I was going to add to the title, Italians Need Not Apply, like early 20th century America, but didn’t want to get dinged on the Google search, LOL. In all seriousness, Italy is missing their 3rd straight World Cup and for fans of the most iconic club team from Italy, Italians and non-Italians alike, this does put a little damper on the event.
Still, with club football being a global endeavor, the world’s best usually pick Europe to test their mettle and so we can often find players from all over the globe to cheer for and this year will be no different. Milan fans can root for players from the host countries like Christian Pulisic (US) and Santiago Giménez (Mexico), or others from non-host countries like Mike Maignan and Adrien Rabiot (France) just to name a few. I’ll provide the full list of Milan players later in the post.
With my country being one of host countries this time…we can leave the embarrassing politics and price-gouging out of this conversation (but sound off in the comments!)…this 2026 version will be ideal for catching a lot games with the kick-offs generally working with our schedules here in the states, Mexico, and Canada, work be damned!
So, I’m going to focus on the positive and focus on the pitch as much as I can. With that, let’s dive in some regarding the players and teams, the first one with 48 team participating in the event, in what can accurately be described as biggest World Cup to date.
Milan Players in the World Cup
Milan lead Serie A with the number of players in the World Cup. I know this doesn’t support many people’s opinions that Milan needs a major talent upgrade, but it’s the truth nonetheless. This doesn’t mean Milan are currently world-beaters, but it does add fuel that Allegri massively underachieved this season. But we’ll talk more about this later this summer.
Here are the list of Milan players and their countries. I know I’ll have a soft spot for all of them…except maybe Saelemaekers…(I kid, I kid):
- Christian Pulisic (United States)
- Santiago Giménez (Mexico)
- Luka Modrić (Croatia)
- Rafael Leão (Portugal)
- Adrien Rabiot (France)
- Mike Maignan (France)
- Alexis Saelemaekers (Belgium)
- Koni de Winter (Belgium)
- Ardon Jashari (Switzerland)
- Pervis Estupiñán (Ecuador)
I’ll also be rooting for a few former Milan players, including:
- Brahim Diaz (Morocco)
- Theo Hernandez (France)
- Franck Kessie (Ivory Coast/Côte d’Ivoire)
- Tijjani Reijnders (Netherlands)
Please add any I’ve missed in the comment section and I can update this list.
Anyway, I always like following players who have represented the club and as long as they’re not playing my country, I’ll cheer for them. I’m really curious to see how Leão does since so many of you have cast him off as a lost cause, and you could throw Giménez into that lot as well. I’ll also be following Luka Modrić, since there’s been reporting that these might be his last competitive matches as he contemplates hanging up the boots. I don’t generally root for favorites but I do have a soft spot for France. Between Maignan, Theo, and Olivier Giroud before (even current Milan players Fofana and Nkunku, even though they’re not playing for the national team), lots of Milan players have come from France the last 6-7 years so we’ve had a lot of familiarity with them for previous Euros and World Cups.
The Teams
This World Cup is a bit different than any this century and I’m not just talking about the increase in the number of teams from 32 to 48. There isn’t a cut and dry best team that everyone naturally agrees on, so that means there isn’t a clear cut favorite. It doesn’t mean the best team in previous years won it all but at least there was some consensus on who the best team or teams were on paper.
To help make sense of the teams competing and where they stand, here’s a list of the top 20 in FIFA rankings heading into this tournament so you at least can get a sense of where the teams stand:
- Argentina (1877.27pts)
- Spain (1874.71pts)
- France (1870.70pts)
- England (1828.02)
- Portugal (1767.85pts)
- Brazil (1765.86pts)
- Morocco (1755.10pts)
- Netherlands (1753.57pts)
- Belgium (1742.24pts)
- Germany (1735.77pts)
- Croatia (1714.87pts)
- Italy (1704.73pts)
- Colombia (1698.35pts)
- Mexico (1687.48pts)
- Senegal (1684.07pts)
- Uruguay (1673.07pts)
- USA (1671.23pts)
- Japan (1661.58pts)
- Switzerland (1650.06pts)
- IR Iran (1619.58pts)
As you can see, very little separates the top 3, England is kind of in-between them and the next bit of clustering from 5-11. The next grouping I would say is between 13-19. So, a few different levels with the top 3 having the best chance, with 4-6 being the could bes, and 7-11 being the dark horses. I don’t think anyone below that can win it.
I’m very curious about Brazil, as I’m interested in what Carlo Ancelotti will be able to do with, yes, not as strong a team as many of us are used to seeing, but one with a lot of talent that might get coached-up into a dangerous contender.
Finally, I will be cheering for Mexico since my mom is from there, and yes I will root for the United States as well, even as embarrassing as we are at this point in time. Canada will be another team I’ll cheer for as the country to the north have been great neighbors, even if we haven’t exactly reciprocated recently. Plus, we have a few regulars here from that maple syrup-loving country.
So, time to put pen-to-paper if you will and go on the record. Here is my prediction for the group winners:
- Group A: Mexico, South Korea
- Group B: Canada, Switzerland
- Group C: Brazil, Morocco
- Group D: US, Türkiye
- Group E: German, Ecuador
- Group F: Netherlands, Japan
- Group G: Belguim, Egypt
- Group H: Spain, Uruguay
- Group I: France, Senegal
- Group J: Argentina, Algeria
- Group K: Portugal, Colombia
- Group L: England Croatia
A lot of chalk in those group winners, I know. Here are my top 8 3rd-place finishers to make it to the knockouts:
- Ivory Coast
- Scotland
- Iran
- Norway
- Ghana
- Sweden
- Paraguay
- Austria
Regarding kick-off times and broadcast partners, use this link for those in the US, and here you can find all the broadcast partners throughout the world. You’ll have to look at each broadcast partner’s website for kick-off times and specific channels.
Wrap up
Ok, just a little walk through to get us going, one I might update with stuff in case I forgot anything. I’ll post another World Cup post once we’re to the knockouts, but until then fire off below including sharing who you think will make it out of the groups.
Let’s have some fun!
gillis