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The 2026 World Cup is still two years away, but the excitement surrounding the tournament is already building, particularly in host nations Canada, Mexico and the United States. All three are presently building towards the tournament, while qualifying has already commenced in the CONMEBOL, CONCACAF, CAF and AFC regions.
Meanwhile, Europe’s top sides have only just started their Nations League campaigns, but some sides are undeniably in far better shape than others right now. There is, of course, an awful lot of football to be played between now and the opening game of the 2026 World Cup in Mexico City but, as it stands, who’s looking like a potential victor – and which nations have an awful lot to work on?
Below, GOAL assesses the prospects of the three hosts and the 13 highest-ranked teams in the international game today…
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Imagn16United States
The USMNT finally has a new coach and a good one at that, with Mauricio Pochettino’s long-awaited appointment finally confirmed on Tuesday- and to great fanfare.
However, while the Argentine unquestionably represents quite the coup given his reputation for improving players, he has a big job ahead of him. Indeed, the news of Pochettino’s imminent arrival came just before a desperately underwhelming 1-1 draw with New Zealand that highlighted the USMNT’s many shortcomings.
The Americans have now failed to win any of their last four fixtures and their embarrassing group-stage elimination at the Copa America cast considerable doubt over their chances of bettering their run to the round of 16 the last time they hosted the World Cup all the way back in 1994, with Christian Pulisic the one truly top talent in the current line-up.
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AFP15Mexico
Jaime Lozano led Mexico to Gold Cup glory in 2023, but he was sacked after this summer’s atrocious Copa America campaign in which El Tri failed dismally to get out of a very winnable group featuring Jamaica, Venezuela and Ecuador.
Consequently, Javier Aguirre is back for a third spell in charge, although he will be assisted by the legendary Rafael Marquez, who has been pencilled in to take over as head coach after the World Cup.
The question now is whether Aguirre, who led Mexico to the last 16 in both 2002 and 2010, can halt the national team’s slide. Much will depend on whether he can unlock Feyenoord striker Santiago Gimenez, who has yet to replicate his impressive club form at international level.
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Getty14Canada
The lowest-ranked team on our list (40th), but Canada look like a team going places under Jesse Marsch. The American only took over in May and suffered a chastening 4-0 loss to Netherlands in his opening game, but a very creditable 0-0 draw with France proved a sign of things to come, with the Canucks finishing fourth at the 2024 Copa America – which arguably ranks as the finest achievement in the nation’s soccer history.
The challenge now, of course, is to make an even bigger splash at the 2026 World Cup. Canada have only qualified for the finals on two previous occasions (1986 and 2022) and they lost all three of their group games on both occasions, but Marsch has already shown that he could achieve something special with a hungry team led by the excellent Alphonso Davies and spearheaded by the prolific Jonathan David.
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Getty13Croatia
We thought we’d seen the last of Luka Modric after Croatia’s devastating first-round elimination at the Euros, but the Real Madrid midfielder is still captaining his country and even got the only goal of the game in their Nations League win over Poland.
However, the fact that Modric is still such an influential figure is worrying. Too many members of the squad are 30 or over, and there is a serious dearth of young talent in attack. So, while Croatia remain one of the international game’s great overachievers, coach Zlatko Dalic, who has been at the helm since 2017, really needs to rejuvenate his side if they are to have any chance of arriving in North America with any chance of replicating their stunning third-place finish in Qatar.
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Getty12Belgium
Belgium went into Euro 2024 uneaten under Domenico Tedesco but, after a humiliating loss to Slovakia in their opening game, their campaign only descended further into farce, with Kevin De Bruyne even turning his back on the nation’s fans for expressing their disgust with the team’s dreadful lack of ambition in their final group game against Ukraine.
De Bruyne has decided to play on and impressed in the Nations League win over Israel, but he cut a bitterly frustrated figure during and after Monday’s tame loss to France in Lyon. This, then, is quite clearly a team in transition, one that will require time and patience to get back to its best.
The remaining members of the Golden Generation still have something to offer and Belgium have plenty of young talent at their disposal, including Jeremy Doku and Johan Bakayoko, but they remain worryingly weak from a mental perspective.
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Getty Images11Uruguay
Marcelo Bielsa has quickly gone about both reviving and rejuvenating Uruguay since being appointed coach in May 2023, with the great Luis Suarez becoming the latest member of the old guard to bid farewell to the international game after the recent 0-0 draw with Paraguay.
