Here’s our World Cup Fantasy Teams article with the first draft FFGeek Team. There’s an explanation around the selection and discussion around the Boosters as well
World Cup Fantasy Teams – the FFGeek First Draft Team
A Few Links
Follow FFGeek on twitter and Blue Sky for article updates and news.
Here’s the link to Play
https://play.fifa.com/fantasy/team
FFGeek League Code/Link
Code: F1MUQOX4
Link: https://play.fifa.com/fantasy/join-league/F1MUQOX4
World Cup 2026 FFGeek Slack Channel
Scrool down to the channel World Cup Fantasy 2026
https://join.slack.com/t/fantasyfootballgeek/shared_invite/zt-3n72s5gzm-tid7IiwcDVtE7hkCVENf3g
Read the FFGeek article regarding the rules
The Team
Warning this is a very long article
I’m going to start with the team and then talk about methodology for selection and then about strategy with the boosters particularly
I know that seems the wrong way round but you will see the sense of it when you see the team
Here is the first draft
A few things that probably hit you in the face with the team
BTW I don’t play UCL fantasy which I believe this game is similar to so yell in the comments if you do and I’ve got something wrong
If you’re unfamiliar with the rules the team graphic above will be a bit of a shock if you’re used to FPL
Strategy wise I have fixed on playing my Wildcard in round 3 where there will probably be alot of rotation with most of the leading sides already through. As the next round, called the Round of 32, allows an effective wildcard Rd 3 effectively becomes a Free Hit as we’d say in FPL. Therefore my team selections are based on Round 1 and 2 only.
You can change captains between each game if you think someone else will do better and continue doing that if you so wish throughout the round. There seems to be some opinion that you should hold out for at least 8 points but that’s obviously subjective and depends on your risk appetite. As Rangel plays on the first day of the Round then he makes sense to start as captain
This leads on to the 2nd glaring point of the subs bench. I’ve put the players who play in the round on the last days on the bench as you can then have the option to bring them on manually or not. Assuming you do it manually rather than let the site do it then I don’t think the bench order matters?
Given that I don’t really understand the role of the vice captain. I’ve just put it on Mbappe but there was no deep thinking involved
The process of picking players
There was a different process for Midfielders and Forwards (attackers) and Defenders and Goalkeepers
Firstly it’s important to say that I don’t watch any other leagues than the Premier League apart from the Champions League and French Football highlights on you tube. I was a big fan of Cherki at Lyon. Maybe my FPL downfall!
That means that I decided that everything had to be based on Bookmaker odds with a bit of added nuance through additional research.
Forwards and Midfielders
The initial player selection process
There are no anytime goalscorer or assist odds. They will only be available shortly before each match I imagine so hopeless from a helping point of view as your team will be fixed on the 11 June with round 1 going through to the 18th
So I put together the teams with the best to win odds for the first 2 rounds and then picked attacking players from that by looking for the top goalscorer for the tournament odds to establish who the best attacking players were from that team.
I then checked their starting prospects from looking at 3 different lineup prediction sites.
What I haven’t done is look through the country and club scoring and assist records on an individual basis. I may do this in good time but not as of yet. I also haven’t tried to research the penalty takers and set piece takers. Again this may happen but it will be baked into the bookmaker odds anyway.
I’ve also not tried to integrate the other scoring points methods. These are goal from direct free kick, scouting bonus, tackles and chances created or the differential 5% ownership bonus as of yet
Defenders and Goalkeepers
These have been purely done on the best clean sheet odds for Round 1 and 2 and then picking the best player based on gametime security, price and some basic research on attacking potential. A much simpler process than the attackers
Team selection discussion
Goalkeepers
I did think of just putting Spain’s Simon in and then the cheapest backup possible and is it seems hard to believe against Cape Verde and Saudi Arabia they will concede. Although that’s what Argentina may have thought last World Cup.
In the end I went for 2 teams in Mexico and Switzerland with 3 of their 4 games having better than 50% clean sheet odds so Rangel and Kobel it is. Rangel plays opening night on the 11th and Kobel the 13th
Defenders
Again I went for the best clean sheet odds selections.
Cucurella was my Spain choice
Kounde seemed to be the best attacking option for France
Munoz was an easy Colombia selection surprisingly with very little premium price attached
Germany I went for Kimmich as he is supposed to take a decent amount of set pieces and inverts into midfield in possession. I also read somewhere he took penalties but can’t verify that.
With Brazil I obviously wanted Gabriel but got priced out when everyone was added up. Wesley seems the best of the 2 £4.5m Fullbacks
Midfielders
Not so straightforward
The only easy one was Bruno Fernandes
The rest weren’t so easy
I’m a huge fan of Doue. The guy is one of my favourite players due to his box of tricks which some would say he over uses but I would have gone for Dembele every day. That $2.5m price difference is hard to bridge though without a big rethink. It seems Dembele will be fit although the UCL final will be instructive
I think Wirtz is an absolute joke waste of money in the PL and if any player says how Liverpool said goodbye to heavy metal football it’s him. However his tournament scoring odds were up there and he must have decent chance creating odds to so I’m willing to ignore my eyes for the moment
Lamine Yamal would have been one of the first names in my team but he is an injury doubt. I definitely wanted another Spanish attacker and the choice has come down to Olmo or Williams as Ferran is classified as a fwd. Williams seems more certain from the lineup prediction sheets but less effective than Olmo. So Williams it is for the moment. Treat this one as a placeholder
Charles De Ketelaere was last man standing and was fit in as the best I could find for the funds left.
Forwards
Not sure much needed as an explanation on Mbappe
As the seemingly nailed CF for Spain Mikel Oyarzabal was a no brainer given the fixtures
Last was Harry Kane. I’m not wild on England’s first match against Croatia who are ranked 11th in the world but he’s 2nd favourite for top scorer and also you can’t deny his Bayern season. Plus he will be highly owned although I’m going to ignore that for this tournament. He costs alot though and could be the sacrifice for Yamal. We’ll see
A word around the 5% threshold 2 points extra
I can see the value in defenders as assuming your priority is Clean Sheets then with only a goal being the additional points then the 2 points makes alot of sense. At the moment Rangel and Wesley are the only 2 under 5% so I may review some of the selections close to the deadline
In attack I’ve got Doue, Williams and De Ketelaere under 5%. It’s not a consideration at all for me. I’ve explained the why with these players. With attacking players as unless you get a huge number of tackles, Chances created or shots on target or a mix of them then you’re not going to get it anyway
The Boosters
I’m not going to explain them again, this article is long enough, but here’s some initial thoughts. See my rules article linked above if you need to
Wildcard
As said above Round 3 is the current thinking
12th man
I’m not sure. Maybe Yamal in Rd 2 vs Saudi if he returns? If I don’t start with Kane maybe him in round 2 v Ghana?
Maximum captain
I can’t decide if this is left to say the semi or final when it’s harder to pick the right captain and therefore the difference could be significant. Earlier on the scores are big and you automatically get the biggest captain under the chip but the difference may not be as significant unless you totally mess up the choice. Tricky. May listen to various other arguments
Qualification booster
Not available to after the round of 32 so parking it
Mystery Booster
TBC
Right hope you stuck to the end . There will be more articles so stay tuned
