More than a third of Spain's players at the World Cup are Catalan. Lamine Yamal, Joan Garcia, Pau Cubarsí, Eric Garcia, Dani Olmo, Víctor Muñoz, Marc Cucurella, David Raya and Marc Pubill are the nine footballers from Catalonia who are competing in this summer's major sporting event under the orders of coach Luis de la Fuente. But beyond the Spanish team, there are more representatives from the region at the World Cup, spread across teams from Europe, Africa and America.

It's hard to imagine what could make Carlo Ancelotti nervous. The veteran Italian coach has managed some of the most high-pressure clubs in the world, such as Madrid, Juve, and Chelsea. He has worked under the watchful eyes of Florentino Pérez, Silvio Berlusconi, or Roman Abramovich. He has learned how to talk to selfish young players and eccentric businessmen. He knows how to treat generous footballers and others who are selfish. It's hard to explain his favorite tactical system, but he knows how to manage people and motivate them. That's why he received the call from the Brazilian Football Confederation less than two years ago. Brazil, the national team that has won the World Cup the most times, entrusted him with the task of being great again. For the first time in history, Brazil is entering a World Cup with a foreign coach. Ancelotti doesn't seem nervous, though. He looks happy.

FIFA was eager for the ball to start rolling at the Azteca Stadium. It was the way for football to move past the multiple controversies that have surrounded the 2026 World Cup and that even threatened to derail it. The match between Mexico, one of the hosts, and South Africa, which ended with a local victory (2-0) with goals from Quiñones and Jiménez, kicked off a competition that for the first time will have 48 national teams, will last 39 days, with 104 matches scheduled, and will know its winner on Sunday, July 19.

A few months ago, this March, Donald Trump received a delegation from the North American Football Federation and asked the coach, the Argentine Mauricio Pochettino, if the United States can win the World Cup. "I told him that we can win it," said the former Espanyol player. Pochettino has a challenge ahead: achieve good results and get the team to excite a country that arrives very divided at the event. The debut will be against the Paraguay team on Saturday at three in the morning.

In 1994, the United States hosted a World Cup for the first time. One of the novelties of that event was the introduction of a new rule that changed the game: it became forbidden to pass the ball to the goalkeeper and for him to catch it with his hand, as had been the case until then, which led to significant time-wasting. This year's event will also be remembered for the introduction of new rules that will significantly modify the game, always with the intention of avoiding time-wasting, according to IFAB (International Football Association Board), the body that determines the rules of the game.

"When you get to the kiosk, they already ask you if you want World Cup stickers. They can tell by your face. The first question is: ‘Do you have them?’. And the second: ‘When will more arrive? They are selling out in many places’", explains Albert Valor, a collector.Albert Valor, collector. "This year they are selling more than ever. It's hard to find them because sales are exceeding Panini's expectations", confirms Ferran Roig, manager of the Euro Soccer Cards sticker shop.

A World Cup had never had 48 teams nor had it been played in three different states. For six weeks, the United States, Canada, and Mexico will host 104 matches, creating a different scenario. A total of 16 stadiums will host matches, most of them in the United States, although there will also be three Mexican venues and two in Canada. Most stadiums are relatively new and for a good part of the season, American football matches are played there, with some exceptions. Some stadiums, like those in Atlanta or Seattle, have become the home of local football teams, although they combine it with other sports. All stadiums in the United States, in fact, are venues prepared to host different disciplines, concerts, or events, with top-level technology. However, the state of the grass worries the coaches, as it would not be the best.

A few hours before the start of the World Cup this Thursday, the United States government has communicated that it will not allow one of the referees chosen by FIFA to officiate matches into its country. This is Omar Artan, who was to be the first referee from Somalia to officiate matches in the World Cup. FIFA, the organizer of the tournament, had defended in recent months that everyone would be "welcome at the World Cup" in the words of its president, Gianni Infantino, but Donald Trump's government sees it differently. In recent weeks, it has been denying visas to many fans, but also to journalists, members of team delegations, and finally, one of the referees chosen to officiate matches.

The Iranian national team will be one of the main protagonists of this World Cup. The team of a state at war with the United States will play precisely in the United States. Two clashing governments, enmities, with bombings every so often, have finally agreed to prevent the Iranian team from making a sports boycott. Never in the history of the World Cups has a qualified team boycotted. There had been boycotts in the qualifying rounds, such as when the Soviet Union withdrew from the play-off prior to the 1974 World Cup in protest of Pinochet's coup d'état in Chile, but never has a qualified team renounced the championship for political reasons. Nor will Iran do so.

On June 11, millions of people will be paying attention to everything happening at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. For the third time in its history, this venue will host the opening match of a World Cup, in this case the duel between Mexico and South Africa. Never before has a stadium been the venue for three different World Cups, although this year it will not be able to host the final, as it will take place on July 19 at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. In a modern 21st-century World Cup full of newly built stadiums with commercial brand names, the Azteca connects with the past. A stadium with its own personality, now that all modern stadiums look alike. The venue in the south of Mexico City has undergone a major renovation to adapt it to modern times, although it remains the stadium where in 1970 Pelé led the most beautiful team of all time and where in 1986, Maradona touched the sky with Argentina. A stadium to which songs have been dedicated, which appears in films, and which hides a surprising history, as to build it, one man was on the verge of losing everything.

The most important and anticipated sporting event of the year is almost here. On Thursday, June 11th, the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico begins, the first to be contested by 48 national teams (instead of the current 32). Three countries and sixteen cities will host the 104 matches, culminating on Sunday, July 19th (9:00 PM) with the grand final to be played at the MetLife Stadium located in New Jersey (near New York City). This event will mark a generational shift in the world of football, as it will be the last World Cup for Leo Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, among others, and the emergence of new global stars like Lamine Yamal, who will play in his first World Cup.