The former Liverpool and Barcelona striker will certainly be missed, because while Darwin Nunez has improved significantly on Bielsa’s watch, the Celeste still struggle to create chances and have failed to score in four of their last five games.
There are somewhat mitigating circumstances, though, as Nunez, Rodrigo Bentancur, Mathias Olivera, Ronald Araujo and Jose Maria Gimenez are all still suspended for their respective roles in the clashes with fans that marred this summer’s Copa America semi-final loss to Colombia. It’s also worth pointing out that despite dropping four points over the international break, Uruguay still sit third in the CONMEBOL qualifying group.
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Getty Images Sport10Brazil
Dorival Junior said before Tuesday’s clash with Paraguay that Brazil will be in the 2026 World Cup final, but the 1-0 loss in Asuncion underlined that his primary concern right now should be just qualifying for the tournament. It was the Seleccao’s first defeat under the former Sao Paulo coach, but it’s worth pointing out that he’s drawn five of his 10 games in charge and is quite clearly struggling with the balance of his side.
Brazil are not short on quality – they fielded an all-Real Madrid forward line of Vinicius Jr, Endrick and Rodrygo against Paraguay – but the players are, as captain Marquinhos has admitted, low on confidence after underwhelming horribly at both the 2022 World Cup and this year’s Copa America.
Dorival, then, has quite the job on his hands, with the Selecao currently fifth in the CONMEBOL qualifying group, in which only the top six teams qualify directly for the finals, having won just one of their last six qualifiers.
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Getty9France
France remain No.2 in FIFA’s world rankings, thanks in no small part to the fact that they reached the semi-finals at Euro 2024. However, Les Bleus played absolutely atrocious football in Germany, with Didier Deschamps failing miserably to get the most out of the magnificent group of players at his disposal.
The pressure on the former midfielder has eased ever so slightly, with France having bounced back from a dreadful defeat at home to Italy by beating Belgium to get their Nations League campaign back on track, but serious doubts remain over whether Deschamps is still the right man for the job and there are still constant calls for Zinedine Zidane to take over.
Just like his team, Deschamps is nothing if not resilient, but, as ever, much will depend on the form and attitude of Kylian Mbappe, who was benched for the Belgium game…
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AFP8Italy
Italy have failed to qualify for the last two World Cups and were utterly humiliated at Euro 2024, beaten with embarrassing ease by Switzerland in the last 16 after scraping into the knockout stage with a last-minute equaliser against Croatia.
However, while Luciano Spalletti made some strange decisions in Germany, it must be remembered that he took over a team in turmoil following Roberto Mancini’s shock resignation, while it also appears as if he’s learned from his mistakes.
Italy kicked off their Nations League campaign with a hugely impressive 3-1 win over France in Paris and followed it up with a 2-1 defeat of Israel to take early control of their group.
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Getty7Portugal
There is no end in sight to ‘The Cristiano Ronaldo Show’, with the five-time Ballon d’Or winner making it abundantly clear that he has no intention of retiring from international football even though it was made painfully obvious during the Euros that he can no longer cut it at the very highest level.
When one considers that Portugal boss Roberto Martinez doesn’t have it in to drop Ronaldo for the good of the team, it’s now inevitable that the Seleccao’s World Cup hopes will once again hinge upon the form and fitness of an egomaniac who will be 41 when the tournament rolls around.
Indeed, a couple of goals in the Nations League wins over Croatia and Scotland will have only strengthened Ronaldo’s resolve to continue leading his country for another two years, while younger and more mobile forwards such as Diogo Jota and Goncalo Ramos are forced to play second fiddle to the superstar striker.
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IMAGO6Netherlands
Ronald Koeman’s Netherlands remain a difficult side to work out. They were very fortunate to get out of their group at Euro 2024, but undeniably improved as the tournament went on and ended up reaching the semi-finals, where they were narrowly beaten by England.
Finding a worthy central defensive partner for 33-year-old skipper Virgil van Dijk remains a major issue – Matthijs de Ligt was hauled off at half-time in Tuesday’s 2-2 draw with Germany – but Ryan Gravenberch’s revival at Liverpool is a timely boost
, while Joshua Zirkzee is starting to look like the answer to the prayers for a top No.9 that the likes of Xavi Simons and Cody Gakpo can play off.
