brazilian winger has adapted to life in the Premier League.
Direct, pacy and a brilliant dribbler, it’s easy to see why the club moved to sign the 20-year-old from sister club Troyes in the summer, as Savinho has the potential become the supplier-in-chief for Erling Haaland for years to come.
9. Bryan Mbeumo
Age: 25
Club: Brentford
Nationality: Cameroon
Mbeumo has gone from a reliable and consistent performer to being completely unignorable across the country.
The Cameroon international is Brentford all over. Mbeumo arrived to make an instant impact in 2019/20, helped them get promoted the following year, and has only looked more and more at home in the Premier League since.
But 2024/25 has been the season that Mbeumo has gone from a reliable and consistent performer to being completely unignorable across the country, if not the world. At 25 years old, the winger is only just now beginning to enter his prime years, and there’s no telling just how much he can still improve.
8. Leroy Sane
Age: 29
Club: Bayern Munich
Nationality: Germany
Once the most explosive footballer in the Premier League, injuries took their toll on Leroy Sane. The Bayern Munich star has quietly become one of the more consistent threats in the Bundesliga at Bayern and at 29, has matured into a fantastic winger.
Sane was never exactly one-dimensional, but his creativity has blossomed as he’s learned how to play at more than just the one speed. The German is still one of the deadliest attackers in Europe and still a big game-changer.
7. Takefusa Kubo
Age: 23
Club: Real Sociedad
Nationality: Japan
There were fears that Takefusa Kubo may not reach the potential that convinced Barcelona and then Real Madrid to bring him in when he left the Bernabeu in 2022, but his move to Real Sociedad was the perfect next step.
Kubo has become the San Sebastian side’s attacking fulcrum, with his dribbling, creativity and quick feet seeing him emerge as one of La Liga’s best attacking talents. And you get the feeling there is more to come.
6. Michael Olise
Age: 23
Club: Bayern Munich
Nationality: France
Bayern Munich wasted little time in snapping Michael Olise up for what may prove to be an absolute bargain release clause from Crystal Palace.
Olise is naturally creative, thriving in tight spaces as much as wide-open stretches of pitch for him to gallop into. Goals and assists have flowed freely, and France may well be kicking themselves that they waited until after Euro 2024 to give him his first senior call-up.
5. Ousmane Dembele
Age: 27
Club: Paris Saint-Germain
Nationality: France
Dembele is devastating both on the outside and cutting in, uniquely two-footed, and ferociously exciting both in transition or toying with a low block.
Ousmane Dembele’s move to Paris Saint-Germain came with a lot less fanfare than it would have done when the Frenchman was at his height at Borussia Dortmund. The Barcelona years were heavy on his legs, with a stuttering development seemingly affecting whether we’d ever seen this formerly £100m player ever reach his potential.
Well, Dembele is starting to look like the player we always hoped he could be: devastating both on the outside and cutting in, uniquely two-footed, and ferociously exciting both in transition or toying with a low block. Kylian Mbappe’s exit seems to have freed the shackles, and Dembele is now leading this PSG side as the older head alongside Desire Doue and Bradley Barcola. He has 29 goals and assists in as many games in all competitions this season: he’s back, all right.
4. Rodrygo
Age: 24
Club: Real Madrid
Nationality: Brazil
Rodrygo ticks every box you want to be ticked when it comes to elite wingers, but his work rate and versatility give him an extra dimension from several others on this list.
The Madridista enjoyed the most prolific season of his career so far last year, operating on both flanks and in a central role. This summer’s arrival of Kylian Mbappe and Endrick means competition for the attacking spots at the Bernabeu are fiercer than ever, but Rodrygo has the trust of Carlo Ancelotti and is playing a significant role again.
3. Bukayo Saka
Age: 23
Club: Arsenal
Nationality: England
Saka is no longer a wonderkid learning his trade but a genuine world-beater.
There’s a reason that Arsenal didn’t buy a Bukayo Saka backup for all these years: there’s simply no replacement for what he does, without spending an absolute fortune.
The Hale End starboy became a man in 2024, too. He banished the demons of Euro 2020 against Switzerland with a virtuoso performance and was a bright spark in a patchy England side – before stepping up to lead the charge for Arsenal, no longer as a wonderkid learning his trade but as a genuine world-beater, getting 23 goals and assists in 24 appearances before a hamstring injury. Everything he does is efficient, his decision-making is still lightyears ahead of his 23 years. Saka is irreplaceable for Arsenal and now he’s one of the faces of the Premier League.
2. Lamine Yamal
Age: 17
Club: Barcelona
Nationality: Spain
Lamine Yamal’s performance for Spain against France in the Euro 2024 semi-final had echoes of Lionel Messi beating Kylian Mbappe in the World Cup final two years prior. Mbappe used to be the future: now, he’s already old news, with a 17-year-old ready to assume his throne, all things being right over the next few years.
The match-up in future Clasicos may well be Yamal vs Endrick – and that's exciting enough. Lamine Yamal is the complete winger: devastatingly creative, able to beat a man on either side, and unpredictable. Concerns over his workload are valid… but how can you drop a player this good?
1. Mohamed Salah
Age: 32
Club: Liverpool
Nationality: Egypt
Salah is playing like a man running out of time: and it’s producing one of the greatest campaigns that anyone at Anfield – or anywhere else – has ever seen.
Salah is not just the most electric right-winger in the world right now. He’s the best footballer on Earth enjoying an all-time great season, carrying his club towards glory on his shoulders.
After 25 games in the Premier League, he’d notched 23 goals and 14 assists – that’s an unprecedented rate that not even the Henrys, Haalands or Ronaldos of yesteryear could have fathomed. On top of that, he has seven goals and assists in as many games in Europe, refining his game down to its purest state to deliver the season of his life at the age of 32.
But Salah is much more than just an output machine. He doesn’t just pop up to add the full stop to Liverpool anymore, play has flowed through him more and more, as he takes on more creative responsibility, harries defenders as intensely as he ever has and leads Liverpool, not vocally like Virgil van Dijk but leading by example. Famously, Salah is playing like a man running out of time: and it’s producing one of the greatest campaigns that anyone at Anfield – or anywhere else – has ever seen, with him 3/1 favourite to win the 2025 Ballon d'Or.