The Spanish absolute men's coach, Luis de la Fuente, gave this Monday at noon the list of called-up players for Spain for the next football World Cup. The coach of la roja will concentrate in the coming weeks and during the World Cup event a group of players with a notable presence of Catalan players (nine) and from Barça, which is by far the club with the most representation (eight players) in a call-up that for the first time in history has no Real Madrid player. From Atlètic de Madrid, Arsenal and Athletic Club there are three players per team. The rest of the clubs that contribute talent (Chelsea, Manchester City, Osasuna, Celta de Vigo, Reial Societat, PSG, Tottenham, Bayer Leverkusen and Crystal Palace) contribute with a single footballer each.

FIFA and Shakira have made public a fragment of what will be the new official anthem of the 2026 Football World Cup. The song is titled Dai dai and it stars the Colombian, sixteen years after her mythical Waka waka from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, where she met who would be her partner for the next twelve years, Barça player Gerard Piqué. This year's World Cup will take place between June and July in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

In 1986, Iraq qualified to play in a World Cup for the first time. It was the years of Saddam Hussein, the military leader who attached great importance to sports to promote his regime. Trained by a former Barça player, the Brazilian Evaristo de Macedo, Iraq lost all three matches played in Mexico by a narrow margin. One of the team's stars, Basil Gorgis, was sent off in the match against Belgium and upon returning to Baghdad, he was imprisoned for 10 days as punishment. Gorgis then only thought about fleeing, as he was from the Assyrian minority, an ancient nation that embraced Christianity and suffered repression in Saddam's times. In fact, Basil's sister, Mariam, had been kidnapped and executed in 1979, a fact that was not communicated to the Gorgis family until years later.

2018, 2022, and now it could be 2026. Italy is on the verge of either suffering a historic disaster or breaking a losing streak that has plagued them for eight years. The national team azzurra The national football team has the mission of qualifying for a World Cup after missing the last two editions. Failing to attend another World Cup would be an unprecedented tragedy in the history of a four-time champion. Their first final will be this Thursday (8:45 p.m.) against Northern Ireland, a team that hasn't participated in a World Cup since 1986. This will be one of the single-leg playoff semifinals. Even if they beat Northern Ireland, they won't yet secure their ticket to the United States. They will first have to defeat the winner of the match between Wales and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Tuesday, March 31, 8:45 p.m.). After winning these two matches, they will qualify for this World Cup.

Football has been another piece in the grand chess game of geopolitics in Iran for years. This Wednesday, the Iranian Minister of Sport confirmed the withdrawal of the Iranian national team from the upcoming World Cup, which begins in less than 100 days in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. This announcement comes 24 hours after FIFA President Gianni Infantino spoke with US President Donald Trump to guarantee the Iranian team's participation despite the war. "President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is, of course, welcome to compete in the tournament in the United States," Infantino said. But the Iranians, through their Minister of Sport, have made it public that they will be the first team to qualify for a World Cup to withdraw due to a political boycott. The Iranian team was scheduled to play New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles, and Egypt on June 26 in Seattle.

With 100 days to go before the opening match between Mexico and South Africa of this summer's World Cup, nervousness is growing within the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA). Donald Trump, who was supposed to be the guarantor of the trophy's success, is now jeopardizing the tournament's smooth running. Ironically, on the day of the World Cup group stage draw, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, The FIFA annual peace prize was invented to offer it to a Trump who was still angry about not having won the Nobel Peace Prize. That day, Infantino praised Trump for "working for stability and world peace." Since then, Trump has ordered military actions and bombings in Venezuela, Iran, and Nigeria. And he has hinted at possible additional operations in Greenland, Mexico, Colombia, or Cuba. Trump even invited Infantino to his Peace Board last February. But instead of peace, there is more war. And the president who most enjoys appearing in photos at major sporting events, as he did at the last Club World Cup, is now jeopardizing the biggest football event of the year.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup now has almost all its qualified teams. There have been plenty of surprises, such as the debuts of Jordan and Uzbekistan, the return of Scotland after more than 25 years, and the success of Haiti, a nation that last played in the World Cup back in 1974, during the dreaded dictatorship of Jean-Claude Van Gogh. Baby Doc Duvalier. Haiti, one of the poorest countries on the planet, has qualified despite not being able to play at home due to excessive violence and insecurity. Many teams that would never have been able to aspire to be in the World Cup have achieved it thanks to two reasons: firstly, the number of qualified teams has been expanded to 48, and secondly, the inclusion of players from the diaspora—players born in Europe who end up representing their homeland. This is the case of Cape Verde, with more than 75% of its team born in Portugal. And also of the surprising Curaçao, where all but one of the players called up were born in the Netherlands. Curaçao has shone in qualifiers where teams with more tradition, such as Costa Rica, Honduras, and Jamaica, were eliminated. In their last match, the Blue Wave, as they are known, drew before more than 20,000 spectators in Jamaica, earning the point that made them the team representing the least populated territory ever to qualify for a World Cup. Curaçao has 156,000 inhabitants, breaking Iceland's 2018 record of 400,000. That is to say, Curaçao has fewer inhabitants than Hospitalet, Badalona, ​​Terrassa, or Sabadell. However, Iceland remains the smallest nation ever to qualify for a World Cup, as Curaçao is not an independent state; it is a territory dependent on the Netherlands. In fact, all the starters in the last match in Jamaica were born in the Netherlands. And the only player in the squad who was actually born on the island, the young Tahith Chong, was already living in Rotterdam at the age of eight.