Whether you'll be cheering on Harry Kane and the Three Lions or Gareth Bale and Wales, the eyes of the home nations will be on the Qatar World Cup next month. But a new study has revealed which number is most likely to find success on the pitch.
Sports Direct has also partnered with football analyst Matt Furniss, of The Analyst, to crunch the numbers and see if the number your favourite player wears has an impact on the pitch. They looked at the top 50 performing players across the 2014 and 2018 World Cups.
And it seems the winner of this year's World Cup could be Lionel Messi and Argentina if the stats are anything to go by. That's because the number 10 has seen the most success in Russia and Brazil.
The data has been crunched using metrics such as social media following and Google searches. As well as minutes played on the field, goals and assists, red and yellow cards, pass completion percentage, shots per game and player of the match performances.
It found the top performing player across the previous World Cups was former Real Madrid and Everton playmaker James Rodriguez with a score of 88.75. With Brazil and Paris Saint Germain forward Neymar ranked in second place with 88.25, narrowly ahead of Lionel Messi who scored 86.5.
The number 10 appeared in the top 10 list five times - James, Neymar, Messi, Karim Benzema and Eden Hazard - making it the best performing shirt number overall, according to the data. With the number 7 shirt, famously worn by Cristiano Ronaldo, the second top-scoring.
Using the metrics, forwards are ranked highest, with defenders not making the top 50 list until number 12, with Colombia's Yerry Mina ranked first, ahead of Germany's Mats Hummel. Tim Howard was the top performing goalkeeper in 17th place.
Only two England players made it into the top 50. Harry Kane, who is expected to wear the number 9 shirt, was ranked in 14th, with Kieran Trippier ranked in 25th.
Matt Furniss said: "It comes as little surprise that players that wear the number 10 shirt dominate these rankings. Based on the in-depth data that Opta have collected from every FIFA World Cup match since 1966, I can reveal that players wearing the number 10 shirt have scored the most goals (53), attempted the most shots (389) and tallied the most assists (30) and chances created (322) across the last two tournaments
"The last four players to have won the Golden Ball award for the best player at the tournament have all adorned the number 10 shirt - Zinedine Zidane in 2006, Diego Forlan in 2010, Lionel Messi in 2014 and then Luka Modric in 2018."
Top 10 World Cup performers
- James Rodriguez
- Neymar
- Lionel Messi
- Arjen Robben
- Karim Benzema
- Eden Hazard
- Alexis Sanchez
- Cristiano Ronaldo
- Thomas Muller
- Isco
