A new world order – FIFA World Cup returns with Messi, Ronaldo passes the baton to Mbappe, Haaland

The FIFA World Cup is a story about time.

Every four years it comes with the weight of memory and the promise of change. It’s a phase where generations overlap, where legends search for a final chapter, while young stars try to write their first.

For more than a decade and a half, football has revolved around a well-known zodiac sign. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo defined an era through relentless excellence. Neymar carried Brazil’s expectations, while Luka Modric became the symbol of a smaller country’s ability to challenge the established powers.

Now a new order is trying to overthrow them. Erling Haaland arrives with Norway’s hopes, while Lamine Yamal and Pedri embody a rejuvenated Spain.

Ousmane Dembele, fresh from a Ballon d’Or win, joins Kylian Mbappe at the forefront of France’s ambitions to regain the trophy. Throughout the tournament, the old and new guard will share the same stage, each chasing a different place in history.

Yet they will do so at a World Cup shaped by forces far beyond football.

The World Cup has always been a reflection of the world around it. In 1934 it marched through the shadows of fascism. In 1978 it unfolded under Argentina’s military dictatorship.

Qatar 2022, the first World Cup in the Arab world, was held against the backdrop of controversies over migrant workers and a winter schedule that forced football to abandon its traditional calendar. Now, in 2026, soccer arrives in North America, crossing three countries, 16 cities and 104 matches involving 48 teams.

This is a World Cup that is spreading beyond borders, at a time when the world feels increasingly closed off.

With Donald Trump back in the White House, immigration remains one of America’s biggest fault lines as relations between the United States and Mexico continue to oscillate between cooperation and confrontation. Canada also has a more complicated relationship with its giant neighbor. Nevertheless, for 39 days the three countries will try to organize the largest sporting event in the world ever.

Iran, locked in a geopolitical confrontation with the United States and its ally Israel, could play its World Cup matches in America while based across the border in Mexico as authorities explore ways to prevent the Iranian delegation’s extended stay on US soil.

Football, forever sold as a force for unity, is becoming increasingly tied to power under Gianni Infantino, whose stewardship of FIFA often resembles that of a luxury hotel concierge: always close to influence, always smiling and always making sure the most important people in the room feel celebrated.

That instinct is evident in his relationship with President Trump, a courtship that appears to have washed away the last vestiges of FIFA’s neutrality.

The governing body established a new FIFA Peace Prize in 2025 and presented the inaugural honor to Trump at the World Cup draw in Washington, without any transparent nomination or selection process. Infantino also appeared at the launch of Trump’s so-called Council of Peace.

Despite all the politics surrounding it, the tournament will ultimately be judged on the football it produces.

While soccer has traditionally struggled to fully conquer America, this World Cup could be different. Messi’s arrival at Inter Miami in 2023 has done more for the cultural legitimacy of soccer in the United States than decades of marketing campaigns.

At the age of 39, this will almost certainly be his last World Cup. Four years ago in Qatar he completed football’s greatest arc of redemption, lifting the trophy that had eluded him. Now, after three seasons in Major League Soccer, he will play on a continent he knows well.

That fame can matter. Teams will cross multiple time zones and endure travel requirements like no other World Cup has ever done, with the distances between Vancouver, Mexico City, Miami and New York more akin to continental tours than traditional tournament movements. Messi is no longer a visiting superstar but part of the North American sporting ecosystem, familiar with the heat, travel and media frenzy that define sports in that part of the world.

Argentina also retains a large part of the core that Qatar conquered. Seventeen members of that team remain involved and retain the experience the team brought with them Albiceleste to glory.

If Messi represents the enduring power of the old order, Europe arrives with the players most likely to inherit the future.

Spain is perhaps the tournament’s most fascinating side, with Yamal and Pedri at its heart, the faces of a generation shaped by Barcelona’s La Masia and a philosophy built around movement, positional exchange and relentless pressure.

The team has evolved beyond the sterile possession that ultimately became a caricature of its own success. This Spain attacks with greater urgency, aims to overload large areas and embraces risks in the transition.

If Spain represents the future of football, France remains the most complete present.

Led by Mbappe, now the face of Real Madrid’s latest galactico project, France boasts perhaps the largest pool of top talent in international football. Between Aurelien Tchouameni’s control and Dembele’s creativity, Les Bleus are comfortable without the ball and devastating with it. They don’t need to dominate possession to dominate games.

Beyond the favorites, however, the biggest transformation is structural.

The expanded format has changed the character of the World Cup. Asia now has eight direct qualification spots and Africa nine. Countries like Uzbekistan, Jordan, Cape Verde and Mali, who once considered qualification a distant dream, are now part of football’s biggest stage. The World Cup is no longer a championship contested solely by the traditional football elite.

Of course, expansion is also about money.

More teams create more inventory, more broadcast windows, more sponsor integrations, more streaming subscriptions, and more advertising opportunities. Inclusivity and commercial growth are not mutually exclusive.

Even player welfare measures now offer commercial opportunities. The North American summer is expected to be one of the defining stories of the tournament. Afternoon kick-offs in parts of the United States and Mexico can be extremely demanding, with players arriving after increasingly congested club seasons. FIFA’s decision to introduce extra cooling and drinking breaks is sensible from a medical perspective.

But football and FIFA rarely miss an opportunity. These breaks also add eight additional minutes of broadcast inventory to each game, and over the course of the tournament, that translates into a significant amount of monetizable airtime.

This is perhaps the defining story of the 2026 World Cup. Football is stretched by politics and commerce, forced to navigate the contradictions of the times in which it lives.

Published on June 11, 2026