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There is no shortage of elite right-wingers in top-level football, but on the left side the options are far thinner. So why is that the case?

Arguably the best player in the world at present is Barcelona’s right-winger. You could also make the case that the right-wingers at Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and — until this summer — Liverpool are all stronger than the left-sided options at those clubs.

If you go through the list of the world’s most valuable players on Transfermarkt, the right side is packed with high-end talent: Lamine Yamal leads the way, ahead of Michael Olise, Desire Doue, Bukayo Saka and new Real Madrid arrival Yan Diomande. In fact, Transfermarkt rates the 10 best right-wingers in the world right now at a combined £200 million more than the top 10 left-wingers.

That naturally raises the question of why there is such a gap between two roles that, in theory, ought to mirror each other.

Let’s begin with the fundamentals. Most left-wingers are right-footed attackers who like to cut inside on to their stronger foot and drive towards goal. That has been a defining trend ever since figures such as Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho helped reshape the game in the 2000s, but it also owes plenty to players such as Thierry Henry, who helped popularise the idea that an attacker operating in the opposite half-space to his stronger foot has more of the goal to shoot at.
Estimates of the number of left-footed players vary wildly, from 10 to 25 per cent, which means the overwhelming majority of footballers naturally favour their right foot. On that basis, you might assume there should actually be more top-class left-wingers than right-wingers.
But it is not quite that straightforward. Think about the numbers.
Imagine you are coaching an academy side with five young attackers, all of whom can carry the ball, beat a man, spot a pass and strike the ball cleanly. Statistically, only one of them is likely to be left-footed. It therefore makes perfect sense to use that left-footer on the right wing, because he offers something the others do not: the ability to cut inside on his natural foot.
That leaves the right-footers to develop elsewhere. If Eden Hazard, Neymar, Jamal Musiala or Florian Wirtz had been left-footed, they would probably have spent most of their early years playing on the right wing. Instead, because they are right-footed, they have all played plenty of football as No.10s. Even a more physically dominant profile such as Jude Bellingham might have been developed as a right-winger had his stronger foot been his left.

By the time a left-footed attacker reaches senior football, he has probably spent most of his formative years moving through the right-wing pipeline. He understands that role better than almost anyone else on the pitch. But after spending his whole life with the touchline over his right shoulder, he may not have the same 360-degree awareness that a right-footed player can build by being used in several attacking roles during development.
It feels odd, for instance, to picture someone like Arjen Robben or Mohamed Salah regularly playing through the middle. Yet Alexander Isak and Marcus Rashford share a number of similar qualities — pace, movement and finishing — while also having played as centre-forwards far more often than the former two. Their preferred foot is part of the reason why.
There is also a wider perception around left-footed players. They are often assumed to be naturally more creative, and to some people they simply appear more elegant on the eye. That almost certainly has something to do with the fact that they are seen less often. There is also an argument that left-footed right-wingers grow up in a right-footed world, and therefore have to discover solutions that right-footers never need to find.

Then there is the excitement among coaches and youth developers of uncovering ‘the next Lionel Messi’. If an academy has a gifted left-footed attacker — whether that is Martin Odegaard or Ryan Gauld — there is usually a strong push to create a pathway for him, because that profile is viewed as one of the most valuable assets in the sport.
The Barcelona team that gave Messi the platform to flourish has had such a huge influence that dribbling midfielders and ball-playing centre-backs have been prioritised in youth football over the past decade, often at the expense of several other positions. The classic playmaker role has gradually faded, with chance creation now more commonly driven by a high press. Box-to-box midfielders have become less common too, as clubs increasingly search for specialists.
And specialist right-footed left-wingers have often ended up moving either into central midfield or up front, depending on their physical profile and finishing ability. Players such as Morgan Rogers and Junior Kroupi now tend to operate behind a No.9 rather than staying directly on the left.

