Brazil legend Roberto Carlos has named Chelsea and Morocco player Hakim Ziyech as the best winger in the 20223 World Cup in Qatar.
Ziyech and Morocco’s history-making World Cup campaign ended on Saturday after their 2-1 defeat to Croatia in the third-place play-off.
However, the 29-year-old helped his country become the first African nation to reach the World Cup semifinals.
His individual performance, in particular, caught a lot of attention, including from footballing icon Carlos.
The former Real Madrid defender picked a few standout players in the tournament.
Carlos named Croatia’s Dominik Livakovic and Argentina’s Nicolas Otamendi as the best goalkeeper and defender of the 2022 World Cup, respectively.
He then mentioned Ziyech as the best winger and France’s Kylian Mbappe as the best forward.
It is very interesting that despite only having one goal and one assist, Carlos considers Ziyech ahead of his compatriots; Neymar and Vinicius Junior, and even France’s Ousmane Dembele.
Considering Morocco’s defensive approach in the tournament, Ziyech often had a hard time showing his full attacking potential.
The former Ajax man only created seven chances, even fewer than his Chelsea teammates Mateo Kovacic and Christian Pulisic (nine each).
But it was pretty clear that Morocco heavily relied on Ziyech as the centre of their attack as well as putting in defensive work further up the pitch.
Keep up to date with all the latest Chelsea news and opinion by following The Chelsea Chronicle’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Receive a digest of our best Chelsea content each week direct to your mailbox
