The best right-wingers in the world – the providers, the show ponies and the speed merchants all included
(Image credit: Future)
Who are the best right-wingers in the world? It isn't an easy task to answer in the modern age. With 4-4-2 more or less resigned to history (we're aware of the irony!), a myriad of formations mean wide men are a different breed than the classic crossers of the 1990s.
These days, they're also goalscorers, pressers, raumdeuters and more. Yet while the players on this list all have their little idiosyncrasies, one thing binds them: they are almost always fielded on the right.
This final point, therefore, excludes players Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, who are just as likely to be fielded more centrally for their clubs. So, without any further ado...
The 10 best right-wingers in the world right now: 10. Lamine Yamal
Lamine Yamal celebrates after scoring for Barcelona against Granada (Image credit: Getty Images)
It's frankly astonishing how good Lamine Yamal is for his age – and he's playing for Barcelona more than Lionel Messi did at this age. His intelligence is key to his game but physically, it's easy to forget he's just 16.
Whether he ends up as an interior or stays on the right, the future is bright for this La Masia phenomenon. We just hope that Barça treat him with care and use him sparingly: especially after warnings with the likes of Ansu Fati and Gavi getting serious injuries at such tender ages.
9. Dejan Kulusevski
Dejan Kulusevski kisses the ball after scoring (Image credit: Getty Images)
Statistically among the most creative players in the Premier League, Dejan Kulusevski is integral to the Tottenham cause, providing a crucial attacking outlet down the right flank.
Highly versatile, the Sweden international is a delight to watch dribble but his impressive work rate underpins his ability. He's the perfect fit for Ange Postecoglou's ultra-intense Spurs system and can play either on the touchline or a little more infield. Spurs fans love the 23-year-old – and it's easy to see why.
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8. Jarrod Bowen
Jarrod Bowen celebrates scoring against Manchester United (Image credit: Getty Images)
From non-League football with Hereford United to one of the best wingers in world football in less than a decade, it's been a remarkable rise for West Ham star Jarrod Bowen.
Quick, direct and tenacious with a strong eye for goal, Bowen continues to steadily rack up the goals for the Hammers – where he ensured legend status by bagging a 90th-minute winner in the 2022/23 Europa Conference League final. Also now a regular member of the England squad, the former Hull City man will have his sights firmly set on a seat on the plane to Germany for Euro 2024.
7. Leroy Sane
Leroy Sane of Bayern Munich looks on during Bayern's Champions League clash with Copenhagen (Image credit: Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)
For so long, he was a left-footed left-winger, beating defenders by overtaking them on the touchline and drilling in crosses for forwards. But that knee injury ripped fifth gear out of his repertoire and Leroy Sane has spent time re-calibrating.
Now, he's one of the very best on Earth when it comes to cutting on from the right. He's still got the power to help control a game with the likes of Jamal Musiala and Harry Kane and he can use his experience – he's now 28 – to know when to create and when to go for goal. He's still as good as ever for Bayern Munich – just in a totally different way.
6. Xavi Simons
Xavi Simons in action on loan at RB Leipzig (Image credit: Getty Images)
Not exactly a right-winger by name but certainly by what he has to do. RB Leipzig famously deploy a 4-2-2-2, with Xavi Simons often dropped onto the right side of those attacking AMs – but though he drifts a lot more centrally than your traditional RWs, he gives enough left-backs a headache to find himself on this list.
Simons is intelligent, physical and intense out of possession, exploiting space between the lines and combining with his frontline to both supply and run beyond the forwards. 2024 will see him turn 21 and he's already been on the books at Barça, PSG and PSV: when he returns to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer after this loan, there will be serious conversations about how he integrates into their first-team.
5. Rodrygo
Rodrygo looks on during the clash against Osasuna at the Santiago Bernabeu (Image credit: Getty Images)
One half of Real Madrid's brilliant Brazilian duo alongside Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo has established himself as one of the best players La Liga and Europe over the last couple of years.
Unlike many of the right-wingers on this list, Rodrygo does not play in an inverted role: he's right-footed, and Carlo Ancelotti deploys him on his strong side – though this year, he's played more as a forward alongside Vini, with Jude Bellingham steaming through the middle. Still, boasting an elite combination of pace and skill, the former Santos youngster is utterly integral to the attacking threat Real carry – even more so since the departure of Karim Benzema.
4. Takefusa Kubo
Takefusa Kubo of Real Sociedad celebrates after scoring against Granada (Image credit: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)
Released by Barcelona when he was younger, sold by Real Madrid later down the line, Take Kubo is one of the brightest talents coming out of a country developing an exciting new generation of stars, proving that the big two were perhaps wrong to let him go.
At Real Sociedad, the Japan starlet has been exceptional, offering the intelligence of a midfielder with the explosiveness that a wide-man needs. Imanol Alguacil demands close interplay from his forwards – and Kubo has linked up fantastically with the likes of Mikel Oyarzabal and Brais Mendez. Bigger clubs have been linked.
3. Phil Foden
Phil Foden reacts after scoring the opening goal against Huddersfield Town (Image credit: Getty Images)
Having played out on the right-wing for Manchester City more than anywhere else this season, he just qualifies for this list – though he's not really a right-winger by traditional standards, thanks to Kyle Walker providing width this season.
But then Phil Foden doesn't conform to anything, really. He's perhaps the best player on Earth on the half-turn, playing more central this season in the absence of Kevin De Bruyne and becoming the hero that Pep Guardiola demands to make things tick in dangerous areas. Foden has been at his creative best this term, chipping in with goals, too – and his year may yet peak at the Euros.
2. Bukayo Saka
Bukayo Saka unleashes a shot against Brighton (Image credit: Getty Images)
Right up there with England's best players and the best players in the world, Arsenal hero Bukayo Saka is enormously influential for Mikel Arteta's Gunners, and a unique and special talent who has even higher heights to reach yet (we had to triple-check that he really was still only 22 years old).
Not just adept but elite at seemingly everything you'd want from a world-class winger, the 2022/23 PFA Young Player of the Year could have a truly huge 2024 – a year in which he'll want to succeed with boyhood club Arsenal, clearly, but also inspire England to Euro 2024 glory. It's not just that he's creative, able to unleash rockets from the edge of the box and able to skin defenders for fun, it's his decision-making that separates him.
He's the heartbeat of Arsenal already: he'll only improve, too.
1. Mohamed Salah
Mohamed Salah celebrates after scoring (Image credit: Getty Images)
Mo Salah has made his misguided doubters look horribly silly: Liverpool'sEgyptian King is still one of the best players on the planet – and that should never have been questioned.
In each of the past three campaigns, the speedy and skilful Salah has totalled at least 30 goals in all competitions – and he's more than on course to do so yet again this time around. Goals (lots of them, evidently) are the 31-year-old's invaluable end product – but it's the variety of ways in which he gets them, so often creating chances out of nothing with his individual brilliance, that makes him particularly devastating to opposition defences.
And now, he's more creative than ever on top of everything else. Is there any slowing down for Salah? Not just yet – he's determined to see out Klopp's final season in style.
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Ed is a staff writer at FourFourTwo, working across the magazine and website. A German speaker, he’s been working as a football reporter in Berlin since 2015, predominantly covering the Bundesliga and Germany's national team. Favourite FFT features include an exclusive interview with Jude Bellingham following the youngster’s move to Borussia Dortmund in 2020, a history of the Berlin Derby since the fall of the Wall and a celebration of Kevin Keegan’s playing career.
