AnalysisMay 29, 2026 12:12 am EDT Updated After working through the top nine options for goalkeepers and defenders, it’s time for our experts to turn their attention to full-backs.Welcome to The Athletic’s Transfer Tiers. We’ve assembled a panel of experts to put together a list of players in each position heading into the summer. With the knowledge of those experts, we think we have pulled together a fairly comprehensive list of the top nine players that will be under consideration in each role going into the window.Want to read more about our methodology? That can be found here.Based on that methodology, our understanding of the full-back market can be found below.Tier One, Tier Two and Tier Three can be divided into elite clubs, those from the level just below and the wealthy middle-class, respectively. But it is worth remembering that if the other options move or are unavailable, elite sides could quite easily fit a Tier Three player into their teams.Inclusion here does not mean a player wants to move or that they are necessarily going to be available this summer. However, it is who our experts, which includes sporting and technical directors, coaches, scouts, intermediaries, analysts and, in a few instances, people with important local knowledge, would present in a recruitment meeting going into the window.The expert view“Dumfries is very much a functional player who needs to play a specific role, and has his limitations. What I like about him is physical profile: ability to repeat high-speed running actions – getting forward to support the attack and recovering in defensive transition. Strength in duels – ground and aerial. As well as his ability to arrive in the penalty box.”A technical staff member, national team competing at the World Cup.Like several respondents, the expert above mentioned how weak the full-back category we presented was — and that’s not an unfair observation.Partly, that’s because we judged several of the truly elite players to be unobtainable. Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes are obvious examples. Alphonso Davies has had an injury-disrupted few years and has also signed an enormous new contract with Bayern Munich. Nico O’Reilly is not for sale, nor is Jurrien Timber.Etcetera and so on.That leaves Dumfries at the top of the list and, despite those caveats, deservedly so. His strength in transition is a major attraction, as are his rounded defensive game and the regularity of his attacking contribution.His age is a negative — Dumfries turned 30 in April — and he typically plays as a wing-back for Inter, with few other elite sides in Europe employing a back three.InfoAge: 30Current club: Inter MilanThe expert view“My favourite set-piece taker in the world. In open play, he’s a very good player. Over a dead ball, he’s a brilliant one.”A private skills coach.It’s useful to think of Grimaldo less as an orthodox full-back, more like a playmaker who operates in full-back positions. He joined Bayer Leverkusen the summer before they completed an undefeated domestic double under Xabi Alonso, and while the team’s level has fallen away in the years since — particularly following the departure of Alonso and Florian Wirtz in 2025 — Grimaldo has remained a remarkably consistent performer.He is an exceptional crosser and one of the best free-kick takers in Europe, but he’s a full-back capable of playing infield, too, and cutting passes upfield, in positions away from the touchline.He turned 30 at the beginning of the season. It means that age is a factor, and perhaps that’s why he appeared in all three tiers. That also reflects that our experts were able to see the sense within almost any transfer scenario and would be able to rationalise any move he might make.InfoAge: 30Current club: Bayer LeverkusenThe expert viewPorro is another who needs to be extracted from that troubling Tottenham context. There are two issues in particular. First, their instability. Porro is an attack-first full-back for whom defending is not a primary responsibility. At the same time, that unit as a whole was especially weak this season, and he cannot be separated from it.Secondly, for a player whose value is best seen from crossing or cut-back positions, he was a natural victim of Spurs’ lack of attacking quality, both in the sense of having few targets to aim for and not being supported by enough creative passing. That shows in the poverty of his attacking data — assists, but also chances created and several other progressive metrics.Our respondents have chosen to ignore that. Porro featured heavily in Tier Two also, but attracted more Tier One votes. The theory, evidently, is that by surrounding him with a better quality of teammate — something which Spurs themselves might do this summer — his strengths will be accentuated and his weaknesses not nearly as exposed.He’s a dynamic, metronome-like player who plays in strong bursts and is a very clean striker of a ball. Those core qualities place him in Tier One.InfoAge: 26Current club: Tottenham HotspurThe expert viewKayode was almost evenly split between Tier One and Tier Two. In a few instances, we followed up by asking for some justifications.One of our Tier One respondents said that he couldn’t think of a Tier One opening for Kayode, which is a perfectly legitimate way of interpreting the exercise. Another said that he had not seen Kayode play for a team that controls possession, as almost every Tier One side does; he was reserving judgement and, again, that’s a fair comment.The general tone of the feedback was simpler: Kayode is a terrific player with no real weaknesses. In particular, the quality of his back-post defending received a few mentions and was praised as rare among modern full-backs.Given