son heung-min landed at 81st in Fox Sports’ 2026 FIFA World Cup player rankings, one slot ahead of Jeremy Frimpong and Reece James. Kim Min-jae followed at 98th as the outlet released its list for places 100th to 76th on the 8th Korean time.
That leaves two South Korean players inside the top 100 of the preliminary list, with more names still to come above 75th place. For Son and Kim, the first batch places them in the middle of a ranking that will eventually cover 1,248 players across 48 nations at the 2026 tournament.
Son Heung-min at 81st
Son was ranked below Jules Koundé, Christian Pulisic, Arda Güler and Viktor Gyökeres, but ahead of Frimpong and Reece James in the section from 100th to 76th. The LAFC forward’s place at 81st puts him in the lower half of this first release, but still ahead of several established names in the same tier.
Dani Olmo finished as the highest-ranked player in this band. Kaoru Mitoma, the Brighton & Hove Albion winger, came in at 94th, giving the section a second Asian presence alongside Son and Kim.
Kim Min-jae at 98th
Kim, listed as a Bayern Munich player, was placed 98th and sat just ahead of Feris Estupiñán and Alexander Isak. He trailed Bradley Barcola and Lisandro Martínez in the same release, leaving him near the bottom of the opening group of 25 players.
The ranking format matters because the full World Cup field will be trimmed to 26 players per country, and this list is still only the first cut from the 100th spot down to 76th. South Korean attention now shifts to whether other candidates, including Lee Kang-in and Oh Hyeon-gyu, will land higher once the rankings move past 75th place.
For now, the message is simple: Son is inside the top half of the first published block, Kim is in the same top-100 pool, and South Korea already has two players on a list that will keep climbing.
