I don’t think you can seriously look at the player outright markets for the World Cup without considering Harry Kane.

He’s coming off his best ever scoring season (64 goals in 56 appearances) at the age of 32, which is also likely to mean that this is his final World Cup with England as the main striker.

His record for England speaks for itself, with 79 goals across just 113 caps, comfortably England's all time top goalscorer.

It’s no exaggeration to say that England’s chances of going deep at the World Cup heavily hinge on the form and fitness of Kane. He’s very clearly the biggest goal threat that the Three Lions have to offer, and the drop off in quality when he’s not available, with respect to the understudies, is stark.

Kane will be central to any success that England have at this tournament. There is a slight chance that his goalscoring clouds his chances of winning the Golden Ball - but Kane’s game has developed significantly over the last few years at Bayern Munich to the point where he’s much more than a goalscorer.

Thomas Tuchel appreciates this side of Kane’s game and will allow him to drop into deeper pockets where he can impact the game by picking out runners such as Anthony Gordon, Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke and Marcus Rashford.

Bruno Fernandes has serious momentum coming into this World Cup, having just been crowned Premier League Player of the Year for a stellar individual campaign in which he broke the long-standing assist record in a single season in the Premier League (21).

It’s always worth keeping an eye on the players who claim individual accolades from the regular season; they will have real confidence to perform on such a big stage, and Fernandes has already spoken about his desire to win the World Cup in recent interviews - this is likely to be his last shot as a significant member of the squad.

Portugal have a great team overall, and Fernandes should be central to their success when looking at his international record over the last few seasons. He’s registered 28 goals and 27 assists across his 87 caps for Portugal overall, working out to a goal contribution average of 0.59 per game, which is a stellar record for the international stage.

Fernandes is built to register goal contributions, and should be in charge of many of the set piece situations that Portugal get at the World Cup. His consistency when it comes to impacting the game is quite rare in international football, and he’s at the perfect point in his career to enjoy a brilliant campaign and assist Portugal on their way to World Cup glory.

Spain are the favourites to win the World Cup this summer, which isn’t surprising given their dominance on the international stage since Luis de la Fuente took over as head coach, culminating in Spain winning the 2024 European Championship after winning the Nations League.

Pedri is the best all round central midfielder in world football. He’s enjoyed another standout season for Barcelona, notably racking up more assists than he ever has before (12), suggesting that he’s starting to add end product to his already formidable set of skills.

As Pedri is the heartbeat of this Spain side, any success that the European Champions have will certainly involve the Barcelona midfielder. The addition of end product to his game makes him more likely to stand out in a pretty stacked Spanish side, and with Lamine Yamal currently sitting as the favourite for Young Player of the Tournament, it’s incredibly likely that the Golden Ball goes to someone else in the Spain setup if they do have a successful tournament. Yamal is also an injury doubt, so the importance of Pedri's role will be accentuated further.