World Cup preview
Selection drama's, Managerial sackings and a whole host of new Countries to get familiar with.
Group A
Mexico (FIFA Ranking 15)
Mexico enter the World Cup by virtue of being Co-Hosts but have decent pedigree coming into this tournament as the CONCAF Gold Cup winners, where they beat USA 2-1 in the final as well as winning the CONCAF Nations League, beating Panama in the final of that one. They are currently ranked 15th in the world and will fancy their chances of going far in this tournament on home soil.
They’re managed by Mexican Javier Aguire who has an extensive CV in both club and international management having managed heavily in Spain with Osasuna, Atletico Madrid, Real Zaragoza and Espanyol as well as taking in international jobs at Japan and Egypt. This is his third spell in charge of his nation of birth with stints between 2001-02 and 2009-10 and his third time at a World Cup with neither Japan or Egypt managerial stints lasting long enough for him to take them into the competition
In their recent international friendlies, Mexico have drawn with Belgium and Portugal and beaten Iceland convincingly (4-0) They operated with a 4-1-4-1 / 4-1-2-3 formation in those games.
The most notable name in their World Cup squad for viewers of English football is Fulham striker Raul Jimenez who at 34 years of age is probably featuring in his last World Cup but a lesser known name to keep an eye of for is Junior Quinones who has 26 goals in 26 games in the Saudi Pro League leaving him one shy of Ivan Toney and the Golden Boot for the season.
South Africa (FIFA Ranking 60)
South Africa currently sit 60th in the world. They topped a qualifying group containing Nigeria, despite suffering defeats to Lesotho and Rwanda. They were less successful in the Africa Cup of Nations, losing to Egypt in their group and then falling to a 2-1 defeat by Cameroon in the round of 16. Their World Cup preparation hasn’t gone too well with back-to-back friendlies against Panama resulting in a draw and a defeat.
They’re managed by Hugo Broos, a Belgian who has been in charge since 2021 having previously managed Cameroon with whom he won the AFCON in 2017. His early management career took in a number of Belgian sides including Club Brugge, Anderlecht and Genk so he’s another manager in Group A who has a vast swathe of experience across club and country roles.
Bafana Bafana have one current Premier League player in their ranks in Lyle Foster whilst captain and Goalkeepr Ronwen Williams is a graduate of the Tottenham youth system who now like the majority of the rest of the squad plays back in his home country.
One player to keep an eye on who you may not know is 21-year-old Relebohile Mofokeng. The talent youngster has excellent close ball control, superb dribbling ability, and loves a shot from outside the box. He has 10 goals and 7 assists in 21 matches this season.
South Korea (FIFA Ranking 25)
South Korea qualified unbeaten across their two Asian qualifying groups with 11 wins and 5 draws and have had notable friendly wins against the USA and Ghana. However, their latest two friendlies against the Ivory Coast and Ghana have both ended in defeat.
Having tried a failed with a foreign coach in Jurgen Klinsmann, South Korea have returned to one of their own in Hong Myung-Bo who like Javier Aguirre has also previously managed his nation. That stint was not a success and ended after a winless 2014 World Cup. He’ll be hoping for better things this time round.
This current squad went viral recently for having a full back five of Kim’s, something that could be repeated in this tournament. This squad contains Championship interest with Birmingham’s Paik Seung-Ho and Swansea’s Ji Sung-Eom in the squad. There’s also European talent with Lee Kang-In and Kim Min-Jae both making it to the latter stages of the Champions League with PSG and Bayern respectively.
This is also probably a last hurrah for former Spurs icon Son Heung-Min with the 33-year-old now plying his trade in the US.
Czechia (FIFA Ranking 41)
This is a Czech team that has done things the hard way, finishing second in their qualifying group before a pair of 2-2 draws, both won on penalties against Ireland and Denmark have seen them through to the main draw.
They replaced their manager after the group stages with 74 year old Miroslav Koubek coming in for those two knockout qualifiers to get his first ever taste of International management. The experienced manager knows the Czech Liga 1 inside out have managed Victoria Plzen on three separate occasions as well as Slavia Prague and a small stint working with the Czech under 19 side.
In terms of names in the current squad to keep an eye out for the most obvious is Patrik Schick who has 100 goals in 207 career appearances for Bayer Leverkusen. There’s Premier League representation from Tomas Soucek and Ladislav Krejci with the majority of the squad still playing their football in Czechia.
Group B
Canada (FIFA Ranking 30)
Another of the hosts head up Group B in Canada, who have slowly been climbing the FIFA rankings of the last five or six years. They’ve not lost many of the Friendlies they’ve played holding Iceland, Tunisia and Colombia to draws but they were knocked out of the CONCAF Gold Cup by Guatemala in the Quarter Final stage.
The man in charge is a man who will be familiar to fans of the English game but not necessarily for the right reasons. Jesse Marsch faired only slightly better in the Premier League as his compatriot Bob Bradley with both men giving off Ted Lasso vibes on occassion. He took over as Canada manager in 2024 after a year out following his sacking by Leeds and this is his first international role.
Alphonso Davies is unquestionably Canada’s star man but has had an injury hit season and hasn’t featured for his country since March 2025 so may take time to get up to speed.