By 2026, Koeman might well have honed a team capable of at least emulating the Oranje’s quarter-final run in Qatar.
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AFP5Colombia
Nestor Lorenzo has done an extraordinary job since taking charge of Colombia in June 2022, with his only defeat so far coming against Argentina in the final of this summer’s Copa America – and even that setback has just been avenged, with los Cafeteros beating Lionel Scaloni’s all-conquering side in a World Cup qualifier in Barranquilla on Tuesday.
As a result of that 2-1 victory, the resurgent Colombians are now second in the CONMEBOL group, just two points behind the Albiceleste, whom Lorenzo represented as a player on 13 occasions.
Key to the remarkable revival has been the form of captain James Rodriguez, who is playing probably his best football since the 2014 World Cup, but Luis Diaz is also on fire at the moment, while 20-year-old striker Jhon Duran is showing why he’s so highly rated by Aston Villa.
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AFP4Germany
Germany’s Euro 2024 clash with Spain probably should have been the final, with the two best teams in the tournament playing out an absorbing and high-quality quarter-final encounter in Stuttgart that La Roja only edged thanks to a 119th-minute winner from Mikel Merino.
Julian Nagelsmann’s side were understandably devastated by the nature of that defeat, but their performance against the eventual winners showed just how far they’d come under the former Bayern Munich boss, who took over a team in turmoil following Hansi Flick’s dismissal in September 2023.
Germany have also made a positive start to their Nations League campaign, routing Hungary 5-0 before claiming a creditable 2-2 draw in the Netherlands, with Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz once again showing why Die Mannschaft should be a force to be reckoned with come 2026.
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Getty Images3England
Statistically speaking, Gareth Southgate was England’s most successful manager since Sir Alf Ramsey, but he failed to end the most infamous trophy drought in international football, with the Three Lions once again coming up short at Euro 2024, where they were outclassed in the final by Spain.
The feeling all along was that Southgate’s conservatism prevented him from getting the best out of an incredibly talented crop of players, but the early signs are that things could be very different under Lee Carsley, who is the clear favourite to land the manager’s job on a permanent basis after winning his first two games as interim coach with a more attacking brand of football – and simply by playing players such as Trent Alexander-Arnold in their best positions.
Still, while England certainly have the talent to triumph in 2026 – Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Kobbie Mainoo and Marc Guehi are only going to improve over the next two years – the big question is whether their one and only world-class striker, Harry Kane (31), will still be fit to lead the line by then?
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AFP2Spain
Spain were most worthy winners of Euro 2024, with Luis de la Fuente shaking off early doubts over his elite-level credentials by putting together a wonderfully balanced team that was excellent offensively and dogged defensively.
Consequently, La Roja were able to make light of their lack of a prolific No.9 (though captain Alvaro Morata did lead the line diligently in Germany) and a world-class goalkeeper to beat all-comers thanks to the security offered by the resurgent Aymeric Laporte and Marc Cucurella in defence, the majesty of Rodri and Fabian Ruiz in midfield, and the skill and pace of Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal out wide.
Spain could still do with a reliable goal-scorer emerging over the next couple of years, as underlined by their Nations League draw with Serbia, but their subsequent 4-1 win in Switzerland showed just how much talent there is in this team, which should be even stronger in 2026 as the likes of Yamal continue to develop.
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Getty1Argentina
Will he or won’t he? Lionel Messi could have retired after leading Argentina to World Cup glory in 2022 with his magical, Diego Maradona-like performances in Qatar but, because he was still having so much fun with the Albiceleste, he stuck around to win another Copa America.
The question now is whether he will continue until 2026. It’s certainly a possibility as he’s Argentina’s top scorer in the CONMEBOL qualifying group, which they presently top, and the No.10 was unquestionably missed in Tuesday’s 2-1 loss in Colombia – which is worrying given Messi is 37 at this stage and no long as magical as he once was.
It’s clearly time for Lionel Scaloni to come up with a contingency plan and the hope is that Lautaro Martinez and Julian Alvarez will have developed into a lethal front two by the time the next World Cup comes around. If they do, Argentina will be well-placed to defend their title, given they’ve plenty of quality elsewhere, particularly in midfield.
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