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Reasons to Root

48 teams. Hundreds of human stories. Find yours.

Every World Cup roster is full of people who clawed their way here — aging legends chasing one last summer, players coming back from injuries that should have ended their careers, kids from refugee camps and fishing villages and island nations smaller than a Dallas suburb. You don't need a team. You need a story. Pick one below and root like family.

A B C D E F G H I J K L

Group A

Mexico 3 stories

Raúl Jiménez

He Survived a Fractured Skull. Now He's Scoring at a Home World Cup — Through Tears.

In November 2020, Raúl Jiménez collided head-first with an Arsenal defender and was carried off unconscious with a fractured skull and a brain injury that could have killed him. Eight months later he was back on a pitch, wearing a protective headguard and fighting through the psychological terror of heading a ball again. He went to the 2022 World Cup but never found the net. Then, in March 2026, his father died. On June 11 — Opening Day, in front of a roaring Mexican crowd at the Estadio Azteca — the 35-year-old striker finally scored his first-ever World Cup goal against South Africa, then turned away weeping, pointing both hands at the sky. It was a goal that had been building for six years of hospital rooms, recovery sessions, and grief. Mexico fans have a saying: the shirt weighs a ton. For Jiménez, lifting it on that moment felt like setting down the heaviest thing imaginable. Then came the Round of 32: on July 1, against Ecuador at the Azteca, Jiménez scored again in the 31st minute — as Mexico ended a 40-year drought without a World Cup knockout win. He has now scored in consecutive rounds at a tournament he once feared he might never reach. The man with the titanium plate in his skull keeps adding chapters to the story.

Guillermo Ochoa

Six World Cups. A Final Curtain. The Goalkeeper Who Simply Would Not Stop.

When goalkeepers dream of legacy, they dream of something like Guillermo Ochoa's career. The 40-year-old shot-stopper from Guadalajara has been named to Mexico's World Cup squad an unprecedented six times — a record no other Mexican has ever matched. He stood between the posts against Brazil in 2014 and made a series of saves that kept the world's most talented attack scoreless. He has played on through club wanderings that took him from America to Málaga to Standard Liège to a modest stint in Cyprus. Now he is home, in the country where kids grew up knowing his name, playing what he has confirmed will be his final tournament before retiring from both international and club football. At 40, he is the guardian of a generation's worth of memories — and he's still got his gloves on.

Gilberto Mora

The 17-Year-Old Kid from Tijuana Who Is the Youngest Player at the Entire World Cup

Born in October 2008, Gilberto Mora is literally a child at this tournament — the youngest player in the entire 48-team field by a country so wide it almost seems fictional. He made his professional debut for Club Tijuana in August 2024 before his 16th birthday, becoming the third-youngest player to appear in Mexico's top league. His father was a Liga MX journeyman who eventually became a youth coach at Tijuana — the same club where he spotted his own son's rare gift. Mora joined Mexico's senior squad, became the youngest debutant in the national team's history, and helped Mexico win the 2025 Gold Cup — the youngest winner of a FIFA-recognized men's tournament ever. Just days before the World Cup kicked off, Tijuana gave him the club's No. 10 jersey and a new contract. Against South Africa on Opening Day, this kid from the border appeared off the bench in front of his country. The future showed up early.

South Korea 2 stories

Son Heung-min

Thirteen Years, 142 Caps, and One Last Shot at Glory

Son Heung-min has given everything to South Korean football since making his debut in 2010. At 33, with 142 caps and 54 international goals, he is his nation's greatest ever player — and the captain of a squad that needs him most. After 10 seasons at Tottenham Hotspur, Son made the move to Los Angeles FC, bringing his world-class talent to MLS while keeping his national team commitments burning. This is his fourth World Cup, almost certainly his last. He has never lifted a trophy with South Korea's senior side. The country that watched him score wonder goals in the Premier League, that stayed up through the night to follow his matches, wants one thing from this tournament: to see their captain go deep, to play his best football, and perhaps — just perhaps — to write a new ending to a story that already deserves a better finale. He has said he is not calling this his last World Cup. But the math says otherwise.

Lee Kang-in

His Family Uprooted Their Entire Life So He Could Become a Footballer

When Valencia's scouts identified a 10-year-old in Incheon as a potential generational talent, the Lee family didn't hesitate. Kang-in's father — a former special forces soldier and Taekwondo instructor — moved to Spain ahead of the rest of the family to set up a Taekwondo studio and build a life in Valencia while his son trained. His mother and siblings followed. The entire family resettled in a foreign country, in a foreign language, on the strength of a bet on a child's ability to kick a football. Lee paid the debt back: he debuted professionally at 17, joined PSG in 2023, and won back-to-back Champions League titles in 2025 and 2026. Now 23, he arrives at his first World Cup not as the man his family sacrificed everything for, but as the man they always believed he would be. Some bets are worth it.

Czechia 3 stories

Tomáš Souček

Twenty Years in the Wilderness, and the Most-Capped Czech Is Finally at a World Cup

Tomáš Souček has 89 caps for Czechia — more than almost anyone alive has played for this country's national team. And yet, for nearly his entire career, a World Cup appearance seemed like something that would happen to other people. Czechia last qualified in 2006. Souček was a teenager then. He watched the long droughts, the near-misses, the playoff heartbreaks. He kept playing anyway — through West Ham, through setbacks, through years when the Czech national team looked like it might never get back. Now 31, he finally gets to take those long aerial runs into the box, those crunching defensive interceptions, that engine that never quits — and do it on football's biggest stage. For a country whose golden generation reached the Euro '96 final but has waited 20 years to return to a World Cup, Souček is the living bridge between what was and what might still be.

Adam Hlozek

He Almost Missed the Whole Thing. Then He Scored in a Warm-Up and Packed His Bags.

For most of the 2025-26 season, Adam Hlozek simply wasn't there. A serious calf and foot injury kept the 23-year-old Hoffenheim attacker off the pitch for months, watching his World Cup dream blur into uncertainty. He had not played for the Czech national team since June 2025. Coaches watched and waited. Then, late in the spring, Hlozek began to move again — and on May 31, in a friendly against Kosovo, he scored. That goal said what no medical report could: he was back. Coach Miroslav Koubek put him in the squad. Czechia's first World Cup in 20 years will include a young forward who spent most of that preparation year in a training room, willing his body to cooperate. At a tournament defined by aging legends, Hlozek is the counter-narrative — a young man who nearly didn't make it, and then did.

Miroslav Koubek

The 74-Year-Old Coach Who Took Over in December and Made the World Cup by March

When Czechia were stumbling in qualifying and needed a miracle, they turned to 74-year-old Miroslav Koubek — making him the oldest head coach in World Cup history. What followed was improbable even by soccer standards. Koubek took charge in December 2025 and coached exactly two competitive matches before Czechia reached the World Cup: a playoff win over Ireland (coming back from 2-0 down in the first 23 minutes to equalize in the 86th minute, then winning on penalties) and a playoff final win over Denmark, also on penalties. That's it. Two games. A World Cup. In North America, Koubek will become the oldest manager ever to coach at football's biggest tournament, commanding a squad whose core plays in the Bundesliga and Ligue 1. Sometimes the story doesn't need a long buildup. Sometimes two dramatic shootouts is enough.

South Africa 3 stories

Ronwen Williams

He Watched the 2010 World Cup as a Teenager. Now He Leads Bafana Bafana Back.

When South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup, Ronwen Williams was 18 years old, crossing a football pitch in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) on his way to a friend's house to watch the opening match — South Africa vs. Mexico. Sixteen years later, as the Bafana Bafana captain, he walked out for the exact same fixture, this time as the goalkeeper, with the whole country behind him. That poetic arc alone would be enough. But Williams carries a deeper weight: he plays in memory of his late brother Marvin, who always told him he would make it to the World Cup. After Marvin died, a coach told Williams to do everything for his brother, because his brother believed in him so much. Williams has a tattoo for Marvin on his arm and looks to the sky when he makes a big save. In January, at the Africa Cup of Nations, he became the first goalkeeper in AFCON history to save four penalties in a single shootout. He arrived at this tournament already a legend.

Lyle Foster

He Stepped Away to Save Himself. Then He Came Back and Helped Save Bafana Bafana.

In November 2023, Burnley forward Lyle Foster stepped away from football entirely. He had asked his club for help with a serious mental health condition — a decision that required real courage in a sport that still does not always make it easy to admit struggle. Burnley and his family stood by him, providing clinical support and a genuine break from the game. Two months later, Foster returned. He rebuilt his form, re-established himself in South Africa's attack, and started scoring. He scored twice at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. He scored eight times for Bafana Bafana overall on the road to qualifying for this World Cup. Now 25, the Burnley striker is the primary attacking threat for a South African team returning to the World Cup for the first time since 2010. His comeback to this stage is a reminder that walking away to heal is not weakness — it's how some journeys continue.

Hugo Broos

A Belgian Who Fell in Love with African Football Is Making His Last Stand — in Mexico

Hugo Broos is 74 years old. He has already announced this will be his last job in football. But before he goes, the Belgian coach has one more extraordinary chapter: returning to Mexico 40 years after he last stood on a pitch there as a Belgium international in the 1986 World Cup. In the decades between, Broos won league titles, won the Africa Cup of Nations with Cameroon in 2017, and in 2021 took over a South African team that had missed multiple World Cups. What he built was disciplined, motivated, and quietly brilliant — a squad where 19 of the 26 players compete in South Africa's domestic league, proving homegrown football can still reach the top. He is the architect of Bafana Bafana's return to the biggest stage. And he is doing it one last time, in the country where his own playing story once reached its peak.

Group B

Canada 2 stories

Alphonso Davies

Born in a Refugee Camp. Now the Youngest Captain at the World Cup.

Alphonso Davies was born in a refugee camp in Ghana. His family fled Liberia during a period of intense conflict, ending up displaced before eventually resettling in Edmonton, Alberta, where Alphonso grew up in Canada's cold northern winters learning to play on community pitches. He rose through the ranks fast enough that at 16 he became the youngest scorer in CONCACAF Gold Cup history. In 2022, he scored Canada's first-ever men's World Cup goal. In June 2024, he was named national team captain — and at 25 years and eight months old, he is officially the youngest captain at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. He arrived at this tournament battling a hamstring strain that kept him out of Canada's opener, but his presence alone electrifies the squad. For a nation co-hosting the World Cup, having a captain whose own family sought safety as refugees — and then raised a son who became the face of Canadian football — is a story the whole world should hear.

Jonathan David

From Haiti to Ottawa to the Champions League. Canada's 'Iceman' Is Ready.

Jonathan David was born in Brooklyn to Haitian parents and spent his early childhood in Haiti before his family moved to Ottawa, where he grew up playing for community youth clubs in the city's east end. Known as the 'Iceman' for his composure in front of goal — a nickname coined by former Canada coach John Herdman — David moved to Belgium at 18 and built himself into one of the most clinical strikers in European football, joining Juventus after years of prolific form at Lille. He is Canada's all-time leading scorer. He represents a team whose diversity mirrors the country itself: players born in Haiti, Nigeria, Jamaica, Portugal, and across the world, united by the red jersey. For a co-hosting nation playing on home soil for the first time in the men's World Cup, David is the cold-blooded finisher a dream run will depend on. He proved it immediately — David scored a hat trick in Canada's 6-0 demolition of Qatar, the first hat trick by a Canadian at a World Cup and the first by any North American player since 1930. The Iceman earned his nickname.

Switzerland 2 stories

Granit Xhaka

His Father Was a Political Prisoner. Now He Captains Switzerland at His Third World Cup.

Granit Xhaka grew up in Basel as the son of Kosovar Albanian refugees. His father Ragip spent three and a half years in a Yugoslav prison in the late 1980s for campaigning for the rights of ethnic Albanians — jailed before Granit was even born. After his release, Ragip and his wife fled through Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy before reaching Switzerland, where they settled and started a family. Granit chose to represent Switzerland rather than Albania, the country of his ethnic heritage — a choice his older brother Taulant made differently, playing for Albania. At the 2018 World Cup, Granit and his teammate Xherdan Shaqiri made the Albanian eagle gesture after scoring against Serbia, a moment of defiant pride that FIFA fined them for. Now 33 and in his third World Cup — and his first as Switzerland's captain — Xhaka is the embodiment of what Swiss football has become: multiethnic, technically sharp, emotionally complicated, and impossible to ignore. In the quarterfinal against Argentina on July 11, Xhaka was the best player on the pitch for long stretches — conducting Switzerland to a 1-1 draw before extra time, with Dan Ndoye's 67th-minute equalizer giving the Nati a genuine chance at the unthinkable. It took a red card, a man advantage, and Julián Álvarez's 112th-minute golazo to finally put them away. Xhaka walked off to an ovation that said more than any headline could: a captain who had carried this team further than anyone before him, to a first quarterfinal in 72 years, in a stadium that understood exactly what it had just witnessed.

Zeki Amdouni

An ACL. Less Than an Hour of Game Time All Season. A World Cup Squad Anyway.

