The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the biggest in the competition’s history with 48 teams participating at the finals – & we’d love to see these 11 countries return to football’s biggest stage.
All of the teams we have listed missed the 2022 tournament in Qatar and possess the ability to make waves at the finals in North America in two years time.
From former champions to countries who have been missing since the 20th century, here are 11 teams whose World Cup return we are rooting for.
Since winning the World Cup in 2006, Italy have been eliminated in the group stages in 2010 and 2014 and didn’t even make the last two tournaments.
But the Copa Mundial just hasn’t been the same without Italy, who can always be relied upon to deliver drama and have the happy habit of either being amazing or awful.
Luciano Spaletti is the man tasked with leading Italy to North America and, despite a disappointing performance at Euro 2024, the Azzurri recently beat France in the UEFA Nations League and should hustle their way through qualifying.
One of the most in-form teams in world football, Colombia were runners-up at the most recent Copa America and avenged their final defeat to Argentina by beating the world champions in their 2026 qualifier in September.
Bolstered by the renaissance of James Rodriguez, Colombia also boast a healthy Premier League contingent including Luis Diaz, Daniel Munoz and prolific super sub Jhon Duran.
After somehow missing out on Qatar 2022, the Colombians are second in South American qualifying and should stroll into the next finals in style.
One glance at Nigeria’s forward line is enough to send shivers down your spine; their current squad contains Victor Osimhen, Ademola Lookman, Victor Boniface, Taiwo Awoniyi and Samuel Chukwueze.
But the African heavyweights are winless in four World Cup qualifiers to date, trailing group leaders Rwanda by four points, and will remain that way until play resumes in March 2025.
A tendency towards self-destruction and chaotic governance often undermines Nigeria’s talent and the 2026 finals would undoubtedly be poorer in their absence.
Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard are the headline pair, but Norway have an increasing pool of players in Europe’s top five leagues and would be serious dark horses if they qualified in 2026.
The Scandinavians haven’t reached a major tournament since Euro 2000, but it would be criminal if that run extended much longer; Iceland and Wales both made recent World Cup finals with much less ability at their disposal.
Sweden have a reputation for dour tournament football, topping the group with two goals and five points before a forgettable exit in the last 16, but a new group of gifted forwards can change all that.
Alexander Isak, Viktor Gyorekes, Dejan Kulusevski, Anthony Elanga and Lucas Bergvall are all in their current squad, making Sweden’s absence from Euro 2024 truly unforgivable.
New manager Jon Dahl Tomasson has the task of knitting all this talent together, and compensating for some gaps at the back, to make Sweden the sum of their parts.
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With Croatia’s Golden Generation approaching their 40s, Serbia’s best players tied up in the Saudi Pro League and no successor to Robert Lewandowski in sight for Poland, there is a vacuum for a top Eastern European side to become 2026’s unofficial dark horses.
We nominate Turkey as one of the two countries primed to take up that mantle. They impressed on their run to the quarter-finals of Euro 2024 and possess some top young talents like Arda Guler and Kenan Yildiz.
Ballon d’Or nominee Hakan Calhanoglu knits it all together in midfield and there’s never been a better opportunity for Turkey to make their first World Cup since 2002.
Our other choice as Eastern Europe’s next super team is more sentimental – partly because two of our writers have Ukrainian heritage and partly due to the ongoing war with Russia.
But, despite exiting the Euros at the group stage, Ukraine have some serious ability in their squad.
Artem Dobyk won La Liga’s Golden Boot last season, Georgiy Sudakov is one of Europe’s brightest attacking midfielders and Bournemouth defender Ilya Zabarnyi is a fine operator.
Chuck Zinchenko and Mudryk in there too and Ukraine should be aiming for the finals in North America. It would be just their second World Cup appearance as an independent country and would keep the country visible across the world.
The current AFCON holders have missed the last two World Cup tournaments, but have their best set of players since the Didier Drogba era.
Ousmane Diomande and Odilon Kossounou are two of Europe’s most in-demand centre-backs, while Simon Adringa has shown plenty of promise at Brighton.
With a capable set of midfielders and Sebastian Haller up top, Ivory Coast are unsurprisingly top of their qualifying group and will be aiming to reach the knockout stages for the first time in 2026.
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Absent from the World Cup finals since France ’98, Austria made waves at this summer’s Euros with their relentless pressing style under Ralf Rangnick.
In a tournament bereft of excitement, the Austrian’s high-octane victories over Poland and the Netherlands caught the eye and their last 16 defeat to Turkey was a genuine thriller.
With a squad in its prime, packed with Bundesliga talent, Austria would be a fascinating proposition in 2026.
We could’ve gone with Egypt here as the narrative about Mohamed Salah’s World Cup swansong would be irresistible. They are likely to qualify anyway.
But, in truth, the Egyptian talent pool is pretty shallow outside of the Liverpool superstar and we’ve seen too many eye-bleeding AFCON matches involving the Pharaohs for their presence to get our blood pumping.
Instead, we’re plumping for their hated rivals Algeria. Absent from the past two finals, the North Africans played some spellbinding football at their last World Cup in 2014 and pushed eventual winners Germany all the way in the last 16.
Riyad Mahrez would be in his mid-30s, but Algeria have several youngsters across the Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and the Premier League who could do his running.
As co-hosts of the 2026 finals, Canada, Mexico and the United States are all exempt from CONCACAF qualifying – which has opened the field for the continent’s other sides.
We’d expect Costa Rica to make their fourth successive finals and Panama should return after failing to qualify in 2022. But, most of all, we’d love Jamaica to reach their first World Cup since 1998.
They have the players to do so, including Leon Bailey and Michail Antonio, with plenty more English-based stars eligible to play for the Reggae Boyz.
And the thought of Steve McClaren unleashing his rasta accent onto unsuspecting global audiences sends shivers down our spine. Fingers crossed they make it.
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