that Brentford only signed him on a permanent basis in July 2025 and spent €17.5m in doing so, there would be a prohibitive cost involved in buying him. However, still just 21, the consensus is obviously that Kayode has significant potential and that his attacking output would develop within a more offensive system.InfoAge: 21Current club: BrentfordThe expert viewLivramento received plenty of Tier One recommendations — more than Michael Kayode — but he ended up in Tier Two, which is arguably his current place in the game with Newcastle United.A couple of respondents noted that while he has been playing at Premier League first-team level for five years now, he has made fewer than 100 appearances in that time.So, injuries have gotten in the way and slowed his progress. He suffered a cruciate ligament tear in his first season with Southampton, after joining from Chelsea in August 2021, and while he has never had another injury of such severity, a succession of relatively minor issues in each season since have disrupted his rhythm.That being said, he has still built an excellent CV, having played in the Champions League with Newcastle United and earning his first England caps in 2024. Among our experts, particular attention was paid to how well he performed when asked to play on the left, rather than his natural right side, and how competent he looks when carrying the ball infield.Alongside his more orthodox characteristics — his defensive positioning, his ball-carrying — it helped make him one of the most picked players in the full-back category.InfoAge: 23Current club: Newcastle UnitedThe expert view“What I like about him is that he can play on both sides. He’s stronger on the right, but there really isn’t much difference.”A video analyst at a Premier League club.Ryerson enjoyed a remarkable season for Borussia Dortmund, which seemed to come from nowhere. Across all competitions, between the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the Champions League, the Norwegian recorded 18 assists, four times more than during any other season of his career.Rather than representing a significant change in Ryerson’s game, though, it better reflects how Dortmund’s style of play under Niko Kovac prioritised the creation of crossing positions and the quality of set-piece work. Only Bayern Munich scored more goals from free kicks and corners in the Bundesliga this season.None of which is to diminish Ryerson’s achievement. His delivery was often excellent and good enough to exploit those opportunities, but he is not necessarily — traditionally — a great manufacturer of chances.He is a fine full-back, though. Nuggety and aggressive, he’s a combative and capable defender who has operated within a back four and a back three during his Dortmund career and — as mentioned by our skills coach — has done so on both sides of the pitch.InfoAge: 28Current club: Borussia DortmundThe expert viewThe most picked player in this category. Diouf featured in Tier Two too, but was not selected by anybody for Tier One.West Ham’s season showed both sides of his game. The quality of Diouf’s crossing jumped off the page and his ability to get into advanced positions and reliably deliver made him one of the most dependable sources of attacking output in what, for most of the season, was an extremely poor side.However, he has plenty to learn defensively. Yes, the modern game prioritises the attacking thrust that full-backs are able to provide over the security they offer, but Diouf showed some naivety this season.Our experts are not overly troubled by that, clearly. In addition, while West Ham spent €20m to sign Diouf from Slavia Prague just a year ago, there’s recognition that, firstly, he has made a big jump in the game at a young age and, secondly, that his team’s relegation likely makes him more obtainable for teams without a limitless budget.A project, then, but an interesting one.InfoAge: 21Current club: West Ham UnitedThe expert viewIt’s surprising how few teams are expected to take risks in this Tier, with our respondents thinking that teams at this level will prioritise experience over coltish talent.A broad trend was that, Diouf aside, our experts opted for known commodities, players who could also be used as auxiliary centre-backs or those — like Robertson — who also added an intangible value to the club.The Scot left Liverpool this season after an enormously successful nine years. While his very best football is clearly in the rear-view mirror — he only started 16 games in the Premier League and Champions League combined this season — he’s evidently still seen as being able to contribute.A further note on the category: experts were given the option to add their own players and supplement our lists, but few did. That might partly explain the prevalence of older players in the lowest category, which came as a surprise.InfoAge: 32Current club: LiverpoolThe expert viewAnother veteran. Guerreiro is a free agent now after the end of his Bayern Munich contract. He left the club after three years and 40 starts in the Bundesliga; he was more involved than he was expected to be when he arrived from Borussia Dortmund in 2023.Partly, that’s because he is so positionally versatile. As he did for Dortmund before, Guerreiro played all sorts of roles for Bayern: left-back, defensive midfield, and even attacking midfield. That’s a caveat for his inclusion here, too. The Portuguese was picked exclusively in Tier Three and by over half of the people we asked, but — most likely — in recognition of that usefulness rather than impact in one specific role.Guerreiro is still a good player and remains a fine technical footballer, but he might represent a glitch in our process.InfoAge: 32Current club: Bayern Munich