There was this sturdy argument that within the 2025/26 season, Declan Rice is just not higher than Casemiro at something. However if you look intently at this time season and never the previous, the dialog turns into totally different.
Nobody can take something away from Casemiro’s legacy. He gained 5 UEFA Champions League titles with Actual Madrid CF in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2022. After shifting to Manchester United F.C., he added the EFL Cup, which stays his solely main success in England. That file alone locations him among the many nice defensive midfielders of his era.
However soccer strikes quick, and this season is just not about what occurred in Madrid years in the past.
Softfootball has gathered, In 2025/26, Casemiro performs one to a few video games in a month, whereas Rice performs nearly each recreation for Arsenal F.C.. Arsenal are competing significantly for the Premier League and the Champions League, and even pushing within the home cups. The strain is fixed, and Rice is absorbing it week in, week out.
In relation to recovering the ball, Rice appears to be like sharper this season. In advancing the ball from midfield into attacking areas, he seems extra progressive. Even in taking pictures and set-piece conditions, the numbers are there for everybody to see. As of seventeenth February 2026, Casemiro has 5 targets and two assists, whereas Rice has 4 targets and three assists. The distinction in numbers is just not extensive, however the affect in matches feels stronger on Rice’s facet.
This isn’t the identical dominant Casemiro of Actual Madrid’s peak years. That is the Manchester model, skilled, clever, however not as bodily overwhelming as earlier than. In the meantime, Rice is coming into his prime and carrying a workforce combating on a number of fronts.
Even in earlier comparisons involving Moises Caicedo, the view remained that Rice affords extra steadiness in defending, progressing the ball, scoring and helping. That doesn’t scale back the standard of others, however it highlights the extent Rice is at present acting at.
Casemiro is a legend of the sport. His 5 Champions League titles will all the time communicate for him. But when the controversy is strictly in regards to the 2025/26 season, then based mostly on consistency, accountability and total influence, Declan Rice has outperformed him thus far.
