Hot Takes

Cha Bum-kun’s record of 58 international goals has stood for nearly four decades. Son Heung-min enters the 2026 FIFA World Cup on 56, two away from equalling it and three from breaking it. A brace against Trinidad and Tobago on May 30, one composed close-range finish, one penalty drilled cleanly into the corner, closed the gap to its tightest point. At 33, playing his fourth and almost certainly final World Cup, Son has never been closer. The only question is whether South Korea can give him enough matches to get there.

Scotland’s World Cup campaign suffered its most damaging blow before a ball was kicked. Billy Gilmour, the Napoli midfielder who connected every component of Scotland’s possession structure through qualifying, was ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury sustained during the 4-1 warm-up win over Curaçao. Steve Clarke had built an entire midfield system around what Gilmour does. Replacing a player is straightforward. Replacing the role he occupied, and the structural balance it provided, is a different problem entirely, and Group C gives Scotland no margin to solve it slowly.

South Africa returns to the World Cup for the first time since hosting it in 2010, and they arrive with a squad built on defensive solidity and rapid transitions rather than creative depth. Group A, alongside co-hosts Mexico, South Korea, and Czechia, contains three sides whose defensive organisation will make goal creation genuinely difficult. The one player who changes that equation is Oswin Appollis, a 24-year-old Orlando Pirates winger whose qualifying numbers sit in a different category to every other attacking option Hugo Broos has available.

Panama is organised, experienced, and built to frustrate better-resourced opponents. Every analyst will tell you that. What hasn’t been said plainly enough is this: the single variable separating Panama beating Ghana on June 17 from exiting without a win is Adalberto Carrasquilla. The 27-year-old Pumas UNAM midfielder was stretchered off in the Clausura 2026 final on May 25 with a groin injury. Coach Thomas Christiansen kept him in the squad anyway. Without him, Panama lost 6-2 to Brazil. That result is not a coincidence.

When Algeria’s 2026 World Cup squad gets discussed, two names take up most of the space: Riyad Mahrez’s farewell narrative and Luca Zidane’s surname. The player whose form will actually determine whether Algeria can contest second place in Group J is neither of them. Ibrahim Maza, a 20-year-old attacking midfielder from Bayer Leverkusen, completed his debut Bundesliga season with 3 goals, 4 assists, and 1.41 key passes per 90. Algeria faces Argentina, Austria, and Jordan. Mahrez is 35 and playing Saudi football. Maza is the engine.

Mohamed Salah enters the 2026 FIFA World Cup with two goals from Egyptian football history. The record he’s chasing, 69 international goals, belongs to his head coach, Hossam Hassan, the man who selected him for this squad and sent him out onto the pitch. Hassan built it over 21 years and 177 appearances. Salah has reached 67 in 115 caps. The arithmetic is simple. Breaking a national record held by your own manager, at a World Cup, has no parallel in international football history.

Tunisia arrives at the 2026 FIFA World Cup having never conceded a single qualifying goal, a record no nation has ever produced in a World Cup qualifying campaign. Every preview has treated this as evidence of readiness. The harder argument is the reverse: the tactical identity that produced that record was built against opponents ranked outside the global top 90, and Group F contains the Netherlands, Japan, and Sweden. The perfect qualifying record isn’t proof that Tunisia is ready. It may be proof of how untested they actually are.

Sweden should not be at this tournament. They finished bottom of their qualifying group with two points and no wins, then relied on Viktor Gyokeres scoring four goals across two playoff matches to reach North America. Graham Potter’s side enters Group F ranked 43rd in the world, seeded third behind the Netherlands and Japan. None of that matters if both strikers are fit and firing. Having Gyokeres and Isak available, two strikers who led Premier League scoring charts in 2025/26, makes Sweden a more dangerous side than their ranking or their qualifying record would ever suggest.

Morocco arrives at the 2026 World Cup having dropped the two players who defined their 2022 semi-final run. Youssef En-Nesyri and Hakim Ziyech are out. The combined exit accounts for 50 international goals and 156 caps, and coach Mohamed Ouahbi has chosen not to replace their profiles but to build around something different. Achraf Hakimi and Brahim Diaz now carry Morocco’s attacking ambitions against Brazil, Scotland, and Haiti. The question is whether two players can fill the space that two others left.

Iran announced their 26-man squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in late May and left out their third-highest scorer in history. Sardar Azmoun, 57 goals in 91 caps, a goals-per-game ratio of 0.63, was absent from the preliminary 30-man list and confirmed out of the final squad. This was not a fitness call or a form decision. It was a political exclusion, driven by a social media post, that removed Iran’s most versatile attacker before a ball had been kicked in Group G.

Forty years is a long time to wait. When Ali Al-Hamadi headed in on the 10th minute against Bolivia in Monterrey on 31 March 2026, he didn’t just put Iraq ahead in a play-off; he started the process of ending a four-decade absence from the World Cup. Iraq is back, in Group I, against France, Norway, and Senegal. Al-Hamadi is their only Premier League player, their most recognisable attacker, and the forward on whom Graham Arnold’s system is built. This is why he matters.

Davies isn’t fit enough to start on June 12, and Canada’s Group B opponents are already adjusting their plans around him anyway. That’s the measure of his influence. A hamstring strain suffered in Bayern Munich’s Champions League semi-final against PSG in early May 2026 has complicated his tournament preparation, but Jesse Marsch has confirmed he’s targeting availability by the second or third group match. Canada can progress without him. With him, even from the bench, every opponent’s defensive shape changes before kick-off.