HomeNews
NewsSports

Mexico’s World Cup hero Julián Quiñones earns a top 10 spot in FIFA’s latest player ranking

MND Staff
By MND Staff
2
Quiñones
FIFA graded all the World Cup non-goalkeepers on attack, defense and creativity, and Quiñones (16) scored well enough in all three categories to be named the eighth best player of the tournament. (Moisés Pablo/Cuartoscuro)

Julián Quiñones, the naturalized Mexican who scored the first goal of the 2026 World Cup and helped Mexico win its first four matches to reach the round of 16, has been ranked as the eighth-best player of the global tournament.

Quiñones started all five games for El Tri as a winger and found the net four times, tying a national team record for goals scored in a single World Cup tournament.

Gilberto Mora, who at 17 was the youngest player ever to play for a Mexican World Cup team, was honored along with Quiñones on another prominent list, Fox Sports’ Top 50 Players from the 2026 World Cup. (Moisés Pablo/Cuartoscuro)

The honor he received came to light Monday when FIFA released its final Power Rankings of outfield players (non-goalies), with Golden Boot winner Kylian Mbappe of France finishing at No. 1, followed by England’s Jude Bellingham and Argentina’s Lionel Messi.

FIFA’s evaluation system rates each player with a score from 0 to 10 in three areas: attack, creativity and defense.

The other players in the Top 10 were:

4. Erling Haaland (Norway)

5. Ousmane Dembele (France)

6. Charles DeKetelaere (Belgium)

7. Vinicius Junior (Brazil)

9. Johan Manzambi (Switzerland)

10. Harry Kane (England)

The 29-year-old Quiñones was graded with 6.86 points in attack (8th overall), 6.66 in creativity and 5.22 in defense, figures that allowed him to finish above global stars such as Kane, Lamine Yamal of Spain and Michael Olise of France.

His defensive rating (Quiñones constantly tracked back to help El Tri recover possession) was key to his Top 10 place in the Power Rankings as it surpassed that of other star forwards including Mbappe (4.02), Messi (4.55), Dembele (4.68) and Vinicius Junior (4.66). 

Quiñones was also ranked 29th in Fox Sports’ Top 50 Players from the 2026 World Cup, in which his performance was described as “one of the finest individual campaigns by a Mexican player on the sport’s biggest stage.”

Also joining Quiñones on the Fox Sports list were: 17-year-old midfielder Gilberto Mora, the youngest Mexican to play at a World Cup and the second-youngest player ever to start a World Cup knockout match; and winger Roberto Alvarado who led El Tri with three assists and ranked 10th overall in the creativity category of FIFA’s Power Ranking.

The four goals Quiñones scored place him in a tie atop Mexico’s all-time World Cup scoring list, even with Luis “El Matador” Hernández and Javier “Chicharito” Hernández. 

With reports from FIFA, Nación 321 and Record

2 COMMENTS

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.

Is Mexico ‘next’? Why Colombia’s deadly quake doesn’t raise the seismic odds here

MND Staff - 2
Mexicans watched in horror videos of this week's devastating quake in Colombia, with many having undergone similar experiences. But even though the two countries share the Pacific Ring of Fire, the seismic activity in one does not affect the other.
formal sector employees

Mexico’s formal sector is posting gains in employment and pay, even as World Cup hangover hits

MND Staff - 0
Mexico's formal sector registered a decline of 19,550 jobs in July, but overall, the increase in formal sector jobs in the first seven months of this year is 24.8% higher than in the same period of 2025.
Crocodile

Attacks by and towards crocodiles are on the rise in Puerto Vallarta

MND Staff - 3
State and local officials from Jalisco and Puerto Vallarta are tackling a dual challenge of utmost importance to residents and visitors: how to protect crocodiles from humans and how to protect humans from crocodiles.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity

VIDEO OF THE WEEK