| Updated: With only a handful of club fixtures left across Europe before attention shifts fully to the 2026 World Cup, the conversation is no longer just about form, trophies, and final league positions. It is also about fatigue. After a season stretched across domestic, European, and international commitments, some players are approaching the tournament with far more football already in their legs than others.
That is what led Sportingpedia to analyse the 15 most heavily used footballers of the 2025/26 season, focusing on total appearances and total minutes played across club and international matches. The aim was to identify which players have carried the heaviest load in the final stretch of the campaign, and which national teams could therefore be bringing especially tired key figures into the World Cup.
One of the clearest revelations is that Virgil van Dijk tops both rankings, leading the way with 61 total matches and 5,445 minutes for Liverpool and the Netherlands. Another striking pattern is that 10 of the 15 players in the study represent countries that have qualified for the 2026 World Cup, meaning two thirds of the most used footballers in the dataset are still on course for another major summer burden.
Footballers from Europe’s top leagues with the most matches for club & country in 2025/26
| Player | Club | Country | Total Matches in 2025/26 | Club Matches | International Matches | Minutes Played | Qualified for 2026 World Cup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virgil van Dijk | Liverpool | Netherlands | 61 | 53 | 8 | 5,445 | |
| Morgan Rogers | Aston Villa | England | 60 | 53 | 7 | 5,173 | |
| Martin Zubimendi | Arsenal | Spain | 60 | 54 | 6 | 5,242 | |
| Nick Woltemade | Newcastle | Germany | 60 | 52 | 8 | 5,267 | |
| Neco Williams | Nottingham Forest | Wales | 59 | 51 | 8 | 5,277 | |
| Dominik Szoboszlai | Liverpool | Hungary | 59 | 51 | 8 | 5,307 | |
| Sandro Tonali | Newcastle | Italy | 59 | 52 | 7 | 5,319 | |
| Alexis Mac Allister | Liverpool | Argentina | 59 | 53 | 6 | 5,176 | |
| Vangelis Pavlidis | Benfica | Greece | 59 | 52 | 7 | 5,149 | |
| Declan Rice | Arsenal | England | 59 | 53 | 6 | 5,175 | |
| Alexander Sorloth | Atletico Madrid | Norway | 59 | 52 | 7 | 5,149 | |
| Victor Froholdt | Porto | Denmark | 58 | 50 | 8 | 5,006 | |
| Francisco Trincao | Sporting | Portugal | 58 | 52 | 6 | 4,858 | |
| Viktor Gyokeres | Arsenal | Sweden | 58 | 52 | 6 | 5,220 | |
| Cody Gakpo | Liverpool | Netherlands | 58 | 50 | 8 | 5,150 |
Data Source: Transfermarkt
The data is accurate as of 13 May 2026
Virgil van Dijk stands alone at the top of the appearances ranking with 61 matches across club and country. He is followed by Morgan Rogers, Martin Zubimendi and Nick Woltemade, all on 60, while seven more players sit immediately behind on 59. That leaves the upper end of the table tightly packed, with barely any separation between first and 11th.
The shape of the list says a lot about how workload now builds in the final stretch of a World Cup season. No player has broken away into the kind of extreme 70-match territory that usually dominates this kind of conversation, yet the burden is spread across a larger group. All 15 footballers in the study have already reached at least 58 total appearances, and every one of them has combined a club schedule of at least 50 matches with six or more international outings.
That mix is especially clear in the cases of van Dijk, Nick Woltemade, Neco Williams, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Victor Froholdt, all of whom have already made eight international appearances on top of 50-plus club matches. Martin Zubimendi, Alexis Mac Allister, Declan Rice, Francisco Trincao, and Viktor Gyokeres have played slightly fewer internationals, six each, but still remain among the season’s most exposed players because of the sheer volume of club football stacked around them.
When minutes are examined, van Dijk still leads the way, logging 5,445. Sandro Tonali is next on 5,319, just ahead of Szoboszlai on 5,307 and Neco Williams on 5,277. Woltemade follows on 5,267, while Zubimendi reaches 5,242 and Gyokeres 5,220. That means seven footballers have already crossed the 5,200-minute mark this season.
The rest of the top 10 remains tightly grouped. Alexis Mac Allister has played 5,176 minutes, Declan Rice 5,175, and Morgan Rogers 5,173. Cody Gakpo and both Vangelis Pavlidis and Alexander Sorloth sit just above or on the 5,149 line, while Victor Froholdt has already reached 5,006. Only Trincao falls below the 5,000-minute mark in the top 15, though he has still logged 4,858.
This is where the World Cup angle becomes sharper. Of the 15 most used footballers in the study, 10 still have the tournament ahead of them. Together, those 10 qualified players have already accumulated 592 matches and 51,855 minutes across club and international football, meaning the majority of the heaviest workloads in the dataset are not ending with the club season. They are carried straight into the summer.
At the same time, the balance inside the ranking is not completely one-sided. Five of the 15 most used footballers, Neco Williams, Szoboszlai, Tonali, Pavlidis, and Froholdt, represent countries that did not qualify. That means some of the season’s most stretched players will at least avoid the extra burden of another month-long tournament. The contrast is especially striking near the very top of the minutes table, where Tonali, Szoboszlai, and Neco Williams all rank directly behind van Dijk but will not be going to the World Cup.
The club picture is led by Liverpool. Van Dijk, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister, and Gakpo all appear in the top 15, giving the club more representatives than anyone else in the study. Arsenal follow with three, Zubimendi, Rice, and Gyokeres, while Newcastle place two through Woltemade and Tonali. Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, Benfica, Atletico Madrid, Porto, and Sporting contribute one each.
That means 11 of the 15 most used players in the dataset come from Premier League clubs. Liverpool, Arsenal, Newcastle, Aston Villa, and Nottingham Forest account for the overwhelming majority of the names, which points to how heavily English clubs are leaning on a small number of footballers across domestic, European, and international commitments.
The nationality picture is far less concentrated. England and the Netherlands are the only countries with more than one player in the top 15, through Rogers and Rice for England, and van Dijk and Gakpo for the Netherlands. Every other country contributes just one footballer, with Spain, Germany, Wales, Hungary, Italy, Argentina, Greece, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, and Sweden all represented once.
That spread gives the ranking a broad international character, but it also strengthens the World Cup angle. Among the players whose countries have qualified, the list includes key names for the Netherlands, England, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden. These are not fringe figures arriving after light campaigns. They are among the most used players in the entire season.
What makes the 2025/26 picture so revealing is not just the size of the workload, but where it is heading next. The most used footballers this season are not simply finishing a long campaign. Many of them are moving directly from one of the busiest seasons of their careers into the biggest tournament in the sport. And with Premier League clubs so heavily represented near the top of the list, England’s domestic calendar looks more than ever like the main pressure point in the run-up to the 2026 World Cup.