In July 2025, Switzerland forward Zeki Amdouni ruptured his ACL. For most of the 2025-26 Burnley season, he simply didn't play — appearing in fewer than three games off the bench in the final weeks, totaling less than one hour of football across an entire year. When Switzerland coach Murat Yakin announced his World Cup squad in May 2026, Amdouni's name was on it. Yakin's reasoning was simple: the player's record for the national team — 11 goals in 27 appearances — tells you what he is capable of when fit. Now Amdouni arrives in North America as one of the most compelling recovery stories in this tournament: a forward who spent nearly 12 months rebuilding a torn knee, trying to time his return to football's biggest stage. If he gets on the pitch and scores, it will feel like the world's most patient reward.

Qatar 2 stories

Almoez Ali

Born in Sudan, Qatar's All-Time Top Scorer Is Chasing Redemption on the World Stage

Almoez Ali was born in Sudan and came to Qatar as a young player, eventually becoming the most prolific scorer in his adopted country's football history — 60 goals in 126 official international appearances heading into this tournament. At the 2019 Asian Cup he was a revelation, scoring nine goals and winning the Golden Boot in a tournament Qatar won for the first time. He helped Qatar win back-to-back Asian Cup titles in 2019 and 2023. He is one of only a handful of players ever to score in three separate intercontinental championships. But the 2022 World Cup, played on home soil, was painful: Qatar became the first host nation to lose all three group-stage matches, and Ali never truly found his best form when the lights were brightest. He arrives at 2026 — Qatar's first World Cup earned through qualifying — as the attack's focal point, looking for the stage those 2022 crowds never gave him.

Qatar National Team

They Were Given a World Cup. Now They've Earned One.

In 2022, Qatar hosted the World Cup as automatic qualifiers — and lost every single group-stage match, becoming the worst-performing host nation in tournament history. The embarrassment was total. No goals won, all three games lost, out before the knockout rounds while the stadium crowds stayed to watch other countries' stories unfold. What happened next was the harder, quieter work: qualifying for 2026 through actual competition, the same as every other country. Qatar navigated multiple rounds of Asian qualifying, changed coaches, tightened their defense, and in the decisive final round collected the points they needed. When they booked their place in North America it was not given — it was won. A country that once showed up to its own party and fell flat now arrives as a legitimate qualifier, drawn into Group B, looking to prove that 2022 was not the whole story.

Bosnia and Herzegovina 2 stories

Edin Džeko

He Survived a War in Sarajevo. At 40, He's Leading Bosnia Back to the World Cup.

Edin Džeko was six years old when the siege of Sarajevo began. He remembers the first sirens, his mother grabbing him to hide behind a shoe cabinet, and the years that followed — his family packed into a 40-square-meter apartment with 15 relatives, him and his cousins sitting near the balcony playing Monopoly because snipers made the streets too dangerous. One day, his mother refused to let him leave the house; moments later, a grenade hit the spot where he would have been playing with friends. He was 9 when the war ended. He is 40 now, Bosnia and Herzegovina's all-time leading scorer with 73 international goals — more than double the next player on the list — and the captain of the only squad that matters to him. He scored a dramatic late equalizer against Wales in the playoff semifinal to keep Bosnia's qualification alive. He has already said the end is coming soon. But first, there is unfinished business: Bosnia has never made it out of the World Cup group stage.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

They Beat Italy on Penalties to Get Here. Nobody Gave Them a Chance.

To reach the 2026 World Cup, Bosnia and Herzegovina had to beat Italy in a penalty shootout — in Bosnia. Italy: four-time World Cup champions. Bosnia: a nation of fewer than four million people, appearing in only their second World Cup ever, whose first taste of the tournament came in 2014 Brazil. The road through playoffs included a tense semifinal against Wales (also decided by penalties) and then a home final where they drew 1-1 with the Azzurri and then held their nerve in the shootout, winning 4-1. Their captain Džeko was injured in the final moments of the Italy match and couldn't even take a penalty — he watched from the sideline with a shoulder already wrapped. The players who stepped up converted anyway. For a small Balkan nation still carrying the weight of the 1990s wars and determined to build something on a football pitch, this qualification was not just a result. It was a statement.

Group C

Brazil 3 stories

Neymar

One Last Dance for the Kid from São Paulo

Neymar has spent much of the last three years watching from the sidelines. A severe ACL tear in October 2023 wiped out most of his time with Al-Hilal. He came back to Santos — the club where he started — and earned his spot on Carlo Ancelotti's 26-man roster for what is almost certainly his final World Cup at age 34. He then tore a calf muscle in a Santos match days before departure and spent Brazil's opening group game rehabbing instead of playing. The image of the world's most expensive player ever, the boy who grew up dodging crime in São Gonçalo, willing his body to cooperate one more time for the chance to finally lift the one trophy that has always eluded him — that is the whole story. Brazil has won five World Cups without him. He has been to three without winning one. Whether he gets five minutes or fifty, every touch will carry the weight of a career and a country's hope.

Vinícius Júnior

Barefoot Kid from São Gonçalo Carries a Nation

Vinícius Júnior grew up at the end of a dead-end street in São Gonçalo, a city pressed against the BR-101 highway outside Rio de Janeiro. His family couldn't always afford for his mother to take the multiple buses needed to get him to Flamengo training sessions; she waited for hours, every session. He went to live with an uncle just to shorten the commute. After being named FIFA's Best Men's Player in 2024, Vini said: 'I was a kid who only played football barefoot on the streets of São Gonçalo, close to poverty and crime. Getting here is something very important to me.' Now 25, he is also the most visible face in world football's fight against racism, having walked off pitches in Spain to protest abuse. At his home tournament — played in the country that hosts the world's largest Brazilian diaspora community — he carries all of that with him every time he touches the ball. Then came Matchday 3: Vinícius scored twice in Brazil's 3-0 demolition of Scotland, bringing his tournament tally to four goals and making him the joint-second top scorer alongside Mbappé and Haaland. The barefoot kid from São Gonçalo is delivering on the biggest stage exactly the way the country always believed he would.

Carlo Ancelotti's Brazil

The Italian Who Never Won It Takes the Greenest Dream Job

Carlo Ancelotti has won the Champions League five times and every major league title in Europe. The one trophy missing from his cabinet is the World Cup, and for the first time in his career he has a chance to get it — coaching Brazil, the sport's most storied national team. He took the job in June 2024, inheriting a squad still healing from a catastrophic 2022 Qatar exit and a joyless qualifying campaign. Critics said a foreign manager could never win Brazilians over. He promptly brought calm, restored Neymar, and built a system around Vinicius. Ancelotti himself was left out of Italy's 1994 World Cup squad as a player — a wound he has spoken about openly for thirty years. Now at 66, coaching the Seleção into a tournament held on the same continent where that hurt happened, he is not just the favorite's manager. He is a man settling a very old score.

Morocco 3 stories

Achraf Hakimi

Son of Migrants Leads Africa's Finest to the Edge of History

Achraf Hakimi was born in Madrid to Moroccan parents — his father sold goods on the street, his mother cleaned houses. They came to Spain looking for a better life and found it, in part, through the boy who joined Real Madrid's academy at eight years old. Spain nurtured him, but his heart was always his parents' homeland. He chose Morocco's jersey when he could have chased a Spain call-up, and at Qatar 2022 he was at the center of the most galvanizing run in African football history — Morocco reached the semifinal, the first African or Arab nation ever to do so. Now he is captain, freshly crowned as a Champions League winner with PSG under Luis Enrique. He is 27, at the absolute peak of his powers, and he wants what 2022 denied him: the final. For millions of Moroccan fans, Hakimi is not just a footballer — he is the full arc of the immigrant story, from a sidewalk stall in Madrid all the way to the brink of lifting the World Cup. The quarterfinal against France ended 2-0, and Morocco are eliminated — but under Hakimi's captaincy, the Atlas Lions became the first African nation to reach a World Cup quarterfinal in back-to-back tournaments. That milestone does not belong to any one player, but it belongs most of all to the captain who carried it.

Brahim Díaz

The Prodigal Son Spain Didn't Want

Brahim Díaz played every youth level for Spain — under-17s, under-19s, under-21s — and even scored for the senior team in a 2021 friendly. Then Spain kept not calling him back. While the federation looked elsewhere, Morocco came knocking, and Díaz, born in Málaga to Moroccan parents, made a choice about who he really was. He switched allegiance in 2023, and the transformation has been remarkable: 24 caps, 13 goals, and the top scorer at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations with five goals in five games. Spain went on to win Euro 2024 largely without him. Now 26, Díaz arrives at his first World Cup not as a player who slipped through the cracks but as one of the Atlas Lions' most dangerous weapons — and with something to prove to the country that let him walk. The subplot practically writes itself every time Morocco and Spain appear in the same bracket conversation.

Ayyoub Bouaddi

18 Years Old and Already Turning Down France

Six weeks before the World Cup kicked off, Ayyoub Bouaddi was still technically a French player. Born in Senlis, north of Paris, to Moroccan parents, he had captained France's under-21 side in a European qualifier. France's senior squad left him off their final list. Morocco came in and, with FIFA's approval barely a month before the tournament, Bouaddi switched. He is 18 years old. He made his professional debut for Lille at 16 and has since played 96 first-team matches in Ligue 1 — more appearances at that age than almost anyone in the league's history. Morocco's new coach Mohamed Ouahbi — himself a youth development specialist — saw something in Bouaddi that France apparently didn't value in time. The teenager walked into a World Cup squad without playing a single senior competitive minute for the Atlas Lions. If he takes the field in North America, it will be his international debut. That kind of story doesn't come along often.

Scotland 3 stories

Andy Robertson

The Boy Who Worked the Hampden Box Office Is Going to Play There

Before Andy Robertson was Liverpool's Champions League-winning left back, he was working the ticket window at Hampden Park — Scotland's national stadium — just to make ends meet while playing part-time football for Queen's Park in the lower Scottish leagues. He stocked shelves at Marks and Spencer too. No top-flight club wanted him until Hull City took a chance. He was 32 when Scotland ended a 28-year World Cup absence with a 4-2 demolition of Denmark in November 2025, and he was captain when they did it. Robertson was four years old the last time Scotland played at a World Cup. He has worn the armband since 2018 and carried a nation's 28-year frustration on his back for years. When the final whistle blew in Glasgow that November night, he sat on the pitch and just let it wash over him. He called it a 'pinch yourself moment.' That is the entirety of the Scotland story — and he is its beating heart.

Scott McTominay

The Gangly Kid Who Grew Six Inches and Grew Into a Legend

At 16, Scott McTominay was five foot six and could barely kick a ball because his body was growing too fast to control. Two years later he was six foot three. Manchester United took a chance on the awkward teenager, but for years he was a squad filler — reliable, unspectacular. Then he signed for Napoli in 2024 for £25 million, won the Serie A title, and was voted the league's Most Valuable Player. When Scotland needed a goal to confirm their place at the 2026 World Cup, McTominay scored a stunning bicycle kick in the third minute against Denmark to set the tone for a 4-2 win. The man who spent years being underestimated at club level delivered the most important goal in Scottish football in a generation. At 29, he is at Napoli and bound for the World Cup — and if you told the gangly 16-year-old in Manchester that this was coming, he would not have believed you.

Scotland National Team

28 Years. One Generation. One Chance.

Scotland last played at a World Cup in France 1998 — and before that they qualified for five consecutive tournaments between 1974 and 1990, always going out in the group stage, always on goal difference, always heartbreakingly close. Then the drought began. Nearly three decades of near misses, playoff collapses, and a nation that kept believing anyway. The 2026 squad has been drawn into Group C — against Haiti, Morocco, and Brazil — the same group they faced in 1998 when they lost to both Morocco and Brazil and went home early. The draw is either cosmic cruelty or a chance at redemption, depending on your perspective. Scottish fans have waited long enough that some of the players in the squad were not alive the last time this happened. When they walked out onto the pitch in Boston on June 14 for their opener against Haiti, it wasn't just a football match. It was 28 years of a country holding its breath, finally exhaling.

Haiti 3 stories

Frantzdy Pierrot

His Dad Drove a Bus. He's Playing a World Cup Game in His Own Backyard.

Frantzdy Pierrot was born in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, and moved to Massachusetts at age 11. His father worked multiple jobs — driving a bus, working shifts at Logan Airport — sleeping four or five hours a night so the family could make it. Frantzdy went to Melrose High School, played basketball, and slowly found his way through college soccer at Northeastern and Coastal Carolina before a career that wound through Belgium, Israel, Greece, and Turkey. He is 31 years old, and he has built something remarkable from humble pieces. Haiti's World Cup opener against Scotland on June 14 was played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts — the state where Pierrot grew up, where his dad drove buses, where the Governor declared May 26 'Frantzdy Pierrot Day' before the tournament. He played a World Cup match in the state that raised him. That sentence does not need any embellishment.

