Thiago Almada

Key strength: Cutting inside

Inside forward

Two years after lifting the World Cup in Doha alongside Lionel Messi, Thiago Almada finds himself in football purgatory. The 24-year-old Argentine winger, valued at €21 million, is trapped at crisis-hit Real Oviedo, propping up Spain's Segunda División in 20th place. The numbers tell a story of criminal underutilization: 4 goals and 1 assist across 30 appearances, yet just 1,218 minutes—a meager 40 minutes per match. For a player of his caliber, these scraps are insulting. Almada's 80 rating towers over teammates; the next-best performer, defender David Carmo, languishes 13 points below. His signature inside-forward artistry—cutting from the left to unleash venomous right-footed strikes—remains largely theoretical while Oviedo scrap for survival. The gulf between his elite pedigree and second-tier imprisonment widens weekly. With his 1-star Argentina emblem still over his heart, Almada's quality is impossible to contain indefinitely. The question isn't whether he'll escape this purgatory—it's which club will have the vision to unlock his World Cup-winning brilliance.