Ranking the 15 best defenders in world football right now

A strong defender is important to any successful football team. Sorting out the back line is crucial and having some serious talent within it is a surefire way to build a strong team destined for silverware. A lot of focus is placed on attacking players, which is why any list of the best footballers in the world will always be dominated by that type of star.

That's not really fair, though, so we've decided to highlight the 15 best defenders in the world right now and give them their flowers. These men are top-notch at what they do and there is no one better than them at the time of writing. Given that trying to separate those on the list is such a difficult task, a number of factors will be taken into consideration as to where they end up in the rankings. These include: teams they play for, trophies won and how important they have been to their club's success.

Even as hard as we have tried, there are some incredible names that just missed out on the top 15, so here are a couple of honourable mentions before we kick things off. Milan's Theo Hernandez has been a consistent performer for the Serie A giants over the years, and has been one of European football's most electric full-backs going forward, scoring 27 goals and providing 33 assists in just 192 games as per Transfermarkt. That's not to mention the Frenchman captains the Rossoneri on occasion too.

As well as Hernandez, PSG's Marquinhos can count himself unlucky not to make it into the top 15 either. The Brazilian has emerged as Thiago Silva's successor at the Parc des Princes and is a perennial Ligue 1 winner, doing his utmost to quench the thirst of a demanding Parisien crowd. But now, having tipped our hat to the duo, here's GIVEMESPORT's list of the 15 best defenders in the world right now.