#2 Gylfi Sigurdsson (Iceland)
Fresh off the high of their remarkable quarter-final finish in the Euros 2016, the Icelanders will be hoping to fulfill the same expectations going into the World Cup. Going into the group stages as the smallest nation, they will look to their talisman and midfield general, Gylfi Sigurdsson, who scored 4 times and bagged 4 assists in 10 games in their qualification road to Russia.
After a rather lackluster performance with Everton in the 2017-18 Premier League season following a staggering 50 million move from Swansea, where he was expected to carry the Evertonians to the top 8 of the League, Sigurdsson will be expected to carry the weight of an entire nation when they begin their pursuit of the World Cup against Argentina.