Haiti National Team

A Nation in Crisis Sends Its Children to the World Cup

Haiti's national stadium was vandalized by armed gangs. Port-au-Prince is controlled in large parts by those same gangs. The team could not practice at home, could not host a single qualifying match on home soil. Every qualifier was played in Curaçao or on neutral ground while the country descended further into crisis. And yet Les Grenadiers qualified. Their squad is a map of the Haitian diaspora — 12 of 26 players born in France, others from Canada, Switzerland, the United States, Belgium — children of a nation scattered by poverty and instability who never stopped calling themselves Haitian. They last played in a World Cup 52 years ago, in 1974 in West Germany, when Emmanuel Sanon scored against Italy in a goal that is still played at celebrations across the island. This team is not just playing football. For people who have endured earthquakes, cholera, political collapse, and gang warfare, watching their flag walk into a World Cup is an act of collective survival.

Johny Placide

38 Years Old and Finally Here

Johny Placide has been a fixture in Haitian football for so long that younger players on the squad grew up watching him. The goalkeeper is 38 — older than some international careers last in their entirety — and this is his first World Cup. He has been part of the national team setup through cycles that came agonizingly close and fell apart, through organizational chaos at the Haitian Football Federation, through a pandemic, through a qualifying campaign where the team couldn't even play on its own soil. He is the captain. The anchor. The voice in the dressing room before Haiti walks out to face Brazil, Morocco, and Scotland. There is something quietly moving about a veteran like Placide arriving at the moment that everyone else gets to experience for the first time — except he has been waiting longer than all of them, and he knows exactly what it cost.

Group D

USA 4 stories

Folarin Balogun

The Dual National Who Chose America — Then Proved It

Folarin Balogun was born in New York City, raised in London, and represented England at every youth level through U-21. When he switched his international allegiance to the United States in 2023, the reaction was split: American fans celebrated, English fans shrugged, and purists on both sides questioned whether a kid who grew up in Arsenal's academy would ever truly bleed for the Stars and Stripes. Balogun answered with his feet. He became the USMNT's starting center-forward, scored consistently for Monaco in Ligue 1, and earned Pochettino's trust as the first name on the team sheet. Then came the opener against Paraguay — two goals, both clinical, both carrying the weight of every "he's not really American" take that followed him across the Atlantic. After his second goal, Balogun pointed to the crest on his chest. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to. The kid from New York who grew up in London just scored a brace in a World Cup on American soil. Identity debates tend to get quieter after that. In the Round of 32 against Bosnia, Balogun scored in first-half stoppage time, then got himself red-carded in the 64th minute after a VAR review for a stamp. He had to watch from the tunnel as a 10-man USA held the lead for 26 minutes and Tillman sealed it in the 82nd. The kid from New York who grew up in London scored and got sent off in the same knockout match — and the USMNT won anyway. That might be the most American thing that has ever happened.

Tim Weah

Finishing What His Father Started

George Weah won the Ballon d'Or in 1995 — the only African player ever to do it — and became president of Liberia. The one thing he never did was play in a World Cup. Liberia missed out on the 2002 tournament by a single point in qualifying, a result that sat with George for decades. His son Tim, born in Brooklyn in 2000, chose to play for the United States rather than Liberia, a decision George publicly said he respected. In Qatar 2022, Tim scored the United States' first World Cup goal in eight years — against Wales — and George watched from the stands. Tim said at the time: 'I think he's living the moment through me.' That was Tim's first World Cup. This is his second, played on home soil. Two World Cups. One more than the Ballon d'Or winner in the family ever reached. Every time Tim Weah touches the ball in this tournament, somewhere in the stands is the story of a father's dream that outlasted the father's career.

Ricardo Pepi

El Paso's Kid Finally Gets His World Cup

Ricardo Pepi grew up in San Elizario, a community pressed against the Mexican border near El Paso, in a city where soccer is not a hobby but an inheritance. His father coached him for ten years, standing soaked in rainstorms alone on the sideline during training sessions. When Pepi was 13, FC Dallas offered him a spot in their academy — 600 miles from home, alone, at 13 years old. The family eventually relocated. When the 2022 World Cup roster was announced and Pepi's name wasn't on it, El Paso took it personally. He took it personally too. He rebuilt himself at PSV Eindhoven, scored 13 goals in 37 appearances for the national team, and made this squad. He opened his World Cup campaign on June 12 against Paraguay in Los Angeles — a borderlands kid playing his first World Cup game in the city with the largest Mexican-American population in the country. His congresswoman read his name into the Congressional Record the day before the game.

Mauricio Pochettino

The Coach Who Knows What Being Left Out Feels Like

Mauricio Pochettino nearly made it to a World Cup as a player — once in 1994, when the tournament was held in the United States, and once in 1998. Both times he was cut from Argentina's final squad. He said those cuts were among the most painful experiences of his career, that he knows exactly what it feels like to be the one who doesn't make it. Now he is coaching the United States at a home World Cup, picking squads and making the cuts himself. He has spoken about losing sleep over the decisions. The USMNT has been a country searching for its soccer identity for decades, and Pochettino — who built Tottenham into a Champions League finalist, managed PSG and Chelsea — chose this challenge deliberately. There is something full-circle about a man who was denied his World Cup dream twice coming to the country where the first denial happened, and trying to give a different generation what he never got.

Australia 3 stories

Nestory Irankunda and Mohamed Touré

From Refugee Camps to Bayern Munich and the World Cup

Nestory Irankunda was born in a refugee camp in Kigoma, Tanzania, to parents who had fled Burundi's civil war. His family made it to Perth when he was three months old, then settled in Adelaide. Mohamed Touré came to Adelaide from Conakry, Guinea, also via the refugee pathway. They met as kids in Adelaide — Irankunda was about 12, Touré was around 8 — through school sports and park football in an African community that had built a new life in South Australia. Both signed with Adelaide United at 15. Irankunda moved to Bayern Munich for a record Australian transfer fee. Touré broke through at Norwich City with 10 goals in a breakout season. Now they are both in the Socceroos' World Cup squad. Touré said their selection sends a message to every kid from their community: 'It gives them belief, hopefully they can see now that it's not impossible.' Between their two families, five professional footballers have emerged. That is not coincidence — that is a community.

Harry Souttar

483 Days. He Made It.

In December 2024, Harry Souttar ruptured his Achilles tendon while on loan at Sheffield United. For a towering 27-year-old center-back, a torn Achilles is a career-threatening injury under any circumstances — and Souttar was already working through the psychological memory of a previous knee injury that had similarly sidelined him. He was out for 483 days. He returned to Leicester City in May 2026 with just weeks before Australia's World Cup opener, playing two club games and an international prep match to prove his fitness. Tony Popovic put him in the squad. At Qatar 2022, Souttar made an 86th-minute sliding tackle against Tunisia that preserved Australia's win and helped them reach the round of 16. He knows exactly what these tournaments mean. Coming back from 483 days of rehabilitation to play in a World Cup is the kind of story that makes neutral fans pick a second team.

Mathew Ryan

Four World Cups and Still Hungry

Mathew Ryan is 35 years old, the Socceroos captain, and heading to his fourth consecutive World Cup — tying an Australian record shared with Tim Cahill, the man who scored one of the most celebrated goals in Socceroos history. Ryan kept two clean sheets at Qatar 2022 and captained Australia through all four matches as they reached the round of 16 for only the second time in history. He is the youngest Australian to reach 100 international caps, and he now has 103. Most goalkeepers his age are wrapping up careers; Ryan spent last season helping Levante avoid relegation in Spain and told reporters he is 'hungrier than ever.' There is something about an experienced goalkeeper — a position that requires stillness, composure, and the patience to wait for the danger to come to you — that maps perfectly onto what it means to be 35 and still competing at a World Cup. He has seen everything. He wants more.

Paraguay 3 stories

Miguel Almirón

Seven Years at Newcastle, One Chance at a World Cup

Miguel Almirón spent seven years at Newcastle United, becoming one of the most beloved players in the club's modern history — not for trophies, but for effort that never varied by a single percentage point, regardless of the score or the table position. He returned to Atlanta United before the 2025 MLS season and helped Paraguay qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 2010 through a grinding CONMEBOL campaign. He is 32 years old. This is almost certainly his only World Cup. At an age when most attacking midfielders are stepping back, Almirón stepped forward — scoring in Paraguay's final tune-up before the tournament against Nicaragua. He has said 'the Paraguayan people deserve this,' and he means it with the directness of a man who has spent his career working harder than his talent strictly required. A player this honest and this consistent, finally on football's biggest stage — that is a story worth rooting for. Against Türkiye, Almirón received a red card in first-half stoppage time for a verbal altercation — covering his mouth while speaking to Turkish players. Paraguay played the entire second half with 10 men and still won 1-0 to keep their knockout hopes alive. Whether Almirón gets another World Cup minute depends on the final group match, but his teammates carried his spirit when he couldn't carry the ball.

Julio Enciso

A Kid from Caaguazú Who Made His Parents Proud the Hard Way

Julio Enciso grew up in Caaguazú, a modest town in eastern Paraguay, in a family where both parents worked menial jobs and the average monthly wage is under $400. He was whisked away to Asunción at 12 to join Club Libertad's youth academy — leaving his family, his hometown, everything familiar — because someone saw something. Brighton bought him. He scored a stunning long-range goal against Manchester City in the Premier League and celebrated like a man who understood exactly how far he had come. He is 22, he moved to Strasbourg, and he was Paraguay's most creative attacking player during qualifying. Then, in a warm-up match a week before the World Cup, he was stretchered off in tears with a new injury. His participation was in doubt right up to the tournament. Whatever happens on the pitch, Enciso's journey from a small farming town in eastern Paraguay to the World Cup is the kind of path that makes the whole sport feel worth watching. Then came the Round of 32. Enciso scored on the stroke of halftime against Germany — the goal that put Paraguay in front against the four-time world champions. Germany equalized, the match went to extra time, and then the penalty shootout made history: Germany's first-ever World Cup shootout defeat. The kid from Caaguazú started the chain of events that ended one of the sport's most intimidating records.

Paraguay National Team

Sixteen Years in the Wilderness, Back on the Biggest Stage

Paraguay's last World Cup was South Africa 2010, where they reached the quarterfinals — their best-ever finish — before losing to Spain, the eventual champions. Then came 16 years of near-misses in the cruellest qualifying competition in football, CONMEBOL, where only four of ten South American teams qualify automatically and the margins are razor-thin. Under their eleventh manager in thirteen years, Argentine Gustavo Alfaro, Paraguay turned Asunción into a fortress and beat Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay at home. They arrived as a team that nobody expected to be here, carrying the weight of a country that has been watching the World Cup from the outside since 2010. They open in Group D against the host USA on June 12 in Los Angeles. No pressure on the Guaraní spirit — but also, all the pressure.

Turkiye 3 stories

Arda Güler

The 21-Year-Old Who Was Born After Turkey's Last World Cup

Türkiye's last World Cup was in 2002, when they finished third — one of the great surprise runs in the tournament's history. Arda Güler was not born yet. He came into the world in February 2005, grew up watching those legendary players in old highlight reels, signed for Real Madrid as a teenager, and then won the Champions League Revelation of the Season award in 2026 after creating more chances in La Liga than any teammate, including Vinícius Júnior. Thierry Henry called him 'an undisputed, elite world-class talent.' He scored the fastest goal in Real Madrid Champions League history — 35 seconds. He is 21 years old, heading to his first World Cup, representing a country that has waited 24 years to return to this stage. Güler has said he watched Turkey's 2002 run as a child and dreamed of this. Now he is one of the players other countries are dreaming about stopping.

Hakan Çalhanoğlu

He Watched Turkey's 2002 Run in a Mosque. Now He Leads It.

Hakan Çalhanoğlu was eight years old during Turkey's famous 2002 World Cup campaign, when they beat Japan in the group stage and South Korea in the semifinal to finish third. He watched the matches in a mosque after Quran lessons, surrounded by the noise of a community sharing something historic. 'You watch it on television when you are little,' he said recently, 'and now you are on the pitch, and as captain. This cannot be explained; it has to be lived.' He has been captain since 2022. He anchors Inter Milan's midfield as one of the best deep-lying playmakers in European club football. Now 32, heading to his first World Cup, he carries the story of a kid who fell in love with the game watching his country on a mosque television, and who somehow became the man responsible for writing the next chapter of that same story.

Kenan Yıldız

Born in Germany, Raised in Two Worlds, Playing for One Heart

Kenan Yıldız was born in Regensburg, Germany, to a Turkish father from Afyon and a German mother. He grew up between cultures, learned the game at Bayern Munich's academy, and then had to answer the question every dual-heritage player eventually faces: who do you play for? His surname means 'star' in Turkish. 'Türkiye was always close to my heart,' he said. He chose the Crescent-Stars, moved to Juventus, and in 2026 was named Serie A's Best Under-23 Player after scoring 10 goals and providing 6 assists in 33 league appearances. He is 20 years old, was not alive during Turkey's last World Cup in 2002, and is heading to the tournament alongside Arda Güler as one of a genuinely generational pair of young attacking players. The Turkish diaspora in Germany numbers in the millions. When Yıldız plays, he plays for all of them too.

