The 10 Best Blue Lock Players, Ranked

Ranking Blue Lock is trickier than ranking most casts, because the series spends its whole run arguing that raw ability is worth nothing on its own: a weapon only counts when it fires in the right space, at the right second, against someone who cannot stop it. So this top 10 weighs the weapon, how well each player reads a match, and what they produced when the scoreline mattered. Positions are in the table, and manga-only developments are flagged.

The 10 best Blue Lock players at a glance

#	Player	Position	Signature weapon	Why they rank here
1	Sae Itoshi	Midfielder	Passing range and tempo control	Japan's New Generation World 11 pick
2	Rin Itoshi	Centre forward	Every striker skill at elite level	Blue Lock's number one ranked player
3	Yoichi Isagi	Forward	Metavision plus the Direct Shot	Level with Rin on valuation
4	Michael Kaiser	Forward	Kaiser Impact, in three variants	The cleanest finisher in the series
5	Ryusei Shidou	Forward	Drive shots from any posture	Two goals off the bench against Blue Lock
6	Seishiro Nagi	Forward	A first touch nobody matches	Enormous talent, punished for coasting
7	Shoei Barou	Centre forward	Goal theft and raw physicality	Rebuilt himself as Isagi's villain
8	Meguru Bachira	Forward	Close-control dribbling	Unplayable in tight spaces
9	Rensuke Kunigami	Forward	Shot power	Came back from the Wild Card harder
10	Hyoma Chigiri	Winger	Top-end sprint speed	The weapon defenders cannot solve

How we ranked this top 10

Three filters, in order. A skill that fires in one situation only scores below one that threatens every defence. Football intelligence comes next, because Blue Lock rewards players who can rebuild a plan mid-move. Then output: goals and assists in the U-20 exhibition and the Neo Egoist League, not training-ground highlights.

We have kept this to the U-20 generation, the players the story measures against each other; senior professionals get their own tier below. Club names crop up throughout: the Neo Egoist League parks five European sides inside Blue Lock, Bastard Munchen (Germany), Manshine City (England), FC Barcha (Spain), Ubers (Italy) and Paris X Gen (France), each player picking one to train under. For positions, heights and the full supporting cast, our Blue Lock characters guide has the lot. Among sports anime, this is the rare one where the power-scaling instinct of a battle shonen applies.

Spoiler warning: the entries below cover the whole U-20 arc (animated) and the Neo Egoist League, which is manga only so far and marked again where it matters.

1. Sae Itoshi: the benchmark everyone else is measured against

Sae is the only player in this generation who already looks finished. He is the highest ranked member of Japan's U-20 squad and Japan's name in the New Generation World 11, the eleven U-20 players officially rated the world's best, and his weapon is the least flashy here: he decides how fast a match is played and where the ball arrives. His standing shows in the condition he set for facing Blue Lock: he would only join the U-20 team if Ryusei Shidou came too. He left Japan meaning to become the world's best striker; four years in Re Al's youth set-up convinced him he never would, so he rebuilt himself as a midfielder, and that choice is the wound the whole Itoshi story rests on.

2. Rin Itoshi: the most complete striker Blue Lock has made

Rin holds the number one ranking inside the programme, and the description the series keeps returning to is telling: his skill set is Isagi's, simply honed further. He scans, controls tempo and shoots accurately from range, all while treating everyone else as scenery. His best moment is also his most human: setting up the winner against Japan U-20, then stepping out of Sae's shadow and naming Isagi his rival by the end of the season.

3. Yoichi Isagi: the ceiling that keeps moving

Ego picked Isagi personally despite his school side failing to reach nationals, and he started among the weakest of the 300. What he has instead of athleticism is field vision, later named Metavision: constant central and peripheral scanning until the whole pitch exists as a model in his head, paired with a Direct Shot that punishes any half-second of space. He scored the decisive goal against Japan U-20 from Rin's pass, and by the end of the Neo Egoist League he and Rin sit level at the top of the programme's valuations. He is third only because the two above him arrived first.

4. Michael Kaiser: the cleanest finisher in the series

Kaiser is a German forward, Bastard Munchen's core player and another New Generation World 11 pick, and he becomes Isagi's main rival once the Neo Egoist League starts. The Kaiser Impact comes in three flavours: Beinschuss (a bicycle kick), Blitzkrieg (an accelerating strike) and Magnus (a curving shot), with Predator Eye to find the position that makes them lethal. The story insists he is not a natural: his edge is adaptability, tactical intelligence and drilled technique, which is why the emperor act reads as cover. Manga only: his league form earns a 320 million yen transfer offer from Re Al, the Spanish club Sae Itoshi plays for.

5. Ryusei Shidou: the best instincts, the worst impulse control

Shidou worships Sae, despises Rin, and joined the U-20 squad only because Sae made it a condition. Then he came off the bench in the second half and scored twice, the only player in the match to manage two. His Drive Shot fires from postures that should not produce a shot at all, and the same bicycle kick clears his own box or finishes in the opposition's. He ranks fifth because his decision-making collapses the moment a match asks him to think ahead rather than react.

6. Seishiro Nagi: the prodigy the story punished

Reo Mikage dragged Nagi into competitive football, and he promptly led Team V to near-flawless wins until Team Z beat them. He made the programme's top six, captained Team C, and scored the opening goal for Blue Lock XI against Japan U-20. His first touch is still arguably the best in the cast: he kills any pass dead and is facing goal before a defender resets. Manga only: in the Neo Egoist League his partnership with Reo at Manshine City became readable, he finished 24th, one place outside the 23 who make Japan's U-20 World Cup squad, and he was cut. Talent this big at sixth is the series making its point.