Partly because of that Barcelona influence, the modern game now has more midfield-type profiles than teams know what to do with. A top-level midfielder with enough intensity can now even be used at right-back — just ask Arne Slot last season or Declan Rice during the World Cup — whether the role involves inverting into midfield or overlapping on the outside.
To return to the numbers again, think about how many left-footed right-backs you have seen compared with right-footed ones. If fewer than 25 per cent of players are truly left-footed, there is a strong chance that the average youth side does not even have a single left-footer in its back four.
And if this imaginary team does have a left-footed left-back who can give proper support to the left-winger in front of him, the chances of that player also being a high-level defender are relatively low. Besides, even left-backs who have been world-class going forward and merely decent defensively — Bukayo Saka, Gareth Bale and even Alphonso Davies for Canada — have usually been pushed further up the pitch. Left-back is often treated as one of the last priorities for a manager, despite the huge lift that world-class full-backs can give to an XI.

Coaches are simply selecting from a much deeper pool when it comes to right-backs, and that is reflected in the shortage of genuinely world-class left-backs at the highest level. In English football alone, Gareth Southgate’s golden generation was defined by the extraordinary strength it had at right-back, with Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Reece James all competing for a place. At left-back, the position was Luke Shaw’s if he was fit; Ben Chilwell’s if he could make a convincing claim; and by the end, even Trippier’s.
But the game has changed a great deal, and many teams no longer attack with Roberto Carlos-style full-backs. Part of that is down to the greater physical demands of the modern game, which ask more of players athletically, but tactical changes matter too. Teams now prefer to invert their full-backs or keep them deeper to help build play. Wingers are expected to provide more of the width themselves. Even players such as Riccardo Calafiori and Nico O’Reilly — who genuinely are attack-minded, left-footed left-backs — are not always there to support the left-winger. Quite often, the left-winger is the one holding the width so that they can attack the box.
And that brings us directly to the left-wingers who are thriving in the modern game, and the support structure behind them.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Bradley Barcola are fortunate enough to play with Nuno Mendes, who is arguably the best left-back in the world. Vinicius Junior’s finest football at Real Madrid arguably came alongside Ferland Mendy. Sadio Mane and Luis Diaz both looked at their best with Andrew Robertson behind them. Raphinha and Marcus Rashford both benefited from Alejandro Balde, Rafael Leao was world-class with Theo Hernandez alongside him, and Kingsley Coman produced his best form with Alphonso Davies behind him. Cristiano Ronaldo had Marcelo, Hazard had Cesar Azpilicueta, Neymar had Jordi Alba, and Franck Ribery had David Alaba. You can go back further to Ronaldinho and Carlos, or Henry and Ashley Cole.
Jeremy Doku has shown flashes of brilliance, and both Phil Foden and Leroy Sane were left-footed left-wingers who held the width, but the right-wingers always seemed to stand out more in Guardiola’s Manchester City teams. Arsenal have had consistency at right-back through Ben White and then Jurrien Timber, while the left side has been more of a problem area. Arguably their last world-class left-wing option, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, had Kieran Tierney behind him, while even Saka and Sead Kolasinac provided a reliable overlap. Even Matt Targett and Ben Davies were solid Premier League-level full-backs who could offer a service for Jack Grealish and Son Heung-min respectively. There are simply fewer of those adventurous left-backs around now.
That is not to say any of those left-wingers would not have succeeded without a supportive left-back behind them. But it does feel as though the current generation of left-wingers are already working from a disadvantage compared with those who came before them, given how dramatically the standard and profile of the left-back role has shifted over the past decade.
And there is also the most obvious point of all: if elite left-backs are so scarce, it is hardly surprising that the average right-winger appears stronger. The average left-winger is facing a right-back who, statistically speaking, has had to come through much tougher competition.
If Paris Saint-Germain value Barcola at more than €100m, there is a very good reason. If Arsenal choose not to chase an alternative to Vinicius Jr, it may simply be because there are so few genuine game-changers in that role anywhere in world football. If Nico Williams becomes a nine-figure transfer, that may reflect just how few players of his generation are operating at his level. If Juventus ask for more for Kenan Yildiz than RB Leipzig did for Diomande, it is not only about talent; it is about scarcity. And perhaps, in a roundabout way, the cheapest route to signing a world-class left-winger is actually to sign a left-back who can raise the level of the one you already have.
Because, strangely enough, world-class left-wingers have almost become a rarer and more precious profile than the Palmers and Sakas on the opposite flank — despite everything suggesting otherwise. So does football now need to evolve again to produce more superstar left-wingers?