Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland lead Gen Z’s best XI – who else makes the cut?
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo led our greatest millennial XI, which gives Gen Z an incredibly tough act to follow. But who makes the cut from the best players born between 1997 and 2010?
There’s still plenty of time for more Gen Z ballers to emerge, while those reaching their peak years are still cementing their legacies. But with that in mind, we’ve had a go at putting a full team together as of 2025.
Using a strict ‘one player per nationality’ rule to mix things up and give us a challenge, here’s the greatest XI of Generation Z.
GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma
While not always reliable and prone to the odd mistake, Donnarumma’s highs are irrefutable.
Two hundred and fifty appearances for boyhood club Milan at the age of 22. A series of monstrously brilliant individual performances in Italy’s Euro 2020 triumph. Solid as a rock in PSG’s 2024-25 treble.
It’s strange to see a player with such a CV left awkwardly looking for a new club, but at the age of 26 we dare say there’ll be a few more peaks to come. Next stop Premier League?
RB: Achraf Hakimi
There can be little question of Hakimi’s status as the best right-back in world football right now.
He notched 11 goals and 16 assists in PSG’s treble triumph last term and was outstanding in Morocco’s shock run to the World Cup semi-finals in 2022.
Hakimi’s nationality made this one extra easy for us. A lock-in.
CB: Josko Gvardiol
The Croatian probably isn’t quite at the level of most of the names on this teamsheet, and surely the biggest beneficiary of our one-player-per-nationality rule that sees the likes of William Saliba, Alessandro Bastoni, Pau Cubarsi and Dean Huijsen miss out.
He’s played the majority of his football for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City at left-back, but we get the sense his future lies at centre-back.
Already a Premier League winner, Gvardiol has all the tools in his arsenal to be one of the best defenders of his generation.
CB: Cristian Romero
The majority of Argentina’s 2022 World Cup-winning squad were millennials – from inspirational talisman Lionel Messi to the core of grizzled veterans like Nicolas Otamendi, Angel Di Maria and Nicolas Tagliafico.
Even the ‘keeper Emiliano Martinez is at the younger end of the millennial generation. Gen Z pair Alexis Mac Allister and Enzo Fernandez gave Argentina legs in midfield, but we couldn’t quite justify giving either a starting spot in this XI’s midfield.
So Romero is the obvious pick from that unforgettable team.
His club career arguably hasn’t been quite what it might’ve (yet) – but he played a starring role in ending Tottenham’s trophy drought last season and you sense the best is yet to come from their new club captain.
LB: Nuno Mendes
As with Hakimi on PSG’s other flank, Mendes owned the title of the world’s best left-back over the past 12 months.
The 23-year-old capped off PSG’s exceptional, all-conquering 2024-25 campaign by looking every bit as indispensable in Portugal’s 2025 Nations League victory.
An honourable mention to Alphonso Davies, who could yet reclaim this spot if he can put his injury woes behind him and refind the form he showed when bursting onto the scene in Bayern’s 2019-20 treble.
DM: Moises Caicedo
It feels fitting that we’ve got one player here who was scouted by Brighton at little-known Ecuadorian outfit Independiente del Valle. The midfielder is emblematic of football’s shifting sands in that respect.
While Caicedo took time to settle at Chelsea, few are quibbling with his £100million price tag now. In a year in which Ballon d’Or holder Rodri was sidelined, Caicedo had a shout as the best defensive midfielder in world football.
His outstanding displays in Chelsea’s 2025 Club World Cup victory suggest that we’ve not yet seen his ceiling, either.
CM: Pedri
“For me, a player like Pedri is more important than Lamine Yamal, Raphinha or Lewandowski,” Toni Kroos recently said on his podcast, Einfach mal Luppen.
“They may decide the results of matches, but to do that, Pedri is currently the best player in the world in his position.
“He’s a player you will miss when he’s not playing, whoever you are playing against. He doesn’t just score goals or provide assists, he offers solutions.”
That’s good enough for us.
CM: Jude Bellingham
Bellingham is proper Gen Z. Born in 2003, slap bang in the middle of the generation’s range. A digital native with his own YouTube channel, raised on FIFA Ultimate Team and the prime Barclays era.
It’s wild to think that Bellingham is actually the youngest player on this teamsheet, given all he’s already achieved.
Over a hundred appearances for both Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid, a runner-up in two European Championships with England, La Liga and Champions League winners’ medals and the first Englishman to make the Ballon d’Or podium since Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard in 2005.
The Gen Z wonderkids born in the mid-to-late noughties are just starting to break through and may well stake claims to make this XI in the future.
Even Arsenal’s 15-year-old prodigy Max Dowman – who, born on New Year’s Eve 2009, is just one day off being the first Generation Alpha footballer.
FWR: Kylian Mbappe
Surely the poster boy of his generation, Mbappe has been Real Madrid’s biggest Galactico signing since his idol, Cristiano Ronaldo, and boasts some immense career highlights to date. One World Cup and a hat-trick in another final.
He doesn’t turn 27 until later this year, but he’s closing in on 400 career goals to date.
The Champions League and Ballon d’Or are still missing from his collection, but we’d be amazed if he doesn’t lift both – at least once – by the time he hangs up his boots.
ST: Erling Haaland
You can make a case for Mbappe as the No.9, but we’ve had him shunted out to the right to make way for Manchester City’s battering ram Norwegian.
Haaland hasn’t been quite at his best of late, but get things clicking around him and he’s near enough unstoppable.
Fifty-two goals in Man City’s 2022-23 treble-winning campaign shouldn’t be forgotten in a hurry.
FWL: Vinicius Junior
Things haven’t quite gone to plan for the Brazilian since he promised “I’ll do it 10x if I have to. They’re not ready,” after finishing runner-up in last year’s Ballon d’Or.
He was agonisingly close to becoming the first Gen Z footballer to lift France Football’s coveted golden ball.
While Vinicius hasn’t quite stepped up to fill Neymar’s shoes for the Selecao, he’s already won two Champions Leagues with Los Blancos – and twice scored in finals.
Still, based on how the last 12 months have gone, Vini’s place is under serious pressure from Barcelona starlet Lamine Yamal.
The 18-year-old looks destined for greatness and has already achieved so much. He might even get his mitts on the Ballon d’Or, fresh from Vini’s snub last year. Ouch.
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