Ranking the 10 left-backs in world football right now: Mendes, Cucurella, Calafiori… | OneFootball

Left-backs at Arsenal, PSG, Real Madrid, Inter, Manchester City and Bayern Munich can all be considered to be among the standouts in their position across world football right now.

Whether it’s locking down elite wingers, inverting into midfield or providing width in attack, these are the players doing it better than anyone else.

Here’s our ranking of the 10 best left-backs in world football at this moment in time.

10. Alejandro Balde

Good. Not quite great. We expected a bit more, if we’re being honest. Balde has already achieved plenty with his boyhood club Barcelona, but there is a sense that his progress has stalled over the past couple of seasons.

Injuries haven’t helped, and his omission from the World Cup squad makes it all too easy to forget not long ago he was considered one of the most exciting young full-backs in world football, spoken of in the same breath as generational talents like Nuno Mendes.

Balde is only 22. He still has plenty of time to realise his full potential. The upcoming 2026-27 season could be career-defining – it’ll determine whether he can kick on and nail down a long-term starting spot, or whether Barcelona need to consider signing an upgrade.

9. Alphonso Davies

Few full-backs have ever been as exhilarating as Alphonso Davies in full flight.

We will never forget that electric performance against Barcelona, and desperately hope that isn’t as good as it gets. It’d be a minor footballing tragedy if Davies peaked as a teenager.

Unfortunately, we’re starting to fear that’ll be the reality. Injuries might have already robbed Davies of his pace, which was always his most obvious, devastatingly effective quality.

We’re not giving up on the Canada international just yet. He’s only 25 and his peak years might yet be great. But it already feels like a very long time since he was in the conversation for the best in the world.

8. Nathaniel Brown

Regular watchers of the Bundesliga will tell you how solid Brown is. For everyone else, they discovered him at the World Cup – one of very few individuals to escape from Germany’s desperately disappointing campaign with any credit in the bank.

You can see why Bayern moved quickly to secure his signature. Given Davies’ aforementioned struggles, it was a no-brainer of a signing – the Bavarians foodchaining their domestic competition yet again.

It’ll be interesting to see whether he can make the step up at the Allianz Arena. But if he can continue developing under Vincent Kompany, as so many young players have done, there’s no reason why he can’t follow in the footsteps of Michael Olise or Aleksandar Pavlovic and establish himself among the very best in his position.

7. Lewis Hall

“Newcastle need to keep him – and keep him fit – if they’re to build anything at all successful in the post Eddie Howe era.”

That’s what we wrote about Livramento in our right-back ranking. Copy and paste does the job here.

Another Chelsea academy graduate, another top young Premier League player who appears destined to become an England regular.

It’s already been a painful summer for the Magpies, who are going through a complete rebuild job. Hall and Livramento are essential pillars of whatever’s left of the Howe project.

6. Nico O’Reilly

The Manchester City starlet has the talent and the potential to be challenging for the top end of this list.

We’ve followed Thomas Tuchel’s lead when it came to England’s World Cup squad, and snubbed Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly. Our reasoning is that O’Reilly has played considerably more at left-back in recent months than the Arsenal man.

As with Lewis-Skelly, we have a sense that O’Reilly’s long-term future might be in midfield. He certainly possesses the technical skillset to make it happen. But as long as he’s playing at left-back at this level, for club and country, he’ll deservedly be in the top 10.

5. Alex Grimaldo

Grimaldo played a grand total of zero minutes in Spain’s World Cup triumph.

The former Bayer Leverkusen wingback spoke of his eagerness to play his part, but he’s a bit unfortunate that one of the few better players in his position across world football shares his nationality.

We can’t wait to see how he’ll fare at Atletico Madrid. A big move like that has been a long time coming.

4. Riccardo Calafiori

Not quite to the same extent as some of the prior names in this list, but we’re still left with a sense that Calafiori’s lack of durability costs him a little.

The Italian heartthrob played a decent amount of football last season – 36 appearances and over 2000 minutes in all competitions – but he still missed vast swathes of Arsenal’s quadruple chase, including much of the Premier League run-in and latter stages of the Champions League knockouts.

If he can kick on and make himself available every week, Calafiori undoubtedly possesses the ability – particularly on the defensive side of his game – to challenge at the top end of this ranking.

3. Federico Dimarco

Dimarco suffered such a colossal mare in Inter’s 2025 Champions League final shellacking at the hands of PSG that it’s difficult to imagine his reputation ever fully recovering.

But every footballer has their off days, and if you take that out of the equation and Di Marco’s track record is outstanding. Two Scudetti, three Coppa Italia, runs to two Champions League finals, twice being included in the Serie A Team of the Season.

And it’s not just pedigree. Last season was probably his best yet, having notched seven goals and 17 – yes, seventeen – assists as Inter waltzed to the title.

He was deservedly named Serie A’s MVP – how often has that ever happened to a full-back in a top European league?

2. Marc Cucurella

Positionally astute, bit of a sh*thouse, decent enough going forward but never at the expense of his defensive duties. Real Madrid have basically signed Jose Mourinho’s idea of the perfect left-back.

Best of all, he’s a big game player. Three summers in a row he’s shone on the big stage. The European Championship. The Club World Cup. The World Cup. Across all three finals, he didn’t put a foot wrong.

Far too good to be playing in a Chelsea side so dysfunctional. He’s earned this shot.

1. Nuno Mendes

The case isn’t quite as cut and dried as with Achraf Hakimi on the opposite flank, but it was nevertheless a pretty easy decision.

Mendes and Hakimi have been integral to Luis Enrique’s PSG winning back-to-back Champions Leagues.

Their defensive ability is the starting point, with both excelling in one-on-one duels, but they are far from limited when it comes to supporting the attack. That all-round skill set forms one of the pillars of a remarkably effective set-up.