Premier League and England star overlooks Mbappe to pick Messi

Bukayo Saka named a dream 5-a-side team with two Brazil stars and Lionel Messi included. The Arsenal star has already played with and against some of the world’s best players in his fledgling career and has picked broadly in his dream side for a kick-about. The young Gunners star looks a certainty to be included in Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the upcoming tournament in Qatar and will be hopeful of writing himself into Three Lions’ folklore.

Ahead of the World Cup, Saka was tasked with naming his dream five-a-side team and predictably picked some of the planet’s best players of all time, whilst also selecting a number of members from Brazil’s iconic 2002 title-winning squad in Japan and South Korea. The Arsenal winger said, “I’ll go R9, CR7, Messi, Iniesta, Ronaldinho.” Portuguese forward Ronaldo and Messi are the only members of Saka’s squad to have never won the World Cup.

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Saka still believes the former played his part in one of the most iconic moments in World Cup history with a memorable treble against Spain four years ago. “A moment that comes to mind is Cristiano Ronaldo against Spain in Russia 2018,” Saka continued. “He got a hat-trick in that game as well, crazy performance!” The Manchester United forward, now 37, is likely to be playing at the final World Cup of his career. 

Business as usual for Saka

He has previously made 17 appearances in finals - a run that stretches back to the 2006 edition in Germany. Ronaldo has netted seven goals in that time and will certainly be hopeful of adding to that record later this month. Whilst he is edging close to the twilight of his career, the same cannot be said of Saka who is embarking on his first World Cup. It will be different to any before with it being played in the winter but the 21-year-old has claimed that he is not approaching it any different.