Marsch has some big hitting strikers to call on with Jonathan David (Juventus) and Tani Oluwaseyi (Villareal) available and some top-level Championship depth with Liam Millar, Cyle Larin and Ali Ahmed having good seasons with their club sides.
22-year-old Anderlecht midfielder Nathan Saliba could be one to watch.
Bosnia and Herzegovinia (FIFA Ranking 65)
40-year-old Edin Dzeko is the headline member of a Bosnia and Herzegovina squad who made it here through the European qualifying stage beating first Wales and then Italy on penalties. It is only their second World Cup appearance with the other coming back in 2014. Dzeko and Sead Kolasinac are the only two players left in the squad who featured then.
Dzeko comes into the tournament having helped Schalke to return to the Bundesliga with six goals in ten appearances.
At the other end of his career Esmir Bajrakterevic is one to keep an eye on. The 21-year-old could have been featuring in this tournament for the home nation having represented the USA at under 23 level. He only started eight games for PSV in the Eredivisie but finished the season strongly ending on four goals and four assists whilst also putting in a man of the match performance against Italy in the aforementioned qualifying match creating six chances.
Like Jesse Marsch the Bosnia and Herzegovinia manager has no international management experience, in fact Sergej Barbarez has no management experience at all but did play for his country as well as featuring in the Bundesliga for Hamburger SV and Bayer Leverkusen.
I have them down as dark horses to get out of this group and cause some upsets.
Qatar (FIFA Ranking 55)
The hosts of the last iteration have had to qualify the hard way this time to reach their second World Cup. They won their initial group before finishing fourth in the next round behind Iran, Uzbekistan and UAE which meant they had a third set of fixtures to finally make it through, this time besting the UAE and drawing with Oman to get the four points need.
They’ve gone down the route of trying to bring in the best in the business for the managerial hotseat with Julen Lopetegui. Despite failing in the Premier League with both Wolves and West Ham, the Spaniard has an impressive CV with Porto, Real Madrid and Sevilla. He has unfinished business with the World Cup having been relieved of his post whilst in charge of Spain just days before the 2018 iteration having been announced as Real Madrid Head Coach the day before the tournament was about to start.
In terms of playing talent, the entire squad play in Qatar so it remains to be seen how they’ll fare against the elite talent on show at this level but they’ll take hope from two of their players led the goal and assist charts in Asian qualifiers. Left winger, Akram Afif finished with 11 assists and has 40 goals in 130 appearances for his country whilst Almoez Ali finished on 12 goals and has 57 in 123 for his country.
Switzerland (FIFA Ranking 17)
The top ranked team in this group have decent World Cup history having made the last 16 in their last three appearances in the competition. They breezed through qualification without losing a match in a group containing Kosovo, Slovenia and Sweden and went toe to toe with Germany in a recent friendly, losing 4-3.
Manager Murat Yakin has been in charge since 2021. He was the man in charge at Euro 2024 where his side fell to England on penalties at the Quarter Final stage.
Their squad is one that have been around for a while. There’s not too much young talent around but they have some top level players who have the experience and knowhow in Manuel Akanji, Granit Xhaka, Remo Freuler, Ricardo Rodriguez and Denis Zakaria.
Keep an eye out for Freiburg’s Johan Manzambi who has had a very good season in the Bundesliga with five goals and four assists from midfield.
Group C
Brazil (FIFA Ranking 6)
Brazil are the only team to have featured in every single World Cup tournament but the five time Champions only just made it through qualifying, finishing 5th in the CONMEBOL qualifiers and losing six times. They have an abundance of attacking talent. So much so that Joao Pedro has not made the squad but their defence is ageing. Alisson, Ederson, Weverton, Danilo, Marquinhos, Alex Sandro and Douglas Santos are all in their 30’s so it will have to be an all out attacking game plan for manager Carlo Ancelloti. This will suit the Italians style as he favours setting teams up to allow for individual brilliance. And brilliant individuals they certainly have in Raphinha and Vinicius Junior as well as one of Europe’s form strikers Igor Thiago who has netted 22 times for Brentford this season.
Morocco (FIFA Ranking 8)
Morocco are technically AFCON champions having been awarded the trophy due to Senegal’s players walking off the pitch in protest at conceding a last minute penalty with the confirmation taking place two months after the completion of the final itself. Their route through qualifying was much simpler as they played eight and won eight. They also won the FIFA Arab cup back in December 2025 and look to be the strongest African team in this tournament.
Walid Regragui stepped down after the AFCON so the Atlas Lions will have a new man in charge in Belgian Mohamed Ouahbi who makes the step up from the under 20s.
Brahim Diaz and Achraf Hakimi are the stand out talent but there are a number of Premier League talents in the squad with Noussair Mazraoui, Issa Diop, Chiadi Riad, Chemsdine Talbi and Amine Adli already plying their trade in England’s top tier.
Someone who could have his international breakthrough in this tournament is Samir El Mourabet who has had an excellent season breaking up play and dominating midfields for RC Strasbourg in Ligue 1.
