A staggering 200 players are based in England at club level. It is followed by Germany (109), France (86), Spain (86), Italy (71), Saudi Arabia (49), Türkiye (45), USA (42), Netherlands (46), Brazil (36) and Portugal (36).
Cristiano Ronaldo, who will be 41 years and 126 days when the tournament gets underway, is the fourth-oldest player to go to a World Cup. If he sees action, the forward will became the fourth oldest to play in one behind Roger Milla (42 years old), Faryd Mondragon (43) and Essam El Hadary (45). Ronaldo is followed on the 23rd World Cup’s list of oldest players by goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa (40), midfielder Luka Modric (40), striker Edin Dzeko (40), goalkeeper Manuel Neuer (40) and goalkeeper Vozinha.
and have the most players based in their homeland: 25 apiece. The Maroons left-back Homam Ahmed represents Cultural Leonesa in Spain, while the Green Falcons right-back Saud Abdulhamid runs out for Lens in France. , , , , and don’t have a single player playing club football inside their borders.
Twenty-two World Cup winners are at the 2026 event. Manuel Neuer conquered with at Brazil 2014, and Ousmane Dembele, Lucas Hernandez, N’Golo Kante, Kylian Mbappe helped to glory at Russia 2018. Lionel Scaloni, for his part, retained 17 of the men who reigned with at Qatar 2022: Thiago Almada, Julian Alvarez, Rodrigo De Paul, Enzo Fernandez, Alexis Mac Allister, Emiliano Martinez, Lautaro Martinez, Lisandro Martinez, Lionel Messi, Nahuel Molina, Gonzalo Montiel, Nicolas Otamendi, Exequiel Palacios, Leandro Paredes, Cristian Romero, Geronimo Rulli and Nicolas Tagliafico.
Manchester City, with 19 players, are the best-represented club. The Citizens have men in the Algeria, Belgium, Croatia, Egypt, England, France, Ghana, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Uzbekistan squads. Next come Bayern Munich (18 players), Arsenal (16), Paris Saint-Germain (16), Barcelona (15), Al Hilal (12), Atletico Madrid (12), Crystal Palace (12), Manchester United (12), Borussia Dortmund (11), Galatasaray (11) and Liverpool (11).
Seventeen-year-old sensation Gilberto Mora is the youngest player at the finals. His Mexico team-mate Guillermo Ochoa had astonishingly been to the World Cup before Mora was even born. If he sees action, the Tijuana playmaker would become the youngest Concacaf player to appear in a World Cup game, outranking compatriot Manuel Rosas, who was 18 at Uruguay 1930. If Mora takes to turf in Mexico’s opener against South Africa, he would become the sixth-youngest player to appear in the competition after 17-year-olds Pele, Salomon Olembe, Femi Opabunmi, Samuel Eto’o and record-holder Norman Whiteside.
Making up the top five youngest players at the upcoming event are midfielder Hugo Sochurek (18 years and four days when it kicks off), Germany creator Lennart Karl (18 years and 109 days), Senegal attacker Ibrahim Mbaye (18 years and 138 days) and No9 Hamza Abdelkarim (18 years and 161 days).
Argentina’s Lionel Messi is the 2026 player with the most World Cup goals to his name (13). He is followed by France’s Kylian Mbappe (12), England’s Harry Kane (8), Brazil’s Neymar (8) and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (8). The World Cup record is held by Germany’s Miroslav Klose (16).
Lionel Messi, Guillermo Ochoa and Cristiano Ronaldo will go to a record sixth World Cup. They shared the five-edition record with Antonio Carbajal, Lothar Matthaus, Gigi Buffon, Rafa Marquez and Andres Guardado. Luka Modric, Yuto Nagatomo and Manuel Neuer will be at a fifth World Cup in North America. Messi and Ronaldo will become the first men to play in six World Cups, with Ochoa having failed to make an appearance at Germany 2006 and South Africa 2010.
goalkeeper Florian Wiegele, who stands at 2.05 metres, is the tallest player to ever make a World Cup squad. goalkeeper Andries Noppert had set the record at 2.03m at Qatar 2022. The next biggest players at the 2026 finals are defender Dan Burn (2.01m), goalkeeper Alvaro Montero (2.01m) and Bosnia and Herzegovina centre-back Stjepan Radeljic (2.01m).
playmaker Cesar Yanis is the shortest player at 1.60 metres. He is followed by 1.64m Curaçao attacker Jeremy Antonisse. A staggering 41 centimetres exist between Burn and Yanis, with Panama and England set to collide in their final Group L game. The biggest height gap between opponents on the pitch together in a World Cup game was the 39 centimetres separating Serbia and Montenegro giant Nikola Zigic and Côte d’Ivoire’s Bakary Kone at Germany 2006.
Sources: FIFA Official