Group E

Germany 2 stories

Florian Wirtz

From Torn Knee to the World's Biggest Stage

In March 2022, Florian Wirtz was 18 years old, already the youngest player ever to score in the Bundesliga, and the most exciting teenager in European football. Then, mid-match against his old club Cologne, he crumpled to the ground with a torn ACL in his left knee. The injury cost him the 2022 World Cup entirely. He spent ten months off the pitch, relearning to trust a body that had betrayed him at the worst possible moment. He came back anyway — and came back better. At 23, Wirtz is now the heartbeat of a German team desperate to erase two consecutive group-stage humiliations. In a March 2026 friendly, he had a hand in all four German goals and won Player of the Match. He brings an entire nation's hope with him, and the memory of a year lost to remind him how much it costs.

Germany (the team)

Eight Years of Hurt, One Last Chance at Redemption

German football has won the World Cup four times, more than almost anyone. But in 2018, defending champions Germany were knocked out in the group stage — an embarrassment of historic proportions. They did it again in 2022. Two consecutive early exits for the nation that had reached at least the semifinals in four straight tournaments before that. The legends are gone now: no Müller, no Kroos, no Gündogan. What remains is a hungry young squad under Julian Nagelsmann, built around 23-year-old Wirtz and 22-year-old Jamal Musiala, arguably the most electric creative pairing in the entire tournament. This is not your father's Germany — it is something new and restless, trying to prove that the world's most storied football nation hasn't been left behind.

Ecuador 2 stories

Kendry Páez

The Teenager Who Signed for Chelsea Before He Was Old Enough to Drive

When Kendry Páez was 16, Chelsea agreed to sign him — but had to wait two years for him to turn 18 before he could legally move to England. In the meantime, the kid from Ecuador went ahead and became the youngest South American to score in a World Cup qualifier, did it at 16 years and 161 days old, and showed up at the Under-20 World Cup as its youngest player, scoring against Fiji at the age of 16. He turned 19 in May 2026, just weeks before the tournament. He has already collected 24 senior caps. What you are watching when Páez plays is the rarest thing in football: a teenager for whom the nerves do not seem to exist. For Ecuador — a country that has never made the World Cup quarterfinals — he represents something more than a prospect. He is a glimpse of what the future might look like if everything goes right.

Moisés Caicedo

The Boy From Nowhere Who Became One of the World's Best

Moisés Caicedo grew up in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, a mid-sized Ecuadorian city not known for producing elite footballers. When he left for England with Brighton as a teenager, Ecuador's football infrastructure had little precedent for what he was about to become. Today, at 23, he is one of the four most expensive Premier League signings in history — a suffocating, brilliant defensive midfielder who opponents build entire game plans around neutralizing. For the 2026 tournament, Ecuador finished second in a brutal South American qualifying group, conceding just five goals in 18 matches. Caicedo anchored every one of those games. He plays with the intensity of someone who knows exactly how unlikely his career was — and doesn't intend to waste a second of it.

Ivory Coast 2 stories

Franck Kessié

100 Caps, Zero World Cup Knockout Rounds — Until Now

Franck Kessié has won a Serie A title with AC Milan, a La Liga title with Barcelona, and an Africa Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast, scoring the equalizer in the 2023 final before the Elephants beat Nigeria 2-1 in one of the most dramatic AFCON endings in memory. He has over 100 caps for his country. What Kessié has never done is play in the knockout round of a World Cup. Ivory Coast — blessed with one of the great golden generations in African football history, led by Didier Drogba — went to three consecutive World Cups and was knocked out in the group stage every single time. Then the team missed 2018 and 2022 entirely. Now Kessié leads a new squad back to the biggest stage, carrying all that history with him. For Ivory Coast's captain, a round of 16 berth would not just be a result. It would be a reckoning with the past.

Simon Adingra

The Abidjan Kid Who Went to Denmark to Find His Dream

Simon Adingra was born in Abobo, a dense suburb of Abidjan — not the place most scouts look first. His path to the top was unconventional even by African football standards: he joined the Right to Dream Academy and moved to Danish club Nordsjælland in 2020 as a teenager, then caught Brighton's eye and signed for the Premier League club. He is now on loan at Monaco, establishing himself in one of Europe's most competitive leagues. At the 2026 World Cup, Adingra is one of the most dangerous wide forwards on the African continent — a relentless dribbler who creates chaos in tight spaces. He represents a generation that didn't wait for the traditional pathways to open up. For the neighborhoods of Abidjan watching along, that matters enormously.

Curaçao 2 stories

Tahith Chong

The Only One Born Here — and What It Means to Him

Of the 26 players Curaçao brought to this World Cup, 25 were born in the Netherlands. Tahith Chong was born in Willemstad, the capital of the island itself. He left for the Netherlands at age eight, came through Manchester United's academy, and built a professional career that wound through Birmingham, Luton, and Sheffield United. He never forgot where he was from. When Curaçao drew Jamaica in November 2025 and held on for the point that sent the island to its first-ever World Cup, Chong's 97-year-old grandmother was watching — it was her birthday. She had watched him play in person for the first time just months earlier. His father, who played amateur football on the island his whole life, had never believed he would witness this. Chong said afterward: Curaçao hasn't slept since we qualified. He didn't say it like a soundbite. He said it like someone who understood exactly why.

Eloy Room and Curaçao

158,000 People. One Dream. The Smallest Nation Ever at a World Cup

When former Dutch star Patrick Kluivert took over as Curaçao's coach years ago, he called goalkeeper Eloy Room and made him a promise: you are my number one, and together we are going to build something. Room said yes — then started calling friends, recruiting dual-nationals living in the Netherlands one conversation at a time. That is how you build a national team for an island of 158,000 people, smaller than many American cities. By November 2025, under veteran Dutch coach Dick Advocaat, Curaçao went unbeaten through ten World Cup qualifiers and punched a ticket to the tournament no one thought possible. The island erupted. Fans began selling their belongings to afford flights to North America. At this World Cup, Curaçao is not just the smallest nation ever to qualify — they are the beating proof that belief, community, and a few phone calls can change the map of football.

Group F

Japan 2 stories

Takefusa Kubo

Kicked Out of Barcelona at 10. Now He Carries Japan's Hopes.

Takefusa Kubo left Japan at age ten to join Barcelona's famed La Masia academy. Then Barcelona was sanctioned for violating international transfer rules, and Kubo was sent home. Real Madrid signed him at 18 — and he never played an official match for them. He drifted on loan to smaller clubs, trying to find his footing. It finally came at Real Sociedad in Spain, where this spring he helped the club win the Copa del Rey, coming off the bench to beat Atletico Madrid on penalties. Now, at 24, he arrives at his second World Cup as Japan's designated playmaker — because both Kaoru Mitoma and Takumi Minamino were ruled out injured. Kubo said he wants to carry Mitoma's feelings. That kind of sentence gets heavier on a stage this big. After a disappointing debut in Qatar, the kid who was turned away by two of the world's biggest clubs is finally ready for his moment.

Japan (the team)

They Beat Germany and Spain. They Still Can't Win a Penalty Shootout.

Japan does not lose to the big teams in 90 minutes anymore. Under coach Hajime Moriyasu, the Samurai Blue have beaten Germany, Spain, Brazil, England, and Colombia since 2022. They are no longer a curiosity — they are a genuine threat. And yet Japan has never won a penalty shootout at a World Cup, losing two in a row, including a gut-wrenching exit against Croatia in 2022 despite dominating long stretches of the match. Japan has never reached the quarterfinals. The gap between what this team can do and what they have actually achieved in knockout football is the central drama of their existence. At this World Cup, without several of their best players, they must somehow finally close it — while also proving that Asian football has arrived at the very top level. Over a billion people across Asia are watching.

Netherlands 2 stories

Virgil van Dijk

Three Lost Finals and One More Shot at History

The Netherlands have reached the World Cup final three times — 1974, 1978, 2010 — and lost all three. No nation has come so close, so often, without winning. Virgil van Dijk, the Netherlands captain and arguably the best central defender of his generation, is 34 years old. This is almost certainly his last World Cup. But here is the number that haunts him: if the Netherlands reach the 2026 final, the match would be his 100th cap for his country — the arithmetic works out exactly that way. Van Dijk has spoken publicly about the calculation and what it would mean. He leads a squad with genuine attacking firepower and the kind of defensive backbone that past Dutch sides sometimes lacked. After three generations of beautiful, heartbreaking near-misses, van Dijk wants to be the captain who finally brings it home. That is not pressure. That is purpose.

Cody Gakpo

Torn Between Three Flags, He Chose the One That Felt Like Home

Cody Gakpo was born in Eindhoven, raised in the Stratum neighborhood of the city. His father is from Togo with Ghanaian ancestry, his mother is Dutch. For years, three national teams could have claimed him — the Netherlands, Ghana, or Togo. He committed to the Netherlands, progressing through every Dutch youth level before becoming the Oranje's most dangerous forward. At Liverpool, he has become one of the Premier League's elite attackers. But his choice carries weight: Ghana, his father's ancestral home, still has not won a major tournament. Gakpo has never made a point of explaining the decision publicly, but when he scores for the Netherlands — a brace to win the pre-tournament friendly against Uzbekistan, including a 98th-minute winner — you see a player who has found where he belongs and is not letting go. In the Round of 32 against Morocco, days after his wife announced they had lost an unborn child, Gakpo still started — and scored in the 72nd minute. It was a goal freighted with a grief the rest of the tournament didn't know how to hold. The Netherlands lost 3-2 on penalties, and Gakpo went home carrying both things at once: a tournament exit and proof that he is exactly the person he always said he was.

Tunisia 2 stories

Tunisia (the team)

Six World Cups, Zero Knockout Rounds. They're Not Done Yet.

Tunisia has appeared at the World Cup six times — 1978, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018, and 2022 — and has been eliminated in the group stage every single time. While Cameroon reached the quarterfinals in 1990 and Morocco made the semifinals in 2022, Tunisia remains the most prominent African nation still waiting for its first knockout-round appearance. And yet the 2026 version of the Carthage Eagles qualified in the most extraordinary fashion possible: they became the first team in history to qualify for a World Cup without conceding a single goal across their entire qualifying campaign. Not one goal allowed. Whatever barriers have stopped Tunisia in the past — tactical, psychological, circumstantial — this team has arrived in North America with the credentials of a side that simply does not break. Breaking the drought now would be not just a result for a team. It would be a national transformation.

Hannibal Mejbri

The Kid From Paris Who Had to Fight Just to Play Football

Hannibal Mejbri grew up in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, the son of Tunisian immigrants — his father working markets, his mother once a physiotherapist. He showed enough talent as a boy to sign with Monaco's academy. Then Monaco allegedly breached his contract, and Hannibal spent months without playing competitive football at all, describing it as the dark side of football. He was a teenager. It would have ended most careers before they started. Instead, Manchester United came calling. Hannibal rebuilt himself, moved through clubs, and chose to represent Tunisia — his parents' homeland — over France, the country where he was born. At Burnley he established himself as one of the most combative, technically gifted midfielders in the Championship. Now at 23, playing for his parents' country on the world's biggest stage, every match carries a personal debt he intends to repay.

Sweden 2 stories

Viktor Gyökeres

From Brighton's Bench to Arsenal's Title to the World Cup

Viktor Gyökeres spent years at Brighton without ever truly breaking in, bounced on loans through Swansea, St. Pauli, and Coventry City, and quietly became the best striker nobody was talking about. Brighton let him go. Sporting CP in Portugal took him, and the goals came in floods. Arsenal paid 63.5 million euros in July 2025, and Gyökeres responded by winning the Premier League title in his first season with 20 goals — the first Arsenal striker to reach that mark in a debut season since 2014. Six weeks later, he is at a World Cup. Sweden hadn't even qualified for 2022. They got here because Gyökeres scored a hat-trick in the playoff semifinal against Ukraine, then the winner in a 3-2 final over Poland. This is a story about what happens when a journeyman refuses to accept that the journey is over — and a country is grateful that he didn't.

Alexander Isak

Born to Eritrean Immigrants in Stockholm, Carrying Sweden's Other Hope

Alexander Isak was born in Solna, just outside Stockholm, to parents who had emigrated from Eritrea. He grew up playing for local club AIK and became the youngest goalscorer in both the club's and Sweden's national team history. He went to Borussia Dortmund, then Real Sociedad, then Newcastle United, and in 2025 signed for Liverpool for 125 million pounds — breaking the British transfer record. The fee made headlines. The player has always been quieter than the numbers around him, a striker of rare technical elegance who plays without ego. At 26, this is his first World Cup. Sweden missed 2022 entirely. Isak missed much of Liverpool's 2025-26 season through injury, and his fitness heading into the tournament is the main thing Sweden fans are watching. If he is right, Sweden has a genuine weapon. If he isn't, the whole trip becomes something harder.

