Top 10 World Cup 2026 Stars — No.7: Achraf Hakimi, the best right-back in the world and Morocco's most dangerous weapon

The position of right-back does not generate the headlines that strikers and attacking midfielders do. This is football's persistent miscalibration — the failure to properly value the player who makes the right side of a team function, who provides the attacking threat from depth and the defensive cover from width simultaneously.

Hakimi has spent his career correcting that miscalibration by being so obviously, undeniably exceptional that ignoring him became impossible. He is the best right-back in the world. That assessment is not contentious among people who watch football carefully. It is a plain statement of what the evidence shows.

What he brings to Morocco

Morocco's 2022 World Cup run to the semi-finals was one of the great tournament stories of recent years. Hakimi was central to that run, providing the attacking threat from right-back that gave Morocco's system its width and pace in transition.

In 2026 he returns with more experience and authority. Morocco are in the same group as Brazil — which means the first thirty minutes of that match, with Hakimi against Vinícius Júnior on the other side, is one of the most intriguing individual duels at this tournament. Both players are extraordinary. One of them will come out ahead.

Age: 27 | Club: Paris Saint-Germain | Nation: Morocco

Viva's Verdict

Next in the countdown

No.6 tomorrow — Twenty-two years old. Real Madrid's most important player. A nation's sixty-year burden on his shoulders — and the quality to carry every ounce of it. Back to VivaSportsHQ →