How on earth can you describe him as "world class"?
If he were to put together a run of two years, mostly healthy (30+ starts in PL, is my arbitrary definition), he'd start at CB every week for any team in the PL other than the top handful where rotation is common, and in those he'd be at the top of the rotation.
This is from 17 Nov 2021:
A statistical look into Everton’s performance with and without the Colombian defender
royalbluemersey.sbnation.com
Moving on to how Everton perform overall without Mina in the side, it’s equally worrying how drastically our performances drop. When he’s been in the team this season, we average 1.83 points per game. This is the highest in the squad of those who have played more than three games. Averaging this many points over the season would have us in fifth place. Instead, after missing him regularly, we sit in eleventh. The only loss Everton have had this season with him in the team was the three-goal drubbing at Villa Park in September.
Not only this season though, this trend without Mina has been going on for a couple of years now. I’m not sure on the up-to-date stats but a couple of weeks ago Sky Sports reported that over the last two Premier League seasons, our win percentage with him in the team was 57%. Without him however, this was an extremely concerning 24%. It doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that’s a significant difference. Moreover, we average 1.7 goals conceded without him, compared to 1.1 with and 0.9 points per game compared to 1.9.
Those are massive differences in win percentage, goals conceded, and points per game. As good or as vital as other players might be, I doubt if anyone on the roster would exceed those.
Same article has a bunch of other stats showing him to be vastly better than our other CBs (at the time) in just about any statistical measure - including as a goal threat from set pieces, and preventing same in front of our goal.
Eye test proves the same. Look at any game thread from the periods where he had a good run in the side. He dominates, although he has a nervy moment from time to time.
If he were healthy, there's no doubt in my mind that he'd be elite at the PL level.
Internationally, he was a main piece of the Colombia side that won its group in the 2018 WC and took eventual semifinalist England to pens in the round of 16, when he put one past Pickford in stoppage time to bring his side level. He featured in the last three Copa America sides for Colombia, including in 2021 when they made it to the semis before losing to Argentina on pens. In his club career in Colombia, he got on the international radar by winning the Copa Sudamerica, the South American CL equivalent, with Independiente Santa Fe, the only time a Colombian club has ever won that competition which is dominated by clubs from Argentina and Brazil as you'd expect.
As far as his leadership, again check the game threads of the (all too brief) runs where he was playing well. I remember a game early in the last season where we went to Leeds and drew 2-2, at a time where Leeds were flying high. Mina wound up Bamford all game long and neutralized him and the whole side fed off his presence. That's just off the top of my head. You'll find a few armband shouts in the vaults.
The only thing keeping him back is his inability to stay healthy.
So yeah, I can understand disagreement, but I'll stick with my belief that
if he were healthy he'd be world class. Unfortunately, he isn't, so he isn't.