Although FIFA’s Fantasy World Cup 2026 is similar to Fantasy Premier League (FPL) in many ways, there are a few different ways to grab points, such as the tackle bonus for midfielders.
Like in last year’s Club World Cup game, players in this position gain an extra point for every three tackles attempted.
Using qualifying stats from our dazzling new World Cup toolkit, we can identify who the best midfielders should be for such rewards.
CRITERIA
The ‘Defending’ tab on Stats Centre can show tackles per 90 minutes. As well as that, we’ve removed players not named in their nations’ final squad, plus those who didn’t play a meaningful percentage of minutes during the qualification stage.
- READ MORE: FIFA World Cup 2026 – All 48 final squads
MOST TACKLES PER 90
First of all, it’s interesting to see Diego Gomez ($6.8m) on top with a 4.15 average, because he also delivered one goal and two assists during Paraguay’s campaign. In FPL, he netted five times in 2025/26, alongside four in a single cup match.
Some names like Yeremy Pino ($5.9m), Kevin Castano ($4.3m) and New Zealand pair Joe Bell ($5.1m) and Alex Rufer ($4.9m) aren’t safe starters, but the cheap Ismail Yuksek ($4.6m) is expected to be in the XI of dark horses Turkey.
In two subsequent friendlies, our toolkit says Yuksek made eight tackles. Nasser Al Dawsari ($5.2m) has been doing them at an even better rate (6.09 per 90) over his latest three Saudi Arabia outings.
Aurelien Tchouameni ($6.5m) is part of a very talented France squad, while there are also a pair of Nottingham Forest representatives: Elliot Anderson ($6.5m) and Ibrahim Sangare ($5.8m).
FPL’s defensive contribution monster received such extra points in 70% of starts and loves to tackle. Meanwhile, Sangare added a couple of goals for Cote d’Ivoire.
Looking between 2.50 and 2.99 per 90, the attacking contributions of Lukas Cerv ($5.3m) and Johan Manzambi ($5.6m) are worth noting, although they aren’t likely to start in Round 1.
Nicolas Raskin ($5.3m), Petar Sucic ($4.2m) and Kristijan Jakic ($5.6m) are squad players, too.
WHAT ABOUT THE WORLD CUP HOSTS?
Friendlies are less reliable when it comes to seeing first-choice XIs but, for United States, Mexico and Canada, it’s basically all they’ve had.
So, in recent times, we’ve seen Ali Ahmed ($4.9m), Nathan Saliba ($5.1m), Niko Sigur ($4.9m), Orbelin Pineda ($6.2m) and Malik Tillman ($6.1m) do well, but none of these seem like regular starters.