Haiti (FIFA Ranking 83)
Haiti made it through their CONCACAF qualifying group with just two defeats largely thanks to the goalscoring exploits of Duckens Nazon who scored six times for his country, a far cry from his current club form where he plys his trade for the Persian Gulf League champions Esteghlal. He’ll be a familiar name for both Coventry and Oldham fans with his brief stint in English football resulting in a decent goal return for both of those sides.
Two current Premier League players will carry a lot of the hopes and burdens of the island nation. Wilson Isidor has gone from strength to strength at Sunderland and despite only starting 11 games in the Premier League this season he has six goals to his name whilst Jean Ricner Bellegarde brings versatility to the squad with a profile that is able to slot in anywhere in midfield.
French manager Sébastien Migné has plenty of international management experience having taken charge of Congo and Kenya as well as being assistant manager at Cameroon in his career.
Scotland (FIFA Ranking 43)
Steve Clarke’s Scotland are back on the worlds biggest stage after a 28 year absence topping a group containing two European Championship winners in Denmark and Greece with just one defeat. That qualification was built around a strong midfield unit, with Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour now Serie A winners and playing the best football of their respective careers. John McGinn is another who is having a cracking season with Aston Villa and finishes the season with Champions League football and a European trophy to his name.
The rest of the squad contains talent from the Premier League, Serie A and some top end Championship performers so there’s no reason that the Scots can’t spring a few surprises.
The fact that Clarke has been in charge since 2019 means that he’ll have embedded his values and tactics into every member of the squad and as we’ve seen from league football this season, stability can go a long way.
Group D
USA (FIFA Ranking 16)
The final host on the list we only have friendly results to go by in recent times. They’ve been looking to test themselves against the big guns. A 5-1 victory over Uruguay in November last year was impressive but more recent friendlies against Portugal and Belgium have resulted in defeats. Where they may have an edge over the other two home nations is with the man in charge. Mauricio Pochettino was widely adored during his spells at Southampton and Tottenham but his stints at PSG and Chelsea dented his reputation and he has turned to international management to try and reignite that fire.
He has a decent amount of talent in his squad in the better-known Antonee Robinson, Timothy Weah, and Folarin Balogun as well as a couple of form players in Malik Tilman at Bayer Leverkusen and Ricardo Pepi who has 16 goals in 26 matches for PSV Eindhoven.
Paraguay (FIFA Ranking 40)
Paraguay took the final qualification spot in the CONEMBOL qualifying section in a qualifying campaign that saw them beat both Brazil and Argentina, however their friendly results since then have been less impressive with a defeat to group opponents USA in November 2025 alongside losses to South Korea and Morocco.
Argentine Gustavo Alfaro has World Cup management experience with Ecuador in 2022 before taking charge of Costa Rica and then Paraguay.
If fit, Miguel Almiron will be their talisman but there is some depth in the squad too with Diego Gomez enjoying a breakthrough with Brighton this season, whilst Omar Aldarete has looked every bit a Premier League Centre-Back with Sunderland.
Julio Enciso, now a RC Strasbourg feels like he’s been around for ages but is still just 22 and has a match winning screamer in his locker.
Australia (FIFA Ranking 27)
The Socceroo’s made it to this tournament with just one loss in their AFC qualifying section and despite lacking star names as such, possess a squad full of work ethic and tactical discipline. At the helm is Tony Popovic whose extensive A-League experience is now being put to work at the international level having won coach of the year on three occasions in his nation’s top tier.
Veterans Matt Ryan and Jackson Irvine will be complemented with two top Championship performer’s of recent years in Cameron Burgess and Riley McGree alongside the prodigious talent of Nestory Irankunda who has all of the raw attributes to be a match winner having now got a full season of football with Watford under his belt.
Turkey (FIFA Ranking 22)
Turkey announced themselves in the Euro’s a couple of years ago, reaching the quarter-finals and were unfortunate not to go further. That impressive performance was thanks to a whole host of talented youngsters, the diamond of which is Arda Guler. The 21-year-old has slowly been working his way into the fold at Real Madrid and finished this season with four goals (including one from his own half) and nine assists. Kenan Yildiz (Juventus) and Can Uzun (Eintracht Frankfurt) make up the talented attacking unit but there is also strength elsewhere. Galatasary who have excelled domestically and in Europe provide more talented attackers in Baris Yilmaz and Yunus Akgun alongside Goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir with the Premier League being represented by Altay Bayindir and Ferdi Kadioglu whilst it would be rude not to mention the veteran talisman Hakan Calhanoglu.
The man in charge is Vincenzo Montella a very experienced Italian who has managed some of Italy’s biggest clubs including Roma and Milan and is now cutting his teeth on the international stage.
Group E
Germany (FIFA Ranking 10)
Germany are always a big player at these tournaments but this is not quite the side that won the 2014 iteration of this competition. They topped their qualifying group but the Nations League is perhaps a better measure of this teams merits where they were defeated by Portugal and France. An experienced backline and central midfield that contains veterans Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka will provide a solid base for Julian Nagelsmann’s younger attacking players.
Florian Wirtz and Nick Woltemade will have points to prove after underwhelming seasons for their club sides whilst Kai Havertz with a newly minted Premier League title to his name has a unique profile and looks set to be trusted by Nagelsmann to lead the line.
