The World Cup Fantasy Intelligence Report: Preview
A collection of the best player data to help you enjoy the World Cup and win World Cup Fantasy.
Regular readers of my FPL Intelligence Reports will recognize the usual data-driven storytelling in this World Cup special series.
FPL managers, in fact, will have a huge leg up on the World Cup Fantasy competition given the dominance of Premier League talent across most national teams:
Unlike FPL, however, I will not be playing World Cup Fantasy. I want to enjoy the tournament without the added stimulus, burden and responsiblity of feeding a Tamagotchi.
The objective of this series of World Cup Fantasy Intelligence Reports is to share with you, dear reader, the best data I find and source to help you make better decisions about the teams to back and the players to rely on. For me, the data curation and deep analysis magnifies my enjoyment. I am doing it purely for the love of it.
I’m delighted to share it with y’all.
To make life simpler, we’ll break it down by groups.
Relax if you don’t see all teams covered, this is just the first “data dump”. Lots more to come in future posts!
Group A: Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Czechia
Mexico: FPL managers will know all about Fulham’s Raul Jimenez, but he’s not guaranteed to start for Mexico. That’s because Armando González has raided LigaMX and bent it to his goal-scoring will.
In the closing stages of the Mexican season, the Chivas striker led the competition in shot accuracy with 53% (27 shots on target from 51 shots). And look at the positions he took his goals from and how he can do it with either foot or his head. Dude’s a baller!
Czechia: Looking for a defender who can score goals? I’m pleased to introduce you to Slavia Prague’s Stepán Chaloupek. He typically plays on the left side of a back three and is always looking to score. How about 8 goals from 7.2xG and 37 shots? Before you laugh off the Czech First League, remember that El Malick Hadji Diouf came straight into West Ham from the league and had a really positive attacking season in the Premier League.
Group B: Canada, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Qatar, Switzerland
Canada: Jonathan Osorio played very well in a recent friendly win over Uzbekistan and has made his case to start in an attacking midfield role. He’s one to watch.
Bosnia: 18-year old RB Salzburg winger Kerim Alajbegovic is a rising talent. His 9 goals in the Austrian Bundesliga were tied for ninth most in the league. He also added three assists. He is a volume shooter but has, um, some work to do on the quality of those shots. His 0.05 xG/Shot is not good. He also bigly outperformed his xG (those 9 goals came from just 4.73 xG). The kid is electrifying, however, and could have a breakthrough alongside experienced teammates and poachers like the great Edin Dzeko. Alajbegovic is one to watch!
Switzerland: Freiburg’s youngster Johan Manzambi is electrifying on his day; he is an insanely talented ball carrier and has xA machine potential.
Czechia: They crushed their UEFA Qualifiers in terms of goal scoring from set pieces. In fact, all four of their playoff goals came from set pieces. FPL stalwart Tomás Soucek could be a cheeky World Cup Fantasy pick! Beware Patrick Schick as he was one of Europe’s biggest xG overpeformers over the past two years (37 goals from 29.8 xG) for Bayer Leverkusen in 2024-26 and 2025-26 combined.
