Jordan arrive at the 2026 World Cup looking to pull off a surprise. They are one of the teams making their first appearance in the competition in their entire history. They will do so with three players who were born overseas but will represent the country with soul. Jordan arrive with a low position in the FIFA rankings.
Jordan have three players who were born outside the country distributed across the defense and the attack. The attacker, Ali Azaizeh, was born in Germany. The defender Mohammad Abu Hashish was born in Iraq, and Mo Abualnadi was born in the United States.
This trend is concentrated in 40 of the 48 participating national teams, including Mexico and the United States. The exceptions are Saudi Arabia, Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Czechia, Panama, South Africa, and Sweden.
Countries that are part of the trend
The presence of nearly 300 players born in another country is explained in part by the expansion of the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams. This format gives more spots to African and Concacaf national teams, which feature countries with large migrant populations. The countries that feature soccer players born outside their borders are:
Ali Azaizeh of Jordan.
Curacao (25), Congo (19), Morocco (18), Bosnia (16), Algeria (15), Haiti (15), Cape Verde (14), Tunisia (14), Qatar (12), Senegal (12), Turkey (10), Ivory Coast (9), Australia (8), Ghana (8), New Zealand (8), Scotland (7), Canada (7), United States (6), Mexico (5), Paraguay (5), France (3), Ecuador (3), Jordan (3), Switzerland (3), Argentina (2), Iran (2), Uruguay (2), Norway (2), and Portugal (2). Additionally, England, Germany, South Korea, Spain, Uzbekistan, Belgium, and Japan have one.
France, the main developer
France is the country that will contribute the most players born in its territory to the World Cup, with 99. Out of all of them, 23 will represent the French national team, while 76 will play for other squads. Algeria have 13 players born in France. Haiti and Congo count 11, followed by Senegal (10), Ivory Coast (8), and Tunisia (7).
In Curacao, 25 of the 26 players who make up the roster were born in the Netherlands. This country contributed 40 players from its territory to other national teams. England follow them with 24 players wearing other jerseys. The podium is completed by Germany with 23, of which five play for Turkey.