The German’s will also be hoping that Bayern Munich youngster Lennart Karl is the next wonderkid to announce himself on the world stage.
Curacao (FIFA Ranking 82)
Curacao will become the smallest country to ever participate at World Cup on two fronts this summer. They have a population of just over 158,00 people across a land mass of just 444 square kilometres. Despite that they excelled in CONCAF qualifying, scoring 28 goals under the stewardship of Dick Advocaat.
This is where things get complicated on the managerial front. The Dutchman stepped down briefly due to his daughters ill health, was replaced by Fred Rutter who lost back to back friendlies before Advocaat returned to take his charges into this tournament.
This is not a team of semi-pro’s, the majority of the squad play in the Eredivisie but there is representations from the top divisions in the US, Turkey and Belgium as well as a contingent from the Championship.
Former Manchester United man Tahith Chong is the most notable name in the squad and has two goals in four games for his country but Jurgen Locadia and Kenji Gorre are others to watch out for and both have had brief spells in English football.
Ivory Coast (FIFA Ranking 34)
This is an Ivory Coast side in transition but pack full of talented youngsters. Alban Lafont has switched his allegiance from France to take his place between the sticks, Ousmanne Diomande has been crucial to Sporting Lisbon’s defensive solidity whilst his name sake Yan Diomande has 12 goals and 8 assists in the Bundesliga at just 19 years of age from right-wing, while 20-year-old Bazouma Toure on the other side has also impressed.
Frank Kessie, Nicolas Pepe and Ibrahim Sangare provide top level experience while Amad Diallo is now undroppable by Manchester United and also takes his place in the squad.
Simon Adingra has spent the second half of the season on loan away from Sunderland at Monaco and got himself back into contention whilst up front Yoann Bonny is a striker with a bunch of potential if Football Manager is to be believed.
Ecuador (FIFA Ranking 23)
Two Champions League finalists (Nacho and Hincapie) and the Premier League’s best defensive midfielder (Caicedo) will make up the core of Ecuador’s starting 11 and give them a solid base as they look to make it out of their group. That combined with manager Sebastian Beccacace’s defensive mentality means it’s unsurprising that 9 of their last 11 games have been draws. Five of those were 0-0’s so don’t expect entertainment when the South American’s are playing.
Much of the attacking hopes will be placed on the shoulders of Chelsea’s Kendry Paez who despite high expectations has failed to do much of note in his two loan spells at Strasbourg and River Plate and will be hoping to kickstart his career here, while record goalscorer Enner Valencia looks set to lead the line at yet another World Cup despite now being 36 years of age.
Group F
Netherlands (FIFA Ranking 7)
Having failed to qualify for Russia 2018 this Netherlands team is now climbing it’s way back up the international rankings. Ronald Koeman is back at the helm for a second time. Despite managing his country for a combined seven years across his two spells this will be his first time at a World Cup.
Other than England the Oranje squad contains the most Premier League players. Virgil Van Djik, Jermie Frimpong, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo from Liverpool. Nathan Ake and Tijani Reijnders from Man City and the fastest centre-back in the country Mickey Van de Ven from Tottneham.
Memphis Depay, now at Corinthians could still be the man trusted to lead the line but Koeman will have a plan B as Wout Weghorst is yet again on the plane, whilst Sunderland’s Brian Brobbey will have done his chances of getting minutes no harm this year.
Japan (FIFA Ranking 18)
If Japan’s friendly results this year are anything to go by then the worlds 11th most populous country could well be dark horses. They have chalked up victories over Brazil and England having breezed through qualification with just one loss.
Under the stewardship of Hajime Moriyasu, they have won 70 of 101 matches.
Ao Tanaka and Daichi Kamada will be familiar to Premier League fans but it’s the form of Goalkeeper Zion Suzuki that could really make the difference with the 23-year-old in great form coming at the end of the Serie A season.
Sweden (FIFA Ranking 38)
In recent times Sweden have been known for their talismanic striker, Henrik Larsson was quickly follow by Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Now they have two of the Premier Leagues best front men in Victor Gyokeres and Alexander Isak. The trick is figuring out how to get the best out of both of them together. After the failed spell of Jon Dahl Tommason the Swedish Football association have turned to their adopted son Graham Potter to take charge at this tournament.
At one point during his Brighton tenure, Potter was a serious contender for the England job but failed spells at Chelsea and West Ham have seen his star wane. It was at Ostersunds FK in Sweden where he made a name for himself so he’ll be back in familiar surroundings.
The balance of his squad will be boosted by some in form players. Yasin Ayari has finally broken through the ranks at Brighton and become one of their most important players whilst Benjamin Nygren has hit 16 goals in a season that saw Celtic win the title on the final day.
Tunisia (FIFA Ranking 44)
Former Nottingham Forest and Cardiff City manager Sabri Lamouchi took charge of Tunisia after a last 16 exit in the Africa Cup of Nations. His squad is one without star players with the most recognisable name being Burnley’s Hannibal Mejbri.
Celtic Sebastien Tounetki and Norwich’s Anis Ben Slimane are others that may be familiar but their status as squad players at both of those clubs tells a story.
Although the African Qualifiers aren’t the best yardstick of a teams skill, Tunisian fans will take some hope from the fact that their side were unbeaten, winning nine and drawing one without conceding a single goal in that time.
