Here is a look at the Mexico vs South Africa World Cup 2026 player ratings from the big European sports newspapers. El Tri comfortably beat South Africa 2-0.
Diario AS player ratings Mexico vs South Africa 2-0 World Cup 2026
Diario AS thought some of the South African players- Bafana jersey number 13 Sithole in particular, didn’t deserve a rating here.
Mexico didn’t really have to exert themselves too much for the win- as evinced by loads of El Tri players getting two stars (but no 3 star performance)

L’Equipe player ratings MEX 2-0 RSA FWC 2026
Not surprisingly, poor Sithole got a brutal 2/10 rating here from French paper L’Equipe, with the rest of the Bafana players also not really impressing. Sithole was partly responsible for Mexico’s 9th minute opener, which saw Julian Quinones join 22 other players in history as one of the opening World Cup goal scorers. Cesar Montes’ red card spoilt the party a bit for Mexico at the end.

Corriere dello Sport player ratings El Tri vs Bafana Soccer 2026
Italian papers don’t really give out very harsh ratings, but Sithole got a 4 here from CDS. Mexico Jersey No 16 Quinones was the pick of El Tri’s players in their eyes.