Group G

Iran 2 stories

Mehdi Taremi

The Journeyman Who Refused to Stop Climbing

Mehdi Taremi grew up in Bushehr, a port city on the Persian Gulf, the son of an amateur footballer who played in local leagues. His early career was anything but glamorous — he was released by his first professional club, forced to complete his mandatory military service at a garrison rather than on a football field, and spent years grinding through Iran's lower leagues before anyone paid attention. He eventually became a two-time Persian Gulf Pro League top scorer with Persepolis, then reinvented himself in Portugal with Rio Ave and Porto, won a domestic double, reached the Champions League final with Inter Milan, and now plays in Greece at 33. This is his third World Cup and arguably Team Melli's best chance yet — Iran has reached four straight tournaments but never survived the group stage. Taremi, who scored 10 goals in qualifying, is the one constant keeping that dream alive. He has outworked every obstacle his career put in front of him. Watching him chase down a knockout-round berth that has eluded Iran for decades is worth your time.

Team Melli

Just Getting Here Was the Feat

Iran's players arrived at this World Cup having navigated something most squads never face: a country under active military conflict, a US visa dispute that forced the team to base itself in Mexico and fly in only on matchdays, and the emotional weight of representing a nation in extraordinary crisis. Several staff members were denied visas entirely. The squad trained in Istanbul, flew to North America in stages, and prepared for group-stage matches against Belgium, New Zealand, and Egypt under conditions no other team in the tournament has had to manage. Whatever your feelings about geopolitics, what you see on the field is a group of players from a football-mad country who have cleared one astonishing obstacle after another just to stand on the pitch. Iran has reached four consecutive World Cups without once advancing past the group stage. For the players who made it here against all odds, this is about more than the game.

Belgium 2 stories

Kevin De Bruyne

One Last Chance for the Greatest Who Never Won

At 34, Kevin De Bruyne is almost certainly playing in his last World Cup, and the weight of that fact is something every soccer fan can feel. Belgium's golden generation — De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, Thibaut Courtois, and others — was supposed to win something. They reached third place at the 2018 World Cup, the deepest run in Belgian history. They bowed out in the quarterfinals in 2022. Hazard retired without a trophy. Kompany, Vertonghen, Alderweireld — all gone now. De Bruyne himself has won everything at the club level: multiple Premier League titles with Manchester City, before making a late-career move to Napoli. But the one thing missing from his extraordinary resume is an international title. He arrives in North America as his country's best hope and — almost certainly — for the last time. If Belgium are going to finally break through, it will be his left foot that does it. De Bruyne scored in Belgium's 5-1 rout of New Zealand in the final group match, helping the Red Devils top Group G. The golden generation lives for at least one more round. Against the United States in the Round of 16, De Bruyne orchestrated a 4-1 demolition in Seattle — two De Ketelaere goals, a Vanaken tap-in, a Lukaku insurance goal in stoppage time. Belgium are in the quarterfinals. Spain await. The last honest attempt is still very much alive. The quarterfinal in Los Angeles on July 10 was his last match. He was booked in the 85th minute and couldn't conjure a way through as Mikel Merino's 88th-minute finish ended Belgium's run 2-1. Kevin De Bruyne played 108 times for his country, created more chances than almost any player in the tournament's history, and never lifted a trophy. Sometimes the greatest player of a generation simply runs out of chances.

Romelu Lukaku

Back from the Brink, One More Time

Romelu Lukaku has spent his entire career fighting for respect. The son of a Congolese immigrant father who played briefly in Belgium, he grew up in difficult financial circumstances — he has spoken openly about the family going hungry when he was a child. He went on to become Belgium's all-time leading scorer with 89 international goals, yet he has rarely been given his due, dismissed by critics at Chelsea, Inter Milan, and elsewhere as inconsistent. Heading into this tournament, his situation is precarious: a muscle injury-plagued season at Napoli left him with barely an hour of competitive football. Manager Rudi Garcia took a chance on him anyway, trusting his experience over his form. Lukaku has always responded best when doubted. If this is his final major tournament, the only way he knows how to go out is by scoring. Against Senegal in the Round of 32, Belgium trailed 0-2 with eight minutes left. Lukaku headed home in the 86th minute — the goal that started the comeback. Tielemans tied it in the 89th, and Belgium survived into extra time. Lukaku did not score the winner, but he started the fire. That header, with his team 2-0 down in a knockout game, is exactly the player he has always been when his back is against the wall. Against the United States in the Round of 16, Belgium led 3-1 when Lukaku received the ball in stoppage time and finished without ceremony — his 90th international goal, his second of the tournament. The golden generation is in the quarterfinals, and Lukaku is still scoring when the exits are being handed out. The quarterfinal against Spain ended 2-1, with Lukaku coming on as a late substitute but unable to change the outcome. His 90th international goal, scored against the United States four days earlier, stands as his tournament farewell — the boy who grew up hungry in Brussels leaves the 2026 World Cup as his country's all-time top scorer, its biggest personality, and the player who started the fire when it mattered most, even if the fire wasn't enough in the end.

Egypt 2 stories

Mohamed Salah

The Record, the Legacy, the Last Run

Mohamed Salah has spent the better part of a decade being one of the best players on Earth, winning Premier League titles, Champions Leagues, and the hearts of Liverpool supporters across the globe. But for all of that, his international story with Egypt has been tinged with heartbreak — penalty shootout exits, AFCON finals lost, the 2022 World Cup qualification missed by a single playoff match. Now 33, with this almost certainly his last World Cup, Salah arrives as captain and with one of the great individual milestones in Egyptian football within reach: he sits just two goals shy of the national scoring record of 69, held by his own head coach, Hossam Hassan. The man he would dethrone is the man giving him orders on the touchline. Egypt has never reached a World Cup quarterfinal. Salah is the best player they have ever produced. Both stories could end very differently in the next few weeks. And then in the Round of 32 against Australia — with Egypt's place in the last 16 on the line and the shootout at 2-2 — Salah stepped up and chipped a panenka down the middle. Calm. Unhurried. The most composed penalty under the most pressure you will see at this tournament. Egypt won 4-2 on spot-kicks, claiming the country's first World Cup knockout win in four tournament appearances spanning 92 years. The next match is Salah vs. Messi. The entire world has circled it in red.

Omar Marmoush

He Had a Choice — He Chose Egypt

Omar Marmoush was born in Cairo, grew up there, and became a professional footballer there before moving to Europe at 18. When he developed into one of the most dangerous attackers in the Bundesliga at Eintracht Frankfurt, Canada — where he holds dual citizenship through his family — came calling and offered him a spot on their national team, which qualified for this very tournament. He said no. His heart was set on Egypt, the country where he grew up and where his career began. In January 2025, Manchester City paid roughly $75 million to sign him — making him the most expensive Egyptian player in history. He then chose to line up beside Salah at a World Cup rather than take the easier path to guaranteed qualification elsewhere. Egypt's first World Cup since 2018 has two of the most compelling footballers from the Arab world in the same attack. Marmoush chose to be one of them.

New Zealand 2 stories

Chris Wood

The All Whites' Record-Breaker, Finally on the Biggest Stage

Chris Wood has been the backbone of New Zealand's national football team for nearly two decades. At 34, he is now the country's all-time leading scorer with 45 goals and most-capped player with over 90 appearances. He was 18 the last time the All Whites reached a World Cup, in 2010 in South Africa, where he came on as a substitute in a team that famously went home unbeaten after three draws — the only unbeaten group-stage campaign that year. The sixteen years in between brought brutal playoff losses to Mexico, Peru, and Costa Rica. When New Zealand finally secured automatic qualification for 2026 under a new format that guaranteed Oceania a place, Wood went out and scored nine goals in qualifying, more than twice anyone else on the squad. He spent much of this club season at Nottingham Forest injured. He came back for the World Cup anyway. He's been waiting too long for this.

Tommy Smith

From the Premier League to the Sixth Tier — and Back to the World Cup

Tommy Smith's story is a love letter to the journeyman. The 36-year-old defender played Premier League football for Ipswich Town and Stoke City before working his way through the lower tiers of English football over the years. By the time New Zealand named their 2026 World Cup squad, Smith was playing in the sixth tier of English football for Braintree Town. He made the plane anyway. Along with Chris Wood, he is one of only two players in this squad who also represented New Zealand at the 2010 World Cup — the last time the All Whites made it to a major tournament. That is sixteen years of patience. He has continued playing at whatever level he could find, staying fit, staying available, waiting for exactly this moment. At the World Cup, no one cares what league you played in last season. They only care about what happens on the pitch.

Group H

Spain 2 stories

Lamine Yamal

The Kid Whose Family Crossed Borders for This Moment

Lamine Yamal will turn 19 a few days before the World Cup final. His father came from Morocco and his mother from Equatorial Guinea — his grandmother was the first to arrive in Spain, alone, sneaking onto a bus from Morocco and working morning, afternoon, and night shifts in a Catalan town to save enough money to bring the rest of her family over. Yamal has spoken openly about that story and about growing up between a mother who worked nights and a father who had moved in with his grandmother. He was signed by Barcelona's youth academy as a child and became, at 16, the youngest player ever to represent Spain's senior national team. He was the player of the tournament when Spain won Euro 2024. He comes into this World Cup as the centerpiece of a team that has not lost a competitive match in three years. At an age when most players are figuring out their first professional contract, he is already carrying the hopes of a nation — and honoring a family that bet everything on a dream. In the semifinal against France, Yamal drew the foul in the box that led to Oyarzabal's opening penalty — the moment that broke open the match and put Spain on a path to the final. He turned 19 two days before that game. He is already playing in a World Cup final.

Pedri

The Maestro Who Fought His Way Back

Pedri González spent two seasons watching his career get interrupted by injuries — a knee problem here, a hamstring pull there, an accumulation of setbacks that made people wonder if the talent that had dazzled the world at Euro 2020 (when he was just 18) and the 2022 World Cup would ever be fully available again. He fought back. The 2025-26 season was the most complete of his career: 29 appearances for Barcelona, nine assists, and the kind of form that reminded everyone why coaches call him irreplaceable. For Spain, he is the engine that makes everything else work — the player who controls tempo, connects attacks, and gives teammates like Yamal the space to be brilliant. Spain arrives at this tournament as the most complete team in the world and unbeaten in over three years of competitive play. Pedri, now fully healthy and playing at the peak of his powers, is a central reason why.

Uruguay 2 stories

Darwin Nunez

From Going to Bed Hungry to Leading a Nation

Darwin Nunez grew up in Artigas, one of Uruguay's poorest cities, in a neighborhood prone to flooding from the Cuareim river. His mother collected bottles for recycling; his father worked in construction. As a child, Nunez has said in interviews, there were many nights when he went to bed hungry — and his mother went to bed hungry more often, because she made sure her children ate first. His older brother gave up his own football career to support the family, his hopes ended by a knee injury. Darwin carried the weight of all of that out of Artigas and into the professional game, eventually landing at Liverpool and becoming one of the most explosive strikers in Europe. He is 26 now, Uruguay's captain and chief goal threat at this World Cup, playing alongside a new generation after icons Suarez and Cavani have passed the baton. The boy who went to bed hungry in Artigas is Uruguay's best chance at glory.

Fernando Muslera

He Retired. Then Uruguay Called Again.

Fernando Muslera announced his retirement from international football in April 2024, after 133 caps and a career that included four World Cups — more than any other Uruguayan player in history. He was 38. The chapter was closed. Then Marcelo Bielsa called him in March 2026 and asked him to come back for one more run. Muslera said yes. At 39, he is now preparing for his fifth World Cup — a Uruguayan record and one that puts him in the company of some of the most enduring international goalkeepers the sport has ever seen. He is not just a passenger: Bielsa picked him as his first-choice keeper, trusting his experience over younger options. Watching a goalkeeper who officially retired play in a fifth World Cup, recalled to service by one of the most demanding coaches in the game, is one of the stranger and more beautiful things this tournament has to offer.

Saudi Arabia 2 stories

Salem Al-Dawsari

The Man Who Scored the Most Iconic Goal in Saudi History

On November 22, 2022, in a match almost everyone expected to be a formality, Salem Al-Dawsari picked up the ball, drove at Argentina's defense, created space with a drop of the shoulder, and curled a shot past Emiliano Martinez — the goalkeeper who would go on to win the Golden Glove at that tournament. The goal sealed one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history, a 2-1 win over the defending champions and the team of Lionel Messi, who had lifted the Copa America just months before. Saudi Arabia celebrated through the night. Now 34 and serving as captain of both club side Al-Hilal and the national team, Al-Dawsari arrives at a second consecutive World Cup as the symbol of what Saudi football can do when it dares to believe. Three World Cup goals. One moment that the sport will not forget. He is back to add to the story.

Musab Al-Juwayr

The Next Chapter Starts Now

When Saudi Arabia names its 2026 World Cup squad, the youngest player in the group will be Musab Al-Juwayr, a 22-year-old midfielder from Al Qadsiah who turns 23 during the tournament itself. In a squad built largely around domestic players — 25 of the 26 compete in the Saudi Pro League, with only one player based abroad — Al-Juwayr represents something specific: the next generation. He has already scored six goals for the senior national team and established himself as one of the most exciting young players in Saudi football. He plays alongside veterans like Al-Dawsari who were there for the Argentina miracle in Qatar. Now it is his turn to be in the squad photograph, to learn from those legends, and to start writing his own World Cup story. In four years or eight years, it may be Al-Juwayr carrying the team.

Cape Verde 2 stories

Ryan Mendes

Sixteen Years. One Dream. He Made It.