Group G
Belgium (FIFA Ranking 9)
This will be the last tournament for much of the golden generation that like England’s before them have so far failed to deliver on their promise. Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku both get call ups depsite the latter having an injury hit season whilst it could also be the last World Cup for Thibaut Cortois, Thoman Meunier and Axel Witsel.
Manager Rudi Garcia has an extensive club CV taking in Lille, Roma, Marseille and Napoli but this will be his first taste of international management.
Aston Villa pairing Amadou Onana and Youri Tielemans will form the base of midfield and allow Belgium’s wing wizards to do the damage. Jeremy Doku has always been a talent but seems to have taken his game to an extra level for Manchester City in the season run in.
Their weakness is their former strength. Where there was once Vincent Kompany, Toby Alderweirald and Jan Vertonghen a lot will now be resting on the heads of young defenders Koni De Winter and Nathan Ngoy.
Egypt (FIFA Ranking 29)
Egypt have failed to win a World Cup game in seven attempts. They were unbeaten in qualifying and have been drawn in a group that gives them a very good chance of ending that record.
Manager Hossan Hassam has been in charge since 2024 but given how the African competitions have fallen it means he has already been in charge for 31 matches of which he’s only lost five.
Eight members of his squad play for Egyptian side Al Ahly including former Aston Villa winger Trezeguet but the real firepower is the two Premier League players up front, Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush.
The surprising call up is 18-year-old Hamza Abdelkarim who is on loan at Barcelona from Al Ahly and has been featuring for their under 19s.
Iran (FIFA Ranking 21)
Iran are another team to qualify top of their group. Amir Ghalenoei has been in charge since 2023 and has a 74% win record across his 39 matches. It is his second spell in charge of his country with he previous stint in charge coming back in 2006.
Mehdi Taremi, who is now at Olympiacos will once again be their talisman whilst Saman Ghoddos who made 108 appearances for Brentford and Alireza Jahanbaksh who appeared 61 time for Brighton will be familiar faces.
Don’t expect attractive, free flowing football as Iran are a very defensive side due to their ageing backline. Shoda Khalilzadeh who plays for Iranian side Tractor in 37 years old and he’s joined by two 36 year olds, three 33 year olds and five 32 year olds in the squad.
New Zealand (FIFA Ranking 85)
New Zealand have been the beneficiaries of there now being an automatic qualification spot for Oceania, with Australia having been moved out into the Asian section.
Their friendlies since going through, however, have not been impressive with losses to Ukraine, Australia (twice), Poland, Colombia, Ecuador and Finland.
They’re managed by Englishman Darren Bazeley who has managed this nation at every single age group level from U-17 to U-23’s at the Olympics.
The team’s highest valued player Nottingham Forest’s Chris Wood and lowest valued player Tommy Smith who now turns out for Braintree Town are the only two players in the squad to have featured the last time New Zealand were on the world stage.
Wood’s goals could be a crucial factor to getting the All Whites anywhere in this tournament but there will also be Championship representation from Max Crocombe, Marko Stamenic, Liberato Cacace and Tyler Bindon.
Group H
Spain (FIFA Ranking 2)
The European Champions are looking to once again prove that they can be a dominant force on the World Stage. Star Boy Lamine Yamal will miss the first couple of games due to injury but is still on the plane and there will be plenty of depth in their squad to cover his absence in the first couple of games.
They have strength across the board and lots their star players are still at the beginning of their careers. The Barcelona dominance is still there with eight players from the La Liga Champions but the Madrid youth pipeline has stilled with no Madrid playesr to making the squad.
Another notable change is up front where Mikel Oyarzabel who has spent his entire career at Real Sociadad looks to have replaced Alvaro Morata as the main striker netting a brace in one of the March warm ups against Serbia.
Cape Verde (FIFA Ranking 69)
This is the African archipelego’s first experience of World Cup forward and they made it here by topping a qualifying group containing Cameroon, one of Africa’s most successful countries. Their friendly results have also looked promising, drawing with Iran, Egypt and Finland.
Manager Bubista has been in charge since 2020 and this will be his biggest achievement to date.
Despite being one of the smaller nations they do have a bunch of players playing in some top league’s with Logan Costa at Villareal and Sidny Lopes Cabral at Benfica.
39-year-old Goalkeeper Vozinha could become one of the tournaments oldest players.
Saudi Arabia (FIFA Ranking 61)
Saudi Arabia shocked Argentina with a group stage victory back in 2022 but Spain shouldn’t have anything to fear this time round based on the middle easterners qualifying results where they finished below Japan and Australia and then just about made it through the final round in a group containing Iraq and Indonesia.
The majority of the squad play in the Saudi League with one of the main reasons for investment in that league to boost of the quality of players the home grown talent would face in the hope of improving the base level of the countries national team.
Only one Saudi player made it into EA Sports FIFA Team of the Season and that was Neom SC’s Khalifa Aldawasari who only has two international caps. Interestingly some of the Fotmob highest rated players from the league this season haven’t been included in the squad with up to 50 players joining at an initial training camp before being cut showing the depth that exists but lack of real stand out players in the country.
