Which players won’t be playing for the country they were born in during the 2026 World Cup?

The fact that a player plays for a national team doesn’t exactly mean that he was born there. It sounds a bit shocking, given the fact of what the tournament is, but globalization and plenty of other factors have made this 2026 World Cup have a record-setting number of players representing countries that are not their actual birth nations.

Per Jaime Macias of Telemundo, there are 289 players in the 2026 World Cup that will not play for the country in which they were born. For instance, 25 of the 26 Curazao players are from the Netherlands.

There are 75 players born in France that will play for other teams, mainly Tunisia, Haiti, Algeria, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Ghana. There are also huge, mainstream names that are part of this phenomenon.

Biggest stars to not play for the country they were born in during the 2026 World Cup

There are some big names that will appear for other countries, which makes it all the more intriguing, as they could’ve easily played for the country where they were born and still play for a contender.

See also

How many and which 2026 World Cup games will be played in Los Angeles?

How many players have won the World Cup playing for a country where they weren’t born?

According to FIFA.com, there have been 22 players to win the World Cup repping the shirt of another country different to the one they were born in. The most notable case of them all is Italy, who has used foreign-born players to reach the highest of highs in the soccer world.

In 1934, Italy won having seven foreign-born players. In 1938, they had one. As for the 1982 World Cup, key member Claudio Gentile was born in Libya. Then, they added two more in 2006. Out of the 22 foreign-born World Cup champions, Italy has had 11 of them.