Brazil’s best XI – based entirely objectively, statistically on 2025-26 form | OneFootball

Brazil are always expected to have one of the strongest lineups at the World Cup and this year will be no different, but who does the data suggest deserves to be in contention for Carlo Ancelotti’s side?

Football stats site WhoScored use a set of statistical ratings which they profess to be “the most accurate, respected and well-known performance indicators in the world of football.” Easy for them to say, but that’ll do nicely as a measuring tool for us.

As WhoScored explain themselves: “The ratings are based on a unique, comprehensive statistical algorithm, calculated live during the game,” they explain.

“There are over 200 raw statistics included in the calculation of a player’s/team’s rating, weighted according to their influence within the game.

“Every event of importance is taken into account, with a positive or negative effect on ratings weighted in relation to its area on the pitch and its outcome.”

We’ve used those ratings to create the best-rated Brazil XI playing in Europe’s top five leagues from across the 2025-26 campaign.

GK: Luiz Junior (6.77)

Not where we expected to be starting, we’ll confess. But then neither was Nick Pope in our England equivalent.

For years, Brazil have been blessed with Alisson and Ederson as their main goalkeepers. But it wasn’t a great season for Liverpool, so Alisson’s rating was only 6.58, while ex-City keeper Ederson no longer plays in one of Europe’s top five leagues, now at Fenerbahce.

Instead, the highest-rated Brazilian keeper was Villarreal’s Luiz Junior.

Yet to represent Brazil at any level, Junior only conceded 30 goals from 28 appearances in La Liga this season.

Villarreal finished third, their highest placing in the Spanish top flight since 2007-08.

All three of the keepers Brazil have taken to the World Cup – Alisson, Ederson and Gremio’s Weverton – are in their thirties, so Junior should stand a decent chance once there’s a changing of the guard in the near future.

RB: Wesley (6.94)

Wesley sadly won’t be at the World Cup after suffering an injury in a warm-up match. Heartbreaking.

His presence at the World Cup, less than a year and a half after his international debut, should have been the icing on the cake after an impressive first season in European football with Roma.

The right-back, who often had to play on the left, managed to score five Serie A goals, which obviously helped to boost his ratings.

Not bad for a player who was a relative latecomer to football in his teens and nearly gave up on it altogether as recently as six years ago.

CB: Gleison Bremer (7.04)

Sticking with Serie A players, Juventus defender Bremer is our first inclusion here who’s in the actual squad.

Bremer has eight caps to his name for Brazil, a quarter of which came at the last World Cup.

With a rating of 7.04, he just beat PSG’s 7.03-rated Lucas Beraldo to a space in this lineup.

CB: Gabriel Magalhaes (7.22)

No surprises for who’s the highest-rated of the five Premier League-based Brazilians in this XI.

The bedrock of the Arsenal team that won the title, Gabriel’s standards barely slipped over more than 2,700 minutes of gametime in the league.

This will be his first World Cup after only making his international debut in September 2023.

LB: Bernardo (6.94)

Back to the lesser-known names we go and it’s Hoffenheim’s Bernardo in the left-back spot.

No goals or assists for the 31-year-old in his first season with Hoffenheim, but averages of 2.3 tackles and 4.5 clearances per game presumably played into his favour – as did winning more than 100 aerial duels.

Only four players made more tackles than him across the season in the Bundesliga and only one blocked more passes.

But Bernardo has never played for the Brazil national team and likely never will.

CM: Casemiro (7.08)

Should it be cause for concern at Manchester United that the departing Casemiro makes it here and the incoming Ederson doesn’t?

Ederson’s rating for the Serie A season with Atalanta was 6.80, a little way off Casemiro’s average in the Premier League.

But Casemiro did score nine goals, to be fair. Averaging more than 2.6 tackles per game didn’t harm, either.

It was definitely a redeeming season for a player once urged to “leave the football before the football leaves you” – and he will cap it off by vice-captaining Brazil at the World Cup.

CM: Bruno Guimaraes (7.14)

Newcastle powerhouse Guimaraes was the highest-rated Brazilian midfielder in Europe’s top five leagues on the whole with a score of 7.14, having also scored nine Premier League goals.

This will be his second World Cup. Last time he only earned a couple of sub appearances in the group stage, but you can absolutely see him playing a bigger part this time around.

RW: Raphinha (7.40)

The highest-rated of them all in this XI is a player we fully expect to star at the World Cup after winning back-to-back La Liga titles with Barcelona.

OK, Raphinha often played on the left for Barca this season, but he can play on the right as well – as he did at the last World Cup and still sometimes does for his country.

Even with a couple of hamstring injuries along the way, he still managed to score 13 La Liga goals this season.

His was the best goals-to-games ratio in the Barca squad. But can he score his first World Cup goal(s) this summer?

AM: Matheus Cunha (7.11)

An encouraging debut season with Manchester United for Cunha, even if he wasn’t their best player.

Scoring 10 goals is a respectable milestone he’ll have been happy to tick off.

Having originally come to the Premier League with Wolves the month after the last World Cup, which he wasn’t called up for after dipping out of form at Atletico Madrid, Cunha goes into this one in much better form.

But whether he starts for Carlo Ancelotti’s side is in doubt.

LW: Vinicius Junior (7.35)

16 goals from Vini Jr weren’t enough to help Real Madrid dethrone Barca in La Liga’s title race.

The winger was Madrid’s second highest-rated player on WhoScored this season, behind only Kylian Mbappe.

Vinicius scored once at the last World Cup and will be hoping to have more of an impact at this one.

CF: Igor Thiago (7.09)

Brentford’s Igor Thiago might well have earned a shot at the starting striker berth for Brazil at the World Cup after an impressive 22-goal haul in the Premier League.

One of his main competitors will be Endrick, who actually had a better WhoScored rating from his revival on loan at Lyon (7.16).

But that wasn’t above the appearance threshold we’re using here, so Thiago takes his place at the top of Brazil’s formation – just like he might in North America.