Uruguay (FIFA Ranking 17)
Bielsa-ball has been back in South America since 2023 now and the former Leeds boss will have been building up to this World Cup as he transitions the team away from a reliance on Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani. They qualified in fourth place from the CONMEBOL group but were beaten heavily by the USA at the back end of last year.
Real Madrid’s Federico Valverde is the midfield dynamo that this new team will be built around with Barcelona’s Ronald Araujo another big name.
Veteran keeper Ferando Muslera is now 39 years old and will bring experience alongside Atletico Madrid’s Jose Giminez.
Former Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez was seen as Suarez and Cavani’s successor but has failed to dominate at Al-Hilal like some of the other players in the Saudi League and has seen Federico Vinas and Rodrigo Aguire start up front ahead of him in recent friendlies.
Group I
France (FIFA Ranking 1)
The highest ranked team in the world, winners of the 2018 World Cup, runners up in an enthralling 3-3 draw with Argentina in 2022 they have the most stacked squad in the competition. Paris Saint Germain’s emergence as one of the super powers in world football sees the trio of Desire Doue, Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Demebele competing with Kylian Mbappe, Michael Olise, Rayan Cherki and Marcus Thuram at the top end of the pitch. That’s some talent pool to pick from.
Crystal Palace’s Jean Phillipe Mateta is also on the plane to provide a different option, think Olivier Giroud the last time they won this tournament.
Moving further back, Ngolo Kante is now at Fenerbache, Aurelien Tchoumeni is now a Real Madrid regular and Warren Zaire-Emery is another of PSG’s incredibly talented roster but beyond that there isn’t too much depth making midfield the area to exploit for opposition teams.
In defence there’s more selection issues. Pick from Ibrahim Konate, William Saliba, Dayot Upemencano and Jules Kounde at centre-back to play in front of Mike Maignan in goal.
That’s the headache for Didier Deschamps who has been in charge of his country since 2012 and has managed 19 games at World Cups already, he’ll be looking to beat Helmut Schon’s record of 25.
Senegal (FIFA Ranking 14)
The team that won the AFCON on the pitch, despite all of the drama that then happened off of it. They’ll come into this World Cup with a point to prove and they definitely have the squad to get out of their group despite the tough opposition.
Edouard Mendy and Kalidou Koulibaly are both now playing in the Saudi Pro League but are both excellent defensive operators. West Ham’s Malick Diouf is a player with a bright future despite his teams struggles in the Premier League and has an excellent engine and cross delivery from left-back while Ismaila Sarr and Iliman N’Diaye have both had solid Premier League seasons and provide the pace and trickery to compete with Sadio Mane who is now at Al Nassr.
Nicolas Jackson has largely been used as a squad player at Bayern Munich but will complete a pacy front line.
There’s more Premier League pedigree in midfield. Idrissa Gana Gueye’s experience will be invaluable even if he’s not fully fit so he can help his understudies Tottenham’s Pape Sarr and Sunderland’s Habib Diarra in that area.
Iraq (FIFA Ranking 57)
The final team to make it to the World Cup having come through the inter-confederation final against Bolivia following a two-legged victory against the UAE in the Asia section. That ended a 40 year absence on the worlds biggest stage.
They’re managed by Graham Arnold, an Australian who managed his country between 2018-2024 before taking the Iraq hotseat in 2025.
There’s not too many well known faces in the squad but Zidane Iqbal may be familiar to some. The former Manchester United youngster and Football Manager wonderkid from a few years ago is now playing at FC Utrecht in the Netherlands while Ipswich striker Ali Al-Hamadi, whose value has plummeted following a couple of seasons of poor form and injury will be hoping to show the characteristics that saw him score 27 goals in 48 appearances for AFC Wimbledon.
Norway (FIFA Ranking 31)
Erling Haaland scored 16 goals in European qualifying as Norway won 8/8 in a group containing Italy. It’s that form that has many putting them down as dark horses but I can’t see them making it out of this group in what is perhaps a controversial opinion.
With Haaland and Martin Odegaard they have two of the most talented players on the planet but Stale Stolebakken will have to get the best out of them. The former Wolverhampton Wanderers boss has been in charge since 2020 but like a lot of managers this will be his first taste of a World Cup.
Jens Peter Hauge has enjoyed an incredible season with Bodo/Glimt and Oscar Bobb has finished the season strongly for Fulham so there are good options in wide areas.
Further Premier League representation comes from Jorgen Strand Larsen, Sander Berge, David Molle Wolfe and Kristoffer Ajer.
Group J
Argentina (FIFA Ranking 3)
The current World Champions will be looking to defend their title in what is likely Lionel Messi’s last World Cup outing. Their 3-3 penalty victory in the 2022 tournament was largely due to the fact that the squad had balanced itself out a bit more and didn’t solely rely on attacking talent.
The attack is slightly blunter than the Tevez, Aguero, Higuain, Messi days but Julian Alvarez looks like a talent that could be on the level of those just mentioned. Lautauro Martinez has had another excellent goalscoring season while Nico Paz now at Como is finally showing signs of living up to his wonderkid tag.
Further back Alexis Mac Allister and Enzo Fernandez are top level Premier League players whilst another who has had a good season at Como is Maximo Perrone who joined permanently from Manchester City at the start of the season.
