The 2026 World Cup in North America will be the largest tournament football has ever staged—48 teams, three host nations, a packed summer calendar. Even with all those extra slots, some of the best players in the world already know they won’t be there.
The reasons are familiar and brutal. Slovenia’s campaign collapsed on a freak own goal. Nigeria went out on penalties. Hungary conceded in stoppage time and went out. Cameroon, Georgia, and Guinea all got caught by the same brutal math. Those failures add up to an XI that’s too good to be sitting at home.
Defense: a back line built for knockout football
Jan Oblak in goal. Still the standard for elite shot-stopping at Atlético Madrid. He’s passed 500 games for the club, won Zamora trophies, and anchored some of Europe’s most disciplined defenses. His last real shot at a World Cup in his prime vanished with a 2–0 home loss to Kosovo that sealed Slovenia’s elimination. For a tournament built on tight knockout matches, you don’t want to lose a keeper this reliable.
The back four writes itself—Ola Aina and Milos Kerkez at fullback, Willi Orbán and Nikola Milenković in the middle. Aina’s become one of Nottingham Forest’s most trusted players—comfortable on either flank, secure in one-on-ones, reliable in possession. Kerkez brings opposite energy on the left, a relentless runner who earned his Liverpool move after standing out at Bournemouth. The kind of fullback who drags a team thirty yards up the pitch every time he gets the ball.
Orbán and Milenković give this defense the presence that coaches dream about. Orbán still organizes RB Leipzig’s back line, reads danger early, and attacks the ball in both boxes. Milenković brings years of Serie A experience with Fiorentina and a Forest move that shows how highly Premier League scouts rate him. Both watched qualifying slip away—Hungary finished behind Portugal and Ireland, and Serbia got overtaken by a fearless Albania side. This back line belongs in the final week of a major tournament, not scattered across preseason friendlies.
Midfield: control and chaos with nowhere to go
Carlos Baleba and Dominik Szoboszlai might be the most modern thing about this XI. Baleba’s grown fast at Brighton, where his ability to play through pressure and win the ball back has made him central to their high-tempo style. For Cameroon, he represents a new generation. His first qualification cycle ended with Cape Verde stealing the automatic place, and the playoff route closing before it began. A player built for humid summer evenings in Houston or Atlanta will be playing Premier League fixtures instead.
Szoboszlai’s turned into the heartbeat of Liverpool’s rebuild. His passing range, long-range shooting, and set-piece quality give him three different ways to decide a match. His work rate without the ball has surprised those who only knew him from highlight reels. With Hungary, he carries the armband and most of the creative burden. When a late Irish winner in Budapest ended their hopes, it also removed one of the most watchable midfielders of his generation from the world’s biggest stage.
Attack: the goals 2026 won’t get
Out wide, Bryan Mbeumo and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia would stretch any defense. Mbeumo turned a breakout season at Brentford into a high-profile move to Manchester United and now offers goals, pressing, and set-piece threat from the right. Cameroon’s stumbles mean that version of him won’t appear in North America. On the left, Kvaratskhelia went from revelation at Napoli to headline signing at Paris Saint-Germain, where his sharp cuts inside and fearless dribbling have already changed how Ligue 1 fullbacks defend that flank. Georgia’s ceiling in qualifying proved brutal—stuck behind Spain and Turkey, they ran out of road.
Through the middle, Serhou Guirassy and Victor Osimhen form a front line built for tournament football. Guirassy has exploded at Borussia Dortmund, scoring freely in the Bundesliga and Europe with penalty-box movement that rarely goes into prolonged slumps. For Guinea, his goals haven’t been enough to overcome inconsistency in a tightly packed African group. Osimhen, now the star of Galatasaray after his shock Napoli exit, looked prepped for nights in sold-out American stadiums—fast, relentless, fearless in the air. Nigeria’s playoff defeat to DR Congo means those runs into the channels will happen in domestic competition instead.
Put this XI on a single team sheet, and it looks competitive with almost anything that’ll line up at the tournament. Oblak behind that defense, Baleba and Szoboszlai running midfield, Kvaratskhelia and Mbeumo feeding Guirassy and Osimhen—appointment viewing in any city on the 2026 map. Instead, they become a ghost team. Fans will argue about who else should’ve made it—Alexander Isak, Viktor Gyökeres, whoever. But here’s what matters: even an expanded World Cup still has sharp edges. One bad night in qualifying can keep an entire generation away from the stage it most deserves.