7. Shoei Barou: the king who took a supporting role

Barou survived the First Selection alone out of Team X, purely on goals, while refusing to pass on principle. Losing to Isagi and Nagi in the Second Selection should have broken him. Instead he became Isagi's self-appointed villain, the striker who arrives at the end of someone else's move and steals the goal, which is far more dangerous than the ball-hogging king he started as. He came on for Otoya against U-20 Japan and scored, then started for Ubers and made the U-20 World Cup squad.

8. Meguru Bachira: the dribbler who decided a league

Bachira beats people in phone-box spaces where nobody else in the cast even tries, guided by the imaginary "monster" born from a childhood nobody understood. His limit is real: dribbling alone stops working once the defenders are professionals, and his spell at FC Barcha forces him to build around it. Manga only: he reads Nagi's pass in the decisive Barcha match and scores the goal that knocks Nagi out of Blue Lock. Eighth looks harsh for a player who drew one of the league's biggest bids, but everyone above him bends a match alone, and Bachira still needs someone to bend it with.

9. Rensuke Kunigami: the hero who came back colder

Kunigami arrived as a self-described football superhero: fair play, enormous shot power, the older-brother figure every dressing room wants. Then he lost to Shidou and Igaguri, went out in the Second Selection, and came back through the Wild Card programme withdrawn and noticeably colder. It is the most uncomfortable turn in the series, because nobody pretends the trade was painless. He starts for Bastard Munchen now, and his shot is the bluntest instrument here.

10. Hyoma Chigiri: pure pace, finally trusted

Speed is the most binary weapon in football and Chigiri has the most of it, yet he sits tenth because he spent so long refusing to use it. An ACL injury nearly ended his career, and he played within himself until Team Z's match against Team W forced him to commit. Once he does, defenders are not beaten so much as left behind, and his technical dribbling means the run ends in something. He now starts on the left wing for Manshine City.

The players who just missed the cut

Reo Mikage copies almost any technique he sees, hitting 99 per cent fidelity during the U-20 exhibition, which makes him the most useful teammate in the story and, by design, nobody's best player. Oliver Aiku captains Japan's U-20 side and is the only elite defender the series develops properly, a forward who moved to centre-back and now reads attacks from the inside. Gin Gagamaru is the oddest success story here, a striker turned goalkeeper who loads his body like a spring, first for Blue Lock XI and then for Bastard Munchen. Ikki Niko is the quiet one: centre-back for Blue Lock XI, defensive midfielder for Ubers, 15th in the final rankings and safely inside the 23.

The professionals Blue Lock measures itself against

Noel Noa is the current number one player in the world and Bastard Munchen's Master Striker, and he co-designed the programme with Jinpachi Ego, which makes him the measuring stick rather than a competitor. Julian Loki is the youngest Master Striker, 17 and already at Paris X Gen, whose "Godspeed" covers ground that should not be coverable. Leonardo Luna, the Scion of Re Al, arrives with Team World 5 to grade the last group of Blue Lock players rather than beat them. They sit outside the list: ranking professionals against teenagers tells you nothing.

How far the anime has taken this ranking

Everything up to and including the U-20 exhibition is animated. Eight Bit's first season ran 24 episodes from October 2022 to March 2023, the Episode Nagi film arrived in April 2024, and season 2, subtitled vs. U-20 Japan, ran 14 episodes from 5 October to 28 December 2024, adapting volumes 13-17 and closing with Isagi's late winner and Ego calling Phase 1 complete. Season 3, subtitled Neo Egoist League, was announced in September 2025 and got its title and key visual in June 2026; it covers chapters 152-302, which is every manga-only development flagged above. As of late September 2026 the official site still listed it as in production with no broadcast date, so treat the October dates circulating on social media as guesswork. A live-action film opened in Japan on 7 August 2026, and the manga reached chapter 360 in September, deep into the U-20 World Cup arc that began at chapter 303.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is the best player in Blue Lock?

Sae Itoshi is the most complete footballer in the series: the highest ranked player in Japan's U-20 squad and Japan's pick in the New Generation World 11. Inside the programme, Rin Itoshi holds the number one ranking, with Yoichi Isagi now valued alongside him.

Is Isagi stronger than Rin now?

They are effectively level. Rin is still described as having Isagi's skill set honed further, but by the end of the Neo Egoist League the two sit joint top of the programme's valuations, the clearest measure the series gives you.

Who is the fastest player in Blue Lock?

Hyoma Chigiri, who plays left wing for Manshine City. His explosive acceleration is the fastest thing in the cast, and defences have no answer to it once he stops holding back over his old ACL injury.

What positions do the Blue Lock players play?

Almost everyone in the programme is a forward, since Blue Lock only recruits strikers. The exceptions matter: Gin Gagamaru was converted into a goalkeeper, Oliver Aiku is a centre-back who captains Japan U-20, and Sae Itoshi is a midfielder at Spain's Re Al. Ikki Niko has played both centre-back and defensive midfield. Our Blue Lock characters guide lists every position and height.

Does the anime cover the Neo Egoist League?

Not yet. Season 2, subtitled vs. U-20 Japan, ran for 14 episodes from 5 October to 28 December 2024 and adapted volumes 13-17 of the manga, stopping at the end of the U-20 exhibition. Season 3, subtitled Neo Egoist League, was announced in September 2025 and will adapt chapters 152-302, but as of late September 2026 the official site still listed it as in production with no broadcast date.

What happened to Nagi in the manga?

In the Neo Egoist League, Nagi's play at Manshine City became predictable alongside Reo Mikage, Bachira intercepted one of his passes to settle the decisive match, and he finished 24th in the final rankings. Only the top 23 make Japan's U-20 World Cup squad, so he was cut. None of this has been animated yet.