Valentin Barco who has agreed a summer transfer to Chelsea has been converted to a defensive midfielder by RC Strasbourg having left Brighton in the summer so he’s another one to keep an eye on.
In defence Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martinez provide a combative pairing. Yellow card bets when those two are playing seem safe. They’ll look to protect Emi Martinez who has added a Europa League trophy to his cabinet this season with Aston Villa.
Algeria (FIFA Ranking 28)
Another side whose talisman will be hoping for a big final hurrah. Riyad Mahrez is now 35 and playing for Al Ahli but will be hoping to produce the moments of magic that saw him rip up the Premier League for Leicester and Chelsea. He also has a protegee in the making with Bayer Leverkusen’s Ibrahim Maza who can play anywhere across the front line.
You also have Rayan Ait-Nouri in the mix and when you also add in Wolfsburg’s Mohamed Amoura and Marseille’s Amine Gouri both capable strikers who offer more than their eight goals apiece scored for their clubs then you have the beginnings of a capable team.
They also have a manager in Vladimir Petkovic who has tasted the last 16 before in his time as Switzerland boss and has only lost four of his 33 matches in charge.
Austria (Fifa Ranking 24)
Ralf Rangnick took over as manager of Austria pretty much immediately after leaving Manchester United and he’s turned Austria around from being a dull low block team to a team that will press opposition to within an inch of their lives.
He has a core of experience players playing at the top level to call upon. David Alaba and Konrad Laimer are at Real Madrid and Bayern Munich respectively. Carney Chukwuemeka who has played regularly at Borussia Dortmund this season has also been included in the squad.
Up front the talismanic Marko Arnautovic is now 37 so will likely be used sparingly despite scoring 8 goals in qualifying.
Jordan (FIFA Ranking 63)
Very much the minnows in this group, Jordan have one player playing in Europe and this is Rennes midfielder Mousa Tamari who finished the season with six goals and six assists in Ligue 1. The rest of the squad are largely based in Jordan with nine of the squad playing for Al-Hussein.
Such is the lack of data in this area of the world some players in the line-up don’t appear to have a club in the existing databases.
Despite that they had a successful Arab Cup claiming victories over Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia all of whom are at the tournament with them.
Group K
Portugal (FIFA Ranking 5)
Nations League champions last summer with a victory over Spain, Portugal will come into this tournament full of confidence. Like the majority of the top seeds they qualified at the top of their group thanks to five goals from Cristiano Ronaldo who at 41 years of age will want to add a World Cup to his list to keep up with long time rival Lionel Messi. He’s scored 28 goals for Al-Nassr but will surely just play a squad role behind others in this one.
Manager Roberto Martinez, who was guilty of wasting Belgium’s golden generation, once again has an incredibly talented squad at his disposal. Bruno Fernandes has broken the Premier League assist record, Vitinha, Joao Neves and Nuno Mendes have all made a Champions League final yet again with Paris Saint Germain whilst Matheus Nunes has been converted into one of the best right-backs in the Premier League by Pep Guardiola and will have a natural relationship with Ruben Dias.
Add to that Pedro Neto, Fransisco Conceicao, Rafael Leao and Joao Cancelo and you have elite depth. For me this is probably the second strongest squad in the tournament.
DR Congo (FIFA Ranking 46)
DR Congo are one of the teams that had to get here the hard way as they finished second in their CAF Qualification group behind Senegal. That led them to African play-offs against Cameroon and Nigeria before an inter-confederation game against Jamaica. That went to extra time before Burnley defender Axel Tuanzebe rose highest to head home the winning goal.
He’s one of a couple Premier League players to switch international allegiances recently. Others include Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Sunderland’s Noah Sadiki who represented Belgium at youth level.
One Premier League player who has represented his country throughout his career is Yoane Wissa who will be looking to use this World Cup to regain his Brentford form following a stop start, injury hit season following his move to Newcastle.
Frenchman Sebastien Desabre has been in charge since 2023 and this is his second international job having been in charge of Uganda between 2017 and 2019.
Uzbekistan (FIFA Ranking 50)
Uzbekistan played their first official football match in 1992 when they gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union. 34 years later and they’re in their first World Cup.
What do you do to celebrate qualifying for your first ever World Cup? That’s right, you sack your manager. In a move right out of the Watford playbook the man who got his country over the line Timur Kapadze was replaced by World Cup winner as a player and captain Fabio Cannavaro.
That would make sense if Cannavaro had an impressive managerial CV but he rarely lasts long in a job and has now taken in spells at Guangzhou, Al Nassr, Tianjin Tianhai, China, Guangzhou again, Benevento, Udinese and Dinamo Zagreb with those last two spells not even lasting half a year.
When Manchester City signed Abdukodir Khusanov last January they saw him as a player to rebuild their defence around. He has already started to prove that was a good decision become an important player for the Citizens this season. He’ll need to be even more important for his country over the summer.
There’s not much other talent to help him but Eldor Shomurdov will create opportunities to score at the other end. The Roma man who has spent the season on loan at Basaksehir has 23 goals in 44 appearances for them and 29 in 68 for his country.