Ryan Mendes made his debut for Cape Verde's national team shortly after they failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup. He was 20 years old and had just started dreaming of something that felt almost impossible for a tiny island nation of 600,000 people. He kept playing. Three more failed qualifying campaigns came and went. He kept playing. By the time Cape Verde finally won their qualifying group in October 2025 — beating out Cameroon and finishing ahead of Egypt's Mohamed Salah in the process — Mendes was 36 years old, the team's all-time leading scorer with 22 goals and most-capped player with 94 appearances. He is the captain of his country's first-ever World Cup squad. After the qualification was confirmed, he told AFP he still could not believe what they had achieved. This is almost certainly his only World Cup. He will lead his nation out for the first time onto the world's biggest stage having spent more than half his life waiting for the moment.

Cape Verde

The Smallest Nation on the Biggest Stage

Cape Verde is an archipelago of ten islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of West Africa, with a total population smaller than many individual US cities. The country gained independence from Portugal only in 1975 — and the 2026 World Cup qualification was clinched in the nation's 50th anniversary year of independence, a coincidence that felt more like fate to the people celebrating in the streets of Praia. Cape Verde is the smallest country by land area ever to qualify for the men's World Cup. The squad is drawn almost entirely from the diaspora: players born or raised in Portugal, the Netherlands, and beyond, all choosing to represent the islands their families came from. Coach Bubista, himself a former player who helped build this program from nothing, summed it up before the tournament: a small country on the map, he said, but a big heart. When Group H kicks off, that heart will be on display against Spain, Uruguay, and Saudi Arabia. They did more than qualify. Three draws — Spain, Uruguay, and Saudi Arabia — earned 3 points and a place in the Round of 32. A nation of 525,000 people, playing in their first-ever World Cup, is through to the knockouts. The belief was real.

Group I

France 4 stories

Didier Deschamps

The Man Who Won It All — One Last Shot at a Perfect Goodbye

Didier Deschamps has given France football more than almost anyone alive. He lifted the World Cup trophy as captain in 1998 on home soil — an image burned into French national memory — then returned as manager to win it again in Russia in 2018. He guided the team back to the final in Qatar in 2022, only to lose in one of the most dramatic shootouts the sport has ever seen. Now 57, Deschamps has publicly confirmed that this tournament will be his last as France manager. He is not chasing records or prize money. He is chasing the one thing that would make his story complete: a second gold medal, this time with a whistle in his hand instead of a captain's armband. No coach in the history of the tournament has won it as both player and manager. If France go all the way in North America, Deschamps becomes the first. That is the weight he carries into every press conference, every team meeting, and every 90 minutes this summer. He did not complete it. Spain's 2-0 semifinal win in Arlington ended his 14-year reign without that historic double — the record of winning the World Cup as both player and manager will require someone else to write. He steps away as the only man to captain a World Cup-winning side and manage his nation to two more finals — a legacy that is complete, even if the ending isn't what he wanted.

Théo & Lucas Hernández

Two Brothers, One Flag — A Family Story 90 Years in the Making

Brothers playing on the same international team is rare enough on its own. Théo and Lucas Hernández make it feel inevitable. Both grew up in Atlético de Madrid's academy, mentored by their father Jean-François Hernández, a former footballer who passed the game down like a family heirloom. Lucas earned his France debut in 2018 and was part of the World Cup-winning squad in Russia. Théo followed three years later. In 2021, they became the first brothers to start together for France since 1932 — a gap of nearly a century. Now they arrive at the 2026 World Cup as a unit on both sides of the ball, Lucas at Paris Saint-Germain and Théo at AC Milan, each having taken completely different paths through European football and arrived at the same destination. For a neutral watching from the stands, there is something deeply warm about two grown men lining up side by side for their country, representing not just themselves but the old man who first put a ball at their feet.

Kylian Mbappé

Chasing History: The Kid Who Could Rewrite the Record Books

Kylian Mbappé was 19 years old the last time France won a World Cup, and he scored twice in the final. He has since become captain, moved to Real Madrid, and collected trophies at a pace that would satisfy most players for an entire career. But what drives him into this tournament is a chase that only a handful of humans have ever had the chance to make. Mbappé enters the 2026 World Cup with 12 tournament goals — four behind the all-time record of 16 held by Germany's Miroslav Klose, a mark widely considered untouchable. Mbappé has been open about his belief that he is saving his sharpest form for this summer, telling reporters he is not focused on personal milestones but that the hunger in his eyes tells a different story. A deep run by France could put Klose's record within reach, and the drama of watching a 27-year-old at the height of his powers chasing the greatest individual mark in World Cup history is reason enough to tune in to every France match. In the Round of 32 against Sweden, Mbappé scored twice more (45', 74') — six tournament goals in four matches, ten short of Klose's 16. With France through to face Paraguay in the round of 16 and a potential quarter-final and semi-final beyond that, this is no longer a theoretical chase. The math is real, and Mbappé plays like someone who has already done it in his head. Then came the Round of 16: one penalty, one cold dispatch into the bottom corner against Paraguay, and Mbappé is at seven tournament goals — level with Lionel Messi for the golden boot. His 11th World Cup knockout-stage goal is now an all-time record no one else is close to. France are in the quarterfinals. Morocco are waiting. Nine goals separate Mbappé from Klose, with potentially three matches left. Then came the quarterfinal — Bounou saved his first-half penalty, which would have stopped most players cold. Instead, Mbappé curled a stunning finish into the far corner on 60 minutes, then set up Dembélé for the second with a single precise through-ball. Eight goals in the tournament. France are in the semifinals. The story keeps getting written. Then Spain stopped it. In the semifinal in Arlington, Mbappé was shut out completely — Spain's press gave him no space, no time, no angles. France generated just 0.26 expected goals. The record chase ends at eight goals this summer, two short of Klose's 16. He is 27 years old. He will be back.

Ousmane Dembélé

The 2025 Ballon d'Or Winner Is Playing Like It

Ousmane Dembélé won the 2025 Ballon d'Or — the highest individual honor in football — and arrived at the World Cup with everything to prove and nothing to lose. Dembélé scored the second-fastest hat trick in World Cup history against Norway (7', 20', 32' — 25 minutes), trailing only Austria's Erich Probst from 1954. France finished the group stage with a perfect 9 points. The Ballon d'Or winner proved the award was no fluke. In the quarterfinal against Morocco, Dembélé added another chapter: Mbappé slipped him through on goal and Dembélé was ice-cold, composedly firing into the bottom corner to seal a 2-0 win that sends France to the semifinals. The Ballon d'Or is from last September. This is what he's doing right now.

Senegal 2 stories

Sadio Mané

From Barefoot in Bambali to One Last Shot at the World's Biggest Stage

Sadio Mané grew up in Bambali, a village in southern Senegal where his parents farmed to survive and electricity was unreliable. He lost his father at age seven. As a boy he played football on dirt pitches, often barefoot or with a ball improvised from whatever was at hand. His neighbors called him 'Ballon Buwa' — the ball wizard. At 15, he borrowed money from a friend just to afford the bus fare to Dakar, hoping someone would notice his talent. They did. He went from Generation Foot's academy to Europe's elite, becoming one of the world's best forwards and Senegal's all-time leading scorer with 53 goals in 126 appearances. Now 34, Mané has announced he will retire from international football after this tournament. At the 2022 World Cup he watched from home, sidelined by injury at what should have been his peak. He came back. Senegal won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2025 with Mané as a central figure. And now he gets one more chance — the chance that injury stole from him four years ago — to show the world what that boy from Bambali became.

Idrissa Gana Gueye

131 Caps and Still Running: The Quiet Warrior on His Farewell Tour

There is no flashier story to tell about Idrissa Gana Gueye. He will not win a golden boot or a best player award. What he will do is run — relentlessly, thanklessly, magnificently — in the middle of Senegal's midfield, as he has done for over a decade. Gueye is Senegal's most-capped player, with 131 international appearances, a number that reflects not just talent but extraordinary longevity and dedication. He has played in the Premier League, Ligue 1, and Serie A, earning respect everywhere he has gone. At the 2022 World Cup he was a key figure as Senegal navigated a difficult group stage. Now, playing in what will almost certainly be his final World Cup, Gueye brings something no young talent can replicate: the unshakeable calm of someone who has seen everything the game can throw at you. For a Senegal side full of brilliant attackers, he is the engine room that makes it all possible — and a reminder that sometimes the most compelling story is quiet, consistent excellence.

Norway 2 stories

Erling Haaland

Father and Son, 32 Years Apart — Norway's Return to the USA

In 1994, a young Norwegian midfielder named Alf-Inge Haaland suited up for Norway at the World Cup, held right here in the United States. Norway went out in the round of sixteen. That team's moment passed, and Norway would not qualify again for another 32 years. The man who finally broke that drought is Alf-Inge's son, Erling — the most physically imposing striker in the world, the Manchester City machine who scored 16 qualifying goals, twice as many as any other player in Europe. Erling Haaland, 25, arrives at his first World Cup in the same country where his father played. The storybook symmetry of that — the son finishing what the father started, on American soil — is not lost on the Norwegian public, which has been waiting nearly three decades for this moment. Haaland already holds the record as Norway's all-time top scorer with 55 international goals. This summer he finally gets to see what he can do on the biggest stage of all. And he is doing exactly what everyone expected — another brace against Senegal (3-2 win), giving him 4 goals in 2 matches, and Norway have qualified for the knockout rounds. The 32-year wait is over, and the son has already outscored the father's entire World Cup in the group stage. Then came the Round of 32: Norway trailed Ivory Coast 1-1 with six minutes left when Haaland powered a header into the net in the 86th minute — Norway's first-ever World Cup knockout-round win. Alf-Inge Haaland went home without a knockout victory in 1994; his son just did what his father's generation never managed. Norway face Brazil in the round of 16, and Erling Haaland has five tournament goals and nowhere near the look of a man who is finished. Then came Brazil in the Round of 16. Goalkeeper Ørjan Nyland made the save of the tournament, denying Bruno Guimarães' penalty with Norway level at 0-0 and Brazil pressing hard. In the 90th minute, Haaland powered a header home; moments later, a left-footed finish made it 2-0 before Neymar's consolation penalty arrived. Final: Norway 2-1 Brazil. Seven tournament goals for Haaland, level with Messi in the Golden Boot race, and Norway are in the quarterfinals for the first time in their history. The son has now done everything the father's generation only dreamed about. Then came England in the quarterfinals, and the fairytale ended — but not without a fight. Schjelderup's early goal lit the fuse, the nation held its breath, and Haaland — hunted all night by two defenders who gave him nothing — couldn't find the clean look he needed. Bellingham equalized before halftime and struck the winner deep in extra time. Seven tournament goals, the first-ever Norwegian World Cup quarterfinal, and a generation of kids who now know what Erling Haaland looks like on the biggest stage in the world. The father got to the round of 16 in 1994. The son got to the last eight in 2026. The story is not finished.

Martin Ødegaard

The Comeback Captain: From Injury Worry to World Cup Leader

By February 2026, there were real questions about whether Martin Ødegaard would make it to the World Cup at all. The Arsenal captain had spent much of the season managing a second knee problem, left out of Norway's March squad, reportedly 'frustrated and grumpy' at watching from the sideline while his club charged toward the Premier League title. He has talked publicly about how difficult it is to be sidelined, to watch teammates compete while you wait and hope your body holds together. But Ødegaard is in the squad. He arrived in North America as Norway's captain, having just helped Arsenal to their first Premier League title in over two decades — and having contributed seven assists during Norway's 28-year drought-breaking qualifying campaign. He is 27 years old, playing the best football of his life, and finally competing at a World Cup for the first time. Whatever he went through to get here makes the moment sweeter, and Norway's group-stage games will be worth watching just to see him finally get his stage.

Iraq 2 stories

Zidane Iqbal

Born in Manchester, Named After a Legend, Playing for Two Heritages at Once

His name alone tells a story. Zidane Iqbal was born in Manchester to a Pakistani father and an Iraqi mother, named after French legend Zinedine Zidane by parents who loved football. He joined Manchester United's youth academy at nine years old and eventually made his first-team debut in the Champions League. When it came time to choose which country to represent internationally, Iqbal made the decision that said something about where his heart was: he chose Iraq, the country of his mother. He has since become a regular in the squad and is now confirmed for the 2026 World Cup — making him the first player of Pakistani origin to appear at a World Cup. Iraq's first World Cup appearance in 40 years is significant enough on its own, but Iqbal's story sits at the intersection of diaspora, identity, and belonging in a way that resonates far beyond football. Here is a kid from Manchester who could have represented England or Pakistan, who instead chose to stand for a country that has known hardship, and help bring it to the world's biggest stage.

