The ranking puts Lionel Messi in first place. The list, shared by beIN Sports and attributed to an analysis by the CIES Observatory, features ten forwards who cover the least ground in the defensive phase: when their teams do not have the ball.
Messi is listed at X0.70; Artem Dzyuba and Cristiano Ronaldo share X0.74. The list also includes Kylian Mbappé (X0.77) and Victor Osimhen (X0.79). According to the graphic’s explanation, the figure compares how far each player covers with their team’s average; the lower the value, the smaller their defensive contribution.
The curious fact comes from Qatar 2022: Messi covered the most distance walking of all the players in the tournament, at more than 30 kilometers. The ranking looks at his movements while defending; that record counts the kilometers he covered at a slow pace.