Colombia (FIFA Ranking 13)
Luis Suarez ripping it up for a South American side at a World Cup, sounds familiar. One Suarez has retired from international duty with Uruguay but his namesake is having a sterling season at Sporting Lisbon having scored 28 goals, more than filling the shoes of the outgoing Victor Gyokeres.
Add to that goalscoring ability of former Liverpool man Luis Diaz who has gone on to even greater level’s at Bayern Munich and one of my favourite right-back’s to watch in the Premier League Daniel Munoz you can see why this Colombia side is ranked as high as 13th.
Davinson Sanchez who is now at Galatasaray adds to that defensive solidity whilst team mate Yasser Asprilla who seemed destined for big things whilst at Watford could use this tournament as a spring board to restart his career.
Group L
England (FIFA Ranking 4)
Tuchel made an impact in qualifying, leading the Three Lions to 8 out of 8 victories without conceding a single goal. He has made even more of an impact on social media following his team selections. It’s a U-turn from Gareth Southgate’s, bring all of your best players and get them on the pitch strategy and I for one am happy about that. Where it falls down is whether you agree that the players that have been picked are the best for the strategy that Tuchel intends to play with. My one main gripe is with the left-back slot with only one left footer on the plane in that position and one that I don’t overly rate. In my opinion Nico O’Reilly has been a beneficiary of Manchester City’s incredible talents around him rather than his own ability and Lewis Hall would have been my starter instead.
The rest makes sense. Having Kane, Foden and Palmer all trying to occupy the exact same spot on the pitch in the Euro’s was infuriating so Tuchel has solved that by bringing wingers who will stretch defence’s when Kane drops deep instead.
There’s a combative midfield pivot with two tens that make it more of a hybrid three and aren’t afraid to run and press and you have a couple of starting defenders who are supremely confident on the ball with the ability to throw a Dan Burn shaped battering ram and an Ivan Toney shaped sharpshooter on if you need a goal or a penalty taken. Tuchel has taken from the NFL and brought with him his special teams’ players.
Despite all of that I’m still not sure if it’s our time given the rest of the competition. A semi-final would be considered a success for me, so pub owners your outdoor benches may just survive another year.
Croatia (FIFA Ranking 11)
The dark horses of 2018 followed up their incredible final appearance with a third place finish in 2022. It was thought then that midfield maestro Luka Modric and wing wizard Ivan Perisic wouldn’t be around for this one but they’re defying the passage of time and appearing in yet another World Cup.
They’re joined by fellow stalwarts Mateo Kovacic and Andrej Kramaric who has really flourished in the Bundesliga and now has 153 goals in 346 appearances for Hoffenheim.
The next generation is coming through though which should keep them at the top table for now. Josko Gvardiol hasn’t been as influential for Manchester City this season but is still an important player, while Tottenham’s Luka Vuskovic has spent the season on loan at Hamburger SV and really impressed in the Bundesliga and will likely be a first team regular at Spurs next season. Then there’s 22-year-old defensive midfielder Peter Sucic who has had a solid debut season at Inter Milan.
Unsurprisingly Zlatko Dalic is still in charge, as he has been since 2017. Transitioning this squad and getting the right balance of existing heroes and fresh blood will be his biggest challenge of his tenure.
Ghana (FIFA Ranking 74)
Ghana qualified from a pretty favourable AFC qualification group but their friendly form post that will be cause for concern, losing six out of six albeit to fairly strong opposition and all teams they could face if they make it through this group. They also failed to qualify for this years AFCON so are very much a team on the decline.
To make matters worse they’re another country who have parted with their manager very close to the beginning of the tournament. In steps Carlos Queiroz, a former assistant manager of Sir Alex Ferguson who has now made a career of stepping in for short spells. Ghana become the latest on the list of countries he has managed which includes Oman, Qatar, Iran x2, Egypt, Colombia, Portugal x2, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.
What they do have in their locker for this tournament is an excess of wingers. Antoine Semenyo has topped off an impressive start to the season with Bournemouth by then becoming an integral part of Manchester City’s team, Mohamed Kudus is a proven Premier League performer, Abdul Fatawu is a talent despite suffering relegation from the Championship with Leicester this season and could jump all the way back up to the Premier League this summer, Kamaldeen Sulemana always looked a pacy threat at Southampton and has now moved to Atalanta and Ibrahim Osman could be Brighton’s latest recruitment success having had a decent second half of the season in the Championship with Birmingham.
The problem is you can’t play five wingers and the lack of balance is likely to be Ghana’s biggest downfall.
Panama (FIFA Ranking 33)
With the USA, Mexico and Canada out of the CONCAF qualifying equation this time round Panama has a pretty straightforward route through qualification finishing with seven wins and three draws. Don’t be fooled by memories of 2018 where England beat a Panama side 6-0. This is a much more competitive side. They have climbed over 20 places in the world rankings since then and have a much more experienced side.
Former Leeds manager Thomas Christiansen has been in charge since 2020 and has formed them into a competitive unit. Norwich City’s Jose Corodoba will be the most recognisable name but 18-year-old Kadir Bara who currently plays for Botafoga is a highly valued prospect and the versatile Amir Murillo has played for a string of top sides and is now at Besiktas.