Iraq National Team

40 Years in the Wilderness — A Nation Finally Gets Its Moment

Iraq's only other World Cup appearance came in 1986 in Mexico — during the Iran-Iraq War. Their players went to that tournament while their country was in open conflict. They went out in the group stage and came home to a world that had not stopped fighting. Four decades of wars, sanctions, instability, and failed qualifying campaigns followed. Then came Graham Arnold, an Australian coach who took charge of the Iraqi national team and guided them through a grueling Asian playoff, including a dramatic penalty winner against Bolivia to secure a spot in the intercontinental playoff. They beat the UAE on aggregate and sealed qualification on Mexican soil — full circle from 1986. Iraq's squad of 26 players includes four Christians, representing communities that have faced enormous pressure to leave the country over recent decades, each one a symbol that Iraq still belongs to all of its people. When Iraq takes the field against Norway, France, and Senegal this summer, an entire nation that has spent 40 years waiting will be watching.

Group J

Argentina 2 stories

Lionel Messi

A Sixth World Cup at 38 — The Final Chapter of the Greatest Story in Soccer

There are athletes who retire at the right time, and there are athletes who refuse to let the story end until they have written every last word. Lionel Messi, who turns 39 during this tournament, belongs to the second category. The 2022 World Cup was supposed to be his last — and it delivered what every Messi fan had dreamed of for two decades, a title that lifted the weight of 36 years of Argentine heartbreak. He could have walked away then. Instead he is back, at 38, carrying a slight hamstring concern into the squad, named as a starter in a 3-0 warm-up win over Iceland a week before the tournament began. This is his sixth World Cup. He and Cristiano Ronaldo will be the only men in history to play in six. The difference is that Messi already has one — and he is here not to prove anything, but simply because the game is not finished with him yet, and maybe he is not finished with it either. Watching him one more time, knowing it is the last time, is a gift. Then he made the gift unforgettable — Messi scored a hat trick in the opener against Algeria (3-0), tying Klose's record at 16. Two matches later, he scored twice more against Austria at AT&T Stadium in Dallas (June 22), pushing his tally to 18 World Cup goals — surpassing Miroslav Klose (16) and even Marta (17 in the Women's World Cup) to become the all-time leading World Cup scorer, men's or women's. Asked afterward to name his favorite World Cup goal, he said he was 'too tired' to recall. At 38, he is not just showing up — he is rewriting the record books in real time. And then he kept writing. Against Jordan in the group finale (2-1), Messi scored his 19th and 20th World Cup goals — a low left-foot finish and a drilled free kick — becoming the first player in history to score in seven consecutive World Cup matches. The record books no longer have a ceiling for him. When Messi scored in the 29th minute of the Round of 32 against Cape Verde — his seventh goal of the tournament — it looked like the easiest chapter in the last dance. Then Cape Verde leveled. Then Argentina led again. Then Sidny Lopes Cabral curled a 103rd-minute equalizer from the edge of the box, and the stadium went quiet. Then Romero's deflected header finally ended it, 3-2 after extra time. Even the scares are Messi's to survive. Then came Egypt in the Round of 16 — the matchup the sport had been building toward. Shobeir saved Messi's first-half penalty. Egypt led 2-0 with 11 minutes left. The exit door was open. And then, in the 83rd minute, Messi pulled one back himself — rifling a first-time strike that was his eighth goal of the tournament and the moment that swung everything. The comeback was complete three minutes into stoppage time. Messi has now scored in nine consecutive World Cup matches, a record that belongs to a completely different category of achievement than anything the sport has previously produced. The last dance refuses to let the lights come up. Against England in the semifinal, he didn't score — but he didn't need to. He threaded the assist for Enzo Fernández's 85th-minute equalizer, then found Lautaro Martínez for the 92nd-minute header that sent Argentina to the final. Two assists, both decisive, both in the last seven minutes. Messi will play in his sixth World Cup final, against Spain, at MetLife Stadium.

Julián Álvarez

The Spider from Calchín — A Small-Town Kid Carrying Argentina's Future

Calchín is a town in the Córdoba province of Argentina with roughly 2,000 residents. It is the kind of place where everyone knows your name before you have done anything worth knowing. Julián Álvarez grew up there, the son of parents who ran a small business and introduced him to football before he could read. At 14 he left for River Plate's academy — a leap that, from a town that small, might as well have been across an ocean. At Qatar 2022, while the world focused on Messi's extraordinary run to the title, Álvarez quietly scored four goals, including one in the semi-final and one in the final against France. He donated his entire Olympic bonus from the 2024 Paris Games — roughly 1.5 million Argentine pesos — back to Club Atlético Calchín to help rebuild facilities for kids just like he was. Now 26 and one of the world's best forwards at Atlético Madrid, he arrives at his second World Cup as the player who will carry Argentina forward when Messi's final chapter closes. Calchín will be watching every minute. Then came the quarterfinal against Switzerland, and the moment the kid from Calchín had been building toward. Trailing 1-1 in the 112th minute, with Argentina a man up after Breel Embolo's red card, Álvarez took the ball 25 yards out and curled a strike into the top corner — a golazo that had Messi sprinting across the pitch before it cleared the net. The boy who donated his Olympic bonus back to Club Atlético Calchín to help the next generation scored the goal that sent Argentina to the semifinals. Calchín watched every second. It always does.

Austria 2 stories

David Alaba

Two Years on the Sideline, Now Finally Here

In December 2023, David Alaba's knee gave out during a La Liga match at the Bernabéu. The diagnosis — a torn ACL — meant surgery, months of rehabilitation, and ultimately missing the entire Euro 2024 tournament that Austria reached under Ralf Rangnick. For a player who had spent his career collecting trophies at Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, the silence of the treatment table was brutal. His recovery lasted more than 13 months. He returned to action for Real Madrid in January 2025 and, by the time Austria's World Cup squad was named, was passed fit to travel. Austria's last World Cup was 1998 — a 28-year absence — and their most important player, the captain who holds the team together, nearly missed it entirely. Now 33, Alaba steps onto the biggest stage in football for the first time in his career, having earned it the hard way. Sometimes the most compelling stories are not about what comes easily.

Marko Arnautović

47 Goals, 132 Caps, and a First World Cup at 37 — Better Late Than Never

Marko Arnautović has had the kind of career that took him from Inter Milan to Stoke City to West Ham to Shanghai and eventually Red Star Belgrade — a winding path through European and world football that never quite delivered the crowning moment a player of his talent deserved. He is Austria's all-time top scorer with 47 goals in 132 appearances, and became their record holder in October 2025 during qualifying. He has played at multiple European Championships. But a World Cup? Never. Austria kept not quite getting there. Until now. At 37, Arnautović is the oldest player in the squad, a veteran watching younger teammates experience the nerves of a first major tournament appearance. His reading of the game, his hold-up play, and his ability to manufacture a goal from almost nothing make him quietly valuable. But the real story is simpler: a career that deserved a World Cup finally, improbably, gets one.

Algeria 2 stories

Riyad Mahrez

Rejected by Every Academy, Lost His Father at 15 — Now Leading Algeria at His Last World Cup

French academies looked at a teenage Riyad Mahrez and said no. Too slight. Not physical enough. He developed instead at modest clubs in the Paris suburbs, places with no scouts and no spotlight, taking whatever chance he could find. When he was 15, his father died of a sudden heart attack. Mahrez has said that something changed in him after that loss — a determination, a hunger that had not existed in quite the same way before. He eventually found his way to Leicester City, where he won the most improbable Premier League title in the history of English football, took the PFA Players' Player of the Year award, and became one of the most watched wingers in the world. He went on to win the Champions League with Manchester City. Despite being born and raised in France, he chose to represent Algeria — his father's country — and led them to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. Now 35, Mahrez has said plainly: this World Cup will be his last. 'I'm not Ronaldo,' he told reporters. He is leading Algeria back to the tournament for the first time since 2014, and every minute he plays on that pitch carries the weight of everything that came before.

Luca Zidane

His Father Changed French Football Forever — Now He Plays for Algeria

Zinedine Zidane is arguably the most gifted footballer France has ever produced, a man whose headbutt in the 2006 World Cup final is still analyzed and argued over twenty years later. His son Luca, a goalkeeper, grew up in the shadow of that legacy — training at Real Madrid, navigating the impossible weight of a famous surname in one of the most scrutinized sports environments on earth. Rather than chase a cap for France, Luca made a different choice: he declared for Algeria, the country his father's roots trace back to, and made his senior international debut at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations after arriving in the squad to cover an injury. He plays in the Spanish second division, a long way from the spotlight his last name might suggest. For Algeria supporters, he is not a novelty — he is a goalkeeper who earned his place. But for the neutral, there is something quietly meaningful about watching a Zidane represent North Africa on football's biggest stage, building a legacy of his own.

Jordan 2 stories

Jordan National Team

Eleven Attempts, Zero Success — Until Now

Jordan has tried to qualify for the World Cup more than ten times. For decades, qualification ended in heartbreak: a narrow defeat, a playoff loss, a group stage elimination on goal difference. The country came close enough, often enough, to understand exactly how far away close actually is. This generation changed that. Under coach Jamal Sellami, Jordan topped their qualifying group ahead of Saudi Arabia, then held their nerve to finish second behind South Korea in the next round, edging out better-resourced opponents. They became the first team from Jordan in the history of football to qualify for the FIFA World Cup. Jordan is a Middle Eastern nation of roughly 11 million people, a country that hosts one of the largest refugee populations per capita in the world, and a country that has never before seen its flag carried into a World Cup. When the Jordan team ran on the field at the draw in Miami, the videos of fans watching at home — screaming, weeping, calling their parents — said everything about what this means. Group J. Austria, Algeria, Argentina. None of those opponents are easy. None of that matters quite yet.

Mousa Al-Tamari

The Captain Who Carries a Nation on His Shoulders

If Jordan has one player the neutral fan should know, it is Mousa Al-Tamari. At 28, the Rennes winger is the captain and the only Jordanian competing in one of Europe's top five leagues. His last season in Ligue 1 — seven goals, eleven assists in 36 appearances — established him as a legitimate force at a high level of the game, not a token representative of a developing football nation. He has 23 goals in 76 international appearances, scoring in qualifying matches that mattered enormously. Al-Tamari is Muslim, of Palestinian heritage, and is a hafiz of the Quran — a man who memorized scripture and also torments full-backs on the wing. He has spoken about what Jordan's debut means to the people who follow the team, the supporters who have waited through all those failed qualifying campaigns. He carries that weight not as burden but as fuel. Jordan's chances of advancing from a group containing Argentina are long. But Al-Tamari's job is to make sure nobody forgets that Jordan was here.

Group K

Portugal 2 stories

Cristiano Ronaldo

Six World Cups. One Dream Still Unfulfilled.

No player in history has ever appeared in six World Cups. Cristiano Ronaldo, 41 years old and still scoring goals at a pace that would embarrass players half his age — 28 in the Saudi Pro League this season — is about to become the first. He arrived at his first World Cup in 2006 as a teenage prodigy and he arrives at this one as the most-capped, most-prolific international scorer the sport has ever produced (143 goals in 226 caps). Yet the one thing he has never held is a World Cup trophy. He has never even scored in a knockout round. The gap between his individual legacy and his World Cup record is one of soccer's great open stories. At 41, this is almost certainly his last chance to close it. If Portugal goes all the way and Ronaldo lifts that gold trophy, he would become the oldest player to win a World Cup, breaking a record set by Italy's Dino Zoff at age 40 in 1982. Then the farewell tour found its voice — Ronaldo scored a brace against Uzbekistan in a 5-0 rout, his first World Cup goals of the tournament, giving him 10 career World Cup goals across six tournaments. The knockout-round drought remains, but the man who refuses to be finished just reminded everyone he can still do this. In the Round of 32 against Croatia in Toronto, the drought finally ended — Ronaldo stepped up from the spot in the 68th minute, scored, and became at 41 the oldest player in World Cup history to score in the knockout rounds and the first man ever to score in all six World Cups he appeared in. The asterisk that followed him for twenty years is gone. The only unfinished business now is the trophy. But in the Round of 16, Mikel Merino's stoppage-time header for Spain ended Ronaldo's sixth and final World Cup. He confirmed afterward this was his last tournament appearance, saying he left with 'a clear conscience.' The trophy that would have completed the greatest individual career in the sport's history stays out of reach. The unfinished business is now permanent.

The Portugal Squad — for Diogo Jota

27 Players, Plus One, Forever

When Portugal head coach Roberto Martínez read out the World Cup squad in May, he paused after 27 names and said there was one more: Diogo Jota. The 28-year-old Liverpool forward died in a car crash in northwestern Spain in July 2025, along with his younger brother André. Jota had missed the 2022 World Cup with a calf injury, and reaching this tournament was a dream he carried and talked about openly. He won 49 caps for Portugal and scored 14 international goals, including helping win the Nations League. Martínez announced Portugal would travel to North America as '27 plus one forever,' and his teammates have taken that charge seriously — midfielder Rúben Neves said the squad would draw on Jota's memory for strength throughout the tournament. This Portugal team plays for a man who should have been there. Every match, every goal carries that weight.

