Top 20 nations with best defenders revealed ahead of World Cup

Top 20 list revealed 

It’s a familiar adage in football that a resolute defence provides the platform for a team to be successful and that’s been proven true regularly over the years. Sir Alex Ferguson famously stated that ‘attack wins you games, defence wins you titles’ and it’s difficult to argue against the advice of the legendary Manchester United manager. The requirements of defenders have evolved substantially over the decades with increased emphasis on being good in possession.

Defenders from previous generations were renowned for fearsome tackling, physicality and heading ability. While those traits are still greatly desired, elite defenders are now required to be comfortable with the ball and expected to build attacks. For many leading teams, full-backs provide width with wingers inverting and the role of defenders has changed greatly in recent years. In the next part of our series looking at which nations have the most valuable collection of players in each position, we’ve examined defenders.

Which nation has the most valuable collection of defenders?

We’ve used Transfermarkt’s renowned market values and combined the valuations of every defender from that nation to formulate the results. Spain is the nation with the most valuable collection of defenders in the world with 1,407 players totalling a market value of €1.63 billion. In Pau Cubarsí (€80 million), Dean Huijsen (€65m) and Álvaro Carreras, Spain have three defenders in the top twenty most valuable in the world. As the graphic below illustrates, England occupy second place at €1.58b with Marc Guéhi (€65m), Trent Alexander Arnold (€65m) and Reece James (€60m) amongst the top twenty most valuable defenders.

It’s imperative to highlight that the amount of defenders in our database varies massively between countries and that’s a major factor behind the results. William Saliba is the most valuable defender in the world at €90m and he contributes to France completing the top three. Interestingly, 12 European nations feature in the top twenty list with Brazil leading the way for South America, Morocco for Africa and the United States for North America.