# Best XI and Wildcard draft for Round 6

> The strongest starting XI is a 3-5-2 projecting 44.97 xPts, wrapped in a 100.0m legal 15.

By the evmax model · 8 July 2026 · https://evmax.ai/round/6/wildcard/

The strongest starting XI this round is a 3-5-2 projecting 44.97 combined xPts. Built out to a full legal 15 — 2 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders, 3 forwards — for wildcard and rebuild managers, the squad spends 100.0m of a 100.0m budget.

> The bench is deliberately the cheapest legal one available — Gessime Yassine, Redouane Halhal, Mike Penders, Abdelhamid Ait Boudlal are enablers, not picks: their job is to exist within the rules so every spare pound goes into the XI, not to contribute points themselves.

The most expensive picks are Kane (10.5m), Lionel Messi (10.0m), Lamine Yamal (10.0m). The standout value pick is Dayot Upamecano at 0.75 xPts/m (5.3m).

**Bottom line:** Field this 3-5-2 — 44.97 xPts from a 100.0m squad, with 0.0m left in the bank.

## The data

| # | Player | Team | xPts | Price | Captain EV | Ceiling | Owned % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lionel Messi | Argentina | 5.58 | 10.0 | 11.16 | 8.18 | 40.4% |
| 2 | Kane | England | 5.45 | 10.5 | 10.90 | 7.95 | 40.6% |
| 3 | Lamine Yamal | Spain | 4.50 | 10.0 | 9.00 | 8.38 | 39.3% |
| 4 | Dayot Upamecano | France | 3.97 | 5.3 | 7.94 | 3.97 | 4.9% |
| 5 | Dani Olmo | Spain | 3.85 | 7.7 | 7.70 | 8.64 | 1.9% |
| 6 | Bellingham | England | 3.84 | 8.3 | 7.68 | 8.88 | 17.0% |
| 7 | Ousmane Dembele | France | 3.83 | 10.0 | 7.65 | 3.83 | 22.9% |
| 8 | Jules Kounde | France | 3.79 | 5.4 | 7.57 | 3.79 | 6.3% |
| 9 | Pedri | Spain | 3.76 | 8.1 | 7.52 | 3.76 | 7.8% |
| 10 | Aymeric Laporte | Spain | 3.61 | 5.5 | 7.22 | 3.61 | 9.2% |
| 11 | Gregor Kobel | Switzerland | 2.79 | 4.7 | 5.59 | 2.79 | 3.9% |
| 12 | Gessime Yassine | Morocco | 0.66 | 4.0 | 1.33 | 0.66 | 0.2% |
| 13 | Redouane Halhal | Morocco | 0.44 | 3.5 | 0.87 | 0.44 | 2.3% |
| 14 | Mike Penders | Belgium | 0.14 | 3.5 | 0.28 | 0.14 | 0.6% |
| 15 | Abdelhamid Ait Boudlal | Morocco | 0.10 | 3.5 | 0.20 | 0.10 | 0.0% |

---
Method: Market odds (de-vigged) → Dixon-Coles scorelines → 50k Monte-Carlo simulations, scored on the official FIFA World Cup Fantasy points table.
Data license: CC BY 4.0 (attribution: evmax, https://evmax.ai). Machine-readable JSON: https://evmax.ai/api/round/6/wildcard.json