The Eye Catchers

The top 10 players to look out for at the 2018 World Cup

South American and European countries have won the World Cup nine and eleven times, respectively.

FIFA World Cup 2018 will be the 21st edition and there still hasn’t been a winner from Asia, Africa, North America or Oceania.

Like real estate investments, winning the World Cup is also about location, location, location. Of the 21 so far, six have been won by the host country.

South Africa is the only host nation to have been knocked out in the first round of the tournament, in 2010.

Kylian Mbappe

WHEN TABLOIDS START RUNNING STORIES OF how the world’s costliest player, who happens to be your teammate, is jealous of your talent, and wants your club to ‘sell you’ off to a smaller team, you know you have arrived. Although the 19-year-old French national doesn’t need tabloids to sell his talent – Mbappe is one of those players who you can truly say was born to play football. Despite being wooed by the likes of Real Madrid, Chelsea among others as a teenager, the Parisian boy chose to settle for a club closer to home – Monaco. In 2015, he became their youngest player, eclipsing a record set by the legendary Thierry Henry more than two decades ago. By the time he turned 18, Mbappe was playing in the same XI as the illustrious Brazilian Neymar, whom he easily replaced in the lineup after the latter’s unfortunate injury earlier this year. He scored crucial goals for his national side in a short career and is likely to be at the heart of every French raid on the opposition’s goal in Russia.

Hirving Lozano