The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off on Thursday when Mexico takes on South Korea at the Estadio Azteca, Mexico City.
This will be a rematch of the 2010 tournament opener, a match remembered for Siphiwe Tshabalala’s iconic goal and Peter Drury’s accompanying commentary.
In the previous edition, Enner Valencia from Ecuador scored the tournament opener against host country Qatar.
The very first goal of the FIFA World Cup was scored by France’s Lucien Laurent, who found the net against Mexico on July 13, 1930.
Complete list of opening goals in the FIFA World Cup
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1930: Lucien Laurent (France)
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1934: Ernesto Belis (Argentina)
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1938: Josef Gauchel (Germany)
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1950: Ademir (Brazil)
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1954: Miloš Milutinović (Yugoslavia)
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1958: Oreste Corbatta (Argentina)
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1962: Héctor Facundo (Argentina)
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1966: Pele (Brazil)
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1970: Dinko Dermendzhiev (Bulgaria)
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1974: Paul Breitner (West Germany)
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1978: Bernard Lacombe (France)
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1982: Erwin Vandenbergh (Belgium)
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1986: Alessandro Altobelli (Italy)
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1990: François Omam-Biyik (Cameroon)
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1994: Jürgen Klinsmann (Germany)
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1998: César Sampaio (Brazil)
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2002: Papa Bouba Diop (Senegal)
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2006: Philipp Lahm (Germany)
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2010: Siphiwe Tshabalala (South Africa)
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2014: Marcelo (Brazil, own goal)
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2018: Yuri Gazinski (Russia)
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2022: Enner Valencia (Ecuador)
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2026: Julián Quiñones (Mexico)
Published on June 12, 2026
