MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. Players of the Russian national football team Denis Cheryshev and Alexander Golovin entered the list of Top-100 world’s best footballers in 2018, according to the new edition of Spanish national sports daily Marca.
"The selection criteria takes into account the player's sporting successes, his influence on the achievements of his team and the individual numbers of the players, with special attention paid to the World Cup in Russia," the daily reported.
Cheryshev, who currently plays as a winger for Valencia FC, was placed in 89th position of the list of best footballers of the Marca ratings. The daily reported earlier that Russia’s striker Artyom Dzyuba already secured 97th place on the list.
Playing at the 2018 FIFA World Cup this summer for his home team, 27-year-old Cheryshev scored four goals in five matches, becoming the best striker of the national team at the world championship. The Russian footballer also recorded one goal and two assists playing in 11 matches for Valencia FC this season.
"The World Cup allowed him to impress, scoring four goals in five games for the hosts," according to Marca daily’s report.
Russia’s midfielder Golovin was placed 78th on the list of Marca. He played four matches during the FIFA World Cup at home having scored one goal and chalking up two assists. Following the world championship, the 22-year-old midfielder signed a five-year contract with Monaco FC, where he recorded two assists in 13 matches played.
This summer Russia hosted its first-ever FIFA World Cup, which kicked off in Moscow with a remarkable opening show at Luzhniki Stadium on the evening of June 14 and ended with a spectacular final match, played also at the Luzhniki Stadium, where France confidently defeated Croatia 4-2 to win the much-coveted World Cup Trophy.
Russia selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they were Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.
The national football team of hosts Russia managed to make it to the quarterfinals stage of this world championship, where Croatia edged them out in a 4-3 penalty shootout win on July 7 at the Fisht Arena in Sochi.