I think in general the games have been quite entertaining but I do feel the tournament is lacking a clutch of top players at their absolute peak. It seems instead that there is a number of great players north of 30 having their last go at it and a few top young talents like Mbappe, Vinicius, Pedri, Bellingham etc whose best years are ahead of them. I couldn’t name too many elite players in that 24-30 years old bracket who should really be making this tournament their own. Just generally in world football I could think of Kane, Bruno, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias, Marquinhos, De Jong, Varane, Pogba which is a little underwhelming.
Just to try and check this objectively I had a look at how many players in the latest Ballon D’or top 20 (not always the best indicator I know) are under 30 and at the World Cup. It’s just four: Mbappe, Vinicius, Fabinho
and Rafael Leao.
When you compare that to previous tournaments there is a stark contrast:
2018 (12): Neymar, Mbappe, Kante, Lewandowski, Kane, Isco, De Bruyne, Dybala, Kroos, Griezmann, Hazard, De Gea
2014 (8): Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, Ozil, Schweinsteiger, Miller, Suarez, Cavani
2010 (11): Messi, Ronaldo, Iniesta, Eto’o, Rooney, Torres, Fabregas, Luis Fabiano, Vidic, Casillas, Gourcuff
2006 (16): Ronaldinho, Lampard, Gerrard, Henry, Shevchenko, Adriano, Zlatan, Kaka, Terry, Riquelme, Cech, Ballack, Drogba, Buffon, Carragher
, C Ronaldo (add the likes of Rooney who didn’t make top 20!)
2002 (16): Owen, Raul, Beckham, Totti, Figo, Zidane, Henry, Trezeguet, Nesta, Veron, Crespo, Mendieta, Carlos, Tommasi, Olisadebe, Sand (not to mention the 3 Rs!!)
It does feel like this World Cup is lacking a bit of individual stardust.