Nico Elvedi

Nico Elvedi has been one of European football's most quietly consistent centre-backs for a decade, spending his entire senior club career at Borussia Mönchengladbach where his aerial dominance, positional discipline, and left-footed build-up play have made him a fixture in the Bundesliga. For Switzerland, he forms a reliable partnership alongside Manuel Akanji, offering physicality and experience in a national team that defends with collective organisation. Now 29, he is at the peak of his powers and brings the kind of unfussy, dependable defending that tournament football demands — rarely spectacular, almost never caught out.