Colombia 2 stories

Luis Díaz

The Goal That Made a Hostage Father Weep

In October 2023, armed men on motorcycles kidnapped Luis Díaz's parents from a gas station near their hometown of Barrancas, close to the Venezuelan border. His mother was rescued within hours. His father, Luis Manuel Díaz, was held by the ELN guerrilla group for 12 agonizing days while his son kept playing — kept showing up, kept running. Days after his father was released, Luis Díaz stepped onto the field for a World Cup qualifying match against Brazil and scored twice. In the stands, his father — wearing a Colombia jersey and a necklace — collapsed into tears on the people next to him and wept as his son celebrated. When asked about it afterward, Luis Díaz simply said: 'We have always lived tough moments, but life makes you strong and brave. So is soccer and so is life.' The Liverpool winger is now a central figure on Colombia's 2026 squad, and behind every sprint and every shot is the story of a family that held together through the worst.

James Rodríguez

The Kid Who Lit Up 2014 Gets One More Shot

Twelve years ago, a 23-year-old James Rodríguez announced himself to the world with a chest-trap-and-volley against Uruguay that many still call the greatest goal ever scored at a World Cup. He won the Golden Boot in Brazil 2014, led Colombia to the quarterfinals, and won the Puskás Award for the most beautiful goal of the year. Then came the years of injuries, exits from Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, a stint in Qatari football that felt like a sunset — and then a quiet revival. Now 34, he signed with Minnesota United in MLS just this past February, left the club in May to prepare for the tournament, and was named an undisputed leader by coach Néstor Lorenzo after shining in Colombia's final pre-World Cup warmup. He arrives in North America as the country's all-time leading scorer with 31 international goals. This is Colombia's chance to see him do it one more time on the biggest stage.

DR Congo 2 stories

DR Congo — The Nation

52 Years in the Wilderness. The Leopards Are Back.

The last time the Democratic Republic of Congo played at a World Cup, the country was called Zaire and was ruled by dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. That was 1974. The players who represented Zaire that summer reportedly played under threat — the story goes that Mobutu warned them the consequences of losing badly would follow them home. They lost all three games and were eliminated. One image endured: defender Ilunga Mwepu breaking from a defensive wall to boot away a Brazilian free kick before it was taken, an act the world laughed at for decades before understanding it may have been a desperate act of protest. Now, 52 years later, a new generation of Leopards — players raised in France, England, Belgium and the streets of Kinshasa — qualified by beating Nigeria on penalties in the CAF playoff final. This World Cup appearance belongs not just to the squad but to a country that has waited more than half a century for another moment on the world stage.

Yoane Wissa

£55 Million and a Country on His Back

Yoane Wissa was born in the suburbs of Paris to Congolese parents, grew up in the French football system, and spent years grinding through lower leagues before finding his footing at Brentford. Last season he became the first Congolese player to score 20 goals in a top-five European league since Shabani Nonda for Monaco in 2003-04 — a drought of over 20 years. Newcastle United paid £55 million to sign him in 2025, making him one of the most expensive African players in transfer history. But none of that compares to what this World Cup means: Wissa chose to represent DR Congo rather than France, his country of birth, and he now carries that flag into the biggest tournament on earth for the first time in his nation's modern history. When he runs at defenders in Group K, he carries 52 years of waiting with him.

Uzbekistan 2 stories

Uzbekistan — The Nation

34 Years of Independence. A First World Cup. A Nation Arrives.

Uzbekistan has been an independent nation since the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. In those 34 years, the country of 36 million people in Central Asia had never once qualified for a World Cup — until now. They sealed their spot with a goalless draw in Abu Dhabi in June 2025 and become the first Central Asian nation ever to reach the tournament. Their coach, Italian World Cup winner Fabio Cannavaro — who lifted the trophy himself as Italy's captain in 2006 — took over the job with a single mission and delivered. Cannavaro describes the Uzbek people as 'fighters at heart.' They scored 27 goals and conceded just 11 across qualifying. For American fans, this is soccer's purest underdog story: a small football nation that nobody saw coming, stepping onto the same field as Portugal and Colombia for the very first time. Every minute they play is historic.

Abdukodir Khusanov

From Bunyodkor's Youth Team to the Premier League — to the World Cup

Abdukodir Khusanov was born on February 29, 2004 — a leap-day baby — in Uzbekistan. He came through the youth academy at Bunyodkor, one of the country's biggest clubs, and at 18 made his first move abroad to a modest side in Belarus. From there he went to French club Lens, where he became the first Uzbek player to ever appear in Ligue 1. His performances there convinced Manchester City to pay roughly €40 million for him in January 2025, making him the first Uzbek player in Premier League history. He is 22 years old. In his first full season he helped City win the FA Cup and Carabao Cup. Now he walks into a World Cup group that includes Cristiano Ronaldo and a Colombian side ranked 13th in the world. The kid from Tashkent who nobody outside Central Asia knew three years ago is now anchoring the defense of a country making its debut on soccer's biggest stage. That path doesn't happen twice.

Group L

England 2 stories

Harry Kane

The Best Striker on Earth Who Has Never Won Anything

In 2025-26, Harry Kane scored 61 goals in 51 appearances for Bayern Munich — 19 more than any other player in Europe's top five leagues. By any objective measure, he is the finest center forward on the planet. He also has no trophies. Not with Tottenham, not with Bayern, not with England. At 32, Kane heads into his third World Cup as captain — matching Billy Wright's record of captaining England at three consecutive tournaments — and he has called 2026 'probably the best opportunity I'll get in my career to win the World Cup.' England haven't lifted that trophy since 1966, a 60-year drought that has become its own cultural wound. Kane is the rare footballer whose personal story and national story collapse into the same question: what does it take for the best to actually win? He arrives in top form, leading what he calls England's best-ever squad. The stage is set for the redemption arc everyone in English football has been waiting for. Then came DR Congo in the Round of 32. Kane had gone scoreless since Matchday 1, England were trailing at half-time, the doubts were getting louder. He scored in the 75th minute and again in the 86th — two goals in eleven minutes to win 2-1. The man who missed the decisive penalty at Euro 2024 answered the biggest question of his international career when the tournament actually counted.

Jude Bellingham

The Prodigy Who Needs to Find Himself Again

Two summers ago, Jude Bellingham's overhead bicycle kick in the 95th minute against Slovakia at Euro 2024 was one of the tournament's defining moments — the kind of goal that announced a generational talent stepping into the spotlight. Then came a difficult year. A shoulder injury required surgery. Real Madrid had a disappointing season, and Bellingham's numbers dipped with it — nine goals in all competitions. He arrives at this World Cup not as the unquestioned star, but with genuine questions about whether he'll even start the first game. That tension is its own story. Bellingham is 22 years old. He has the talent to be the player who defines this England generation. The 2026 World Cup is his chance to remind the world — and himself — of exactly who that is. As Ian Wright put it: even if Bellingham starts on the bench, 'at some stage he will make himself known in this tournament, because he produces big moments.' Then came Mexico at the Azteca in the Round of 16, and Bellingham finally answered every question about his 2026. Two goals in 98 seconds — the first, then immediately the second before the stadium could process it. England went down to 10 men when Quansah was red-carded in the 54th minute, but Bellingham's brace had already built the cushion Kane extended with a penalty. England held on 3-2. The 22-year-old who arrived at this tournament under real scrutiny left Mexico City looking like the defining player of his generation. Then came Norway in the quarterfinals on July 11, and Bellingham did it again — twice. His first-half equalizer was shrouded in controversy when the ball struck an aerial camera cable before landing to Elliot Anderson, then finding Bellingham; FIFA released a statement saying there was 'no evidence' the incident changed the ball's path. The noise barely mattered. In the third minute of extra time, Bellingham drove a second goal past Ørjan Nyland and England were in the semifinals. Six goals in the tournament — tied with Kane for England's top scorer — and the next match is Argentina. Bellingham vs. Messi: the succession story writing itself in real time.

Ghana 2 stories

Jordan Ayew

Son of a Legend, Finally Writing His Own Chapter

Jordan Ayew has spent his entire career in the shadow of a name. His father is Abedi Pelé — widely considered the greatest African player of all time, a three-time African Player of the Year, a Champions League winner with Marseille. His older brother André captained Ghana at the 2022 World Cup. Jordan is now doing it himself, becoming the second son of Abedi Pelé to lead the Black Stars to a FIFA World Cup in consecutive editions — something that has no parallel in the tournament's history. At 34, he is Ghana's all-time caps leader with 133 appearances and was the team's top scorer in qualifying with seven goals. When people suggest his career is explained by his father's name, Ayew laughs it off. He has earned this captaincy through accumulation — decade after decade of showing up. This World Cup is his moment, not his father's. And Ghanaians know the difference.

Antoine Semenyo

Rejected by Six London Clubs. Now Worth £64 Million.

By the time Antoine Semenyo was 15, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, Fulham, Millwall and Crystal Palace had all said no. He nearly quit the sport entirely. A youth academy coach at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College convinced him to keep going, and Semenyo eventually signed for Bristol City's academy and worked his way up, loan by loan, before getting his chance. Bournemouth signed him from the Championship in 2023, and he spent three seasons becoming one of the Premier League's most explosive wingers. This past January, Manchester City paid £64 million for him — one of the biggest fees ever for a Ghanaian player. Now 24, he arrived at Ghana's World Cup camp as the team's new main man, alongside captain Jordan Ayew. The teenager who couldn't get a trial at any London club is now worth more than most of those clubs' starting elevens. Ghana is counting on him to carry that story all the way to the knockout rounds.

Croatia 2 stories

Luka Modrić

The Refugee Who Became the World's Best Player Is Playing His Last Dance

In December 1991, Luka Modrić was six years old when Serbian militia attacked his village in Croatia during the war of independence. His grandfather — also named Luka — was captured and executed on a road near their home. The family fled. For the next seven years, Modrić, his parents and his sister lived in a hotel in Zadar with no electricity and no running water, listening to artillery fire. He learned to play soccer in a parking lot. That boy is now 40 years old, a five-time Champions League winner, the 2018 World Cup Golden Ball winner as the tournament's best player, and captain of a Croatian team heading to its fifth consecutive World Cup — this one almost certainly his last. He fractured his cheekbone in April 2026 while playing for AC Milan and recovered in time to make the squad. Croatia reached the final in 2018 and the semifinals in 2022 with Modrić orchestrating everything. One more deep run, and the kid from the hotel parking lot ends his story where it belongs: on top. Against Ghana in the group finale, Modrić didn't score — he set up the winner. His 83rd-minute corner found Vlašić's head and sent Croatia through to the Round of 32 to face Portugal in Toronto. The farewell is still being written, one more corner kick at a time. In the Round of 32 against Portugal in Toronto — his final World Cup match — Modrić played every minute with the focus of a man writing the last chapter himself; he helped set up Croatia's opener and kept conducting even as the comeback was unraveling around him. When VAR wiped out Croatia's last-gasp equalizer and the final whistle blew, the kid from the hotel parking lot in Zadar made his last walk off a World Cup pitch — four medals from seven tournaments, a 2018 Golden Ball, and a career that will outlast every reasonable comparison. The farewell is written.

Ivan Perišić

The Comeback That Refused to Stay Quiet

Ivan Perišić has been here before — many times. The Croatian winger was outstanding in the 2022 World Cup, scoring six goals to tie Croatia's all-time record at the tournament. Then came a career-threatening ACL injury that required surgery and months of rehabilitation. Most players at his age, approaching 37, walk away after something like that. Perišić came back. He returned to action with PSV Eindhoven and earned his place back in Zlatko Dalic's squad for this tournament. He arrives with 38 international goals — trailing only Davor Šuker and Modrić on Croatia's all-time list — and with six World Cup goals that could become seven or more if Croatia go deep. He plays alongside Modrić, the other survivor of the golden generation, in what is almost certainly both of their final tournaments. When Croatia take the field, they carry the memory of a country that once played soccer in bombed-out streets — and made it all the way to the final.

Panama 2 stories

Panama — The Nation

Eight Years of Growing Up. Back for More.

In 2018, Panama made their first-ever World Cup appearance in Russia — and lost all three group games without taking a point. It could have been a painful one-off, a footnote. Instead, it became a foundation. In the years since, Panama developed into a genuine CONCACAF force: Gold Cup finalists in 2023, CONCACAF Nations League finalists in 2025, Copa América quarterfinalists in 2024. Their qualifying campaign for 2026 was unbeaten — five wins, three draws, zero losses, 14 goals scored, only four conceded. That is not luck. It is a small nation, population 4.3 million, that decided their 2018 debut was a beginning, not a ceiling. They arrive in Group L knowing England and Croatia are the heavy favorites, and they genuinely do not care. They have already earned the right to stand on this stage twice. This time, they are playing to take points.

Ismael Díaz

The Top Scorer Nobody in the US Saw Coming

Ismael Díaz announced himself in CONCACAF long before most American soccer fans knew his name. He won the Golden Boot at the 2023 Gold Cup with six goals and finished as Panama's top scorer across their entire 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign with eight goals — more than any other player on the roster. He now plays in La Liga for Real Betis in Spain, one of a wave of Central American players who have quietly built careers at Europe's mid-tier clubs without much fanfare in the English-language soccer press. At 24, this World Cup is his introduction to a global audience. Panama's best chance of a historic first win almost certainly runs through him. He is the kind of player you have never heard of who will make you stop and rewind the replay. Pay attention early.