Veteran Portugal striker Cristiano Ronaldo will lead his country into the 2026 World Cup this summer after coach Roberto Martinez named the 41-year-old in his squad on Tuesday.

Only his back was visible. Just the back, with the Number 10 emblazoned on it. And a football resting at his feet.

The Dutch, who have finished runners-up three times at the tournament, play Japan in their opening Group F game before facing Sweden and Tunisia.

After decades of coming up short against European opposition in the latter stages of the World Cup, Brazil have turned to one of European football’s greatest ever coaches to end the 24-year wait for a sixth star upon the famous yellow jersey.

It will be Neymar’s fourth World Cup appearance, though few expected the journey back to end this way.

Brazil superstar Neymar was handed a dramatic recall to the country's World Cup squad on Monday, returning to the national team after a near three-year absence.

Football history remembers certain matches for breathtaking goals, dramatic comebacks, or unforgettable spectacle. Yet there are also games that survive in memory for an entirely different reason — as stains upon the sport itself.

Haiti's record goalscorer Duckens Nazon was already strapped into his seat, the aircraft on the tarmac at Tehran airport ready to take off, when his phone lit up with a message from a friend playing in Israel.

Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic announced Monday a preliminary 26-man squad for the upcoming World Cup, to be led by veteran Luka Modric, the key architect of the country's historic success in recent years.

Iran's football team arrived in Turkey on Monday for a training camp and to complete visa applications ahead of the 2026 World Cup, AFP correspondents said.

The son of former Argentine international Pablo Paz has opted to play for the world champions despite being born and raised in Spain.

Ghalenoei did not explain the reason for omitting Azmoun, who has scored 57 goals in 91 internationals, but Iran's state news agency IRNA reported that the former Bayer Leverkusen and AS Roma striker was left out due to injury.

When Giorgio Chiellini pulled down his jersey collar to show the referee his neck, the scene looked like a child complaining to a school teacher. This colossal Italian defender -- a man who, metaphorically, spent his entire career holding a knife to the throats of forwards -- was himself a silent victim that day. And the tooth marks of that predator were stamped on his shoulder.

FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafstrom described as "excellent" and "constructive" the meeting held on Saturday in Istanbul with the Iranian federation to ensure Iran's participation in the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Iran and the US cut diplomatic ties in 1980 and the players are expected to use their time in Turkey to complete the necessary procedures for obtaining visas.

Securing a place in the FIFA World Cup finals is usually a long, exhausting, and nerve-racking battle for any national team. Only after years of qualifying campaigns, intricate points-table calculations, and heart-pounding permutations does a team finally earn its ticket to football’s grandest stage.

France-born Ayyoub Bouaddi has been approved to play for Morocco less than a month before the 2026 World Cup kicks off.

South Korea's coach backed Son Heung-min to get back to goalscoring ways at his fourth World Cup after on Saturday naming the striker in his squad for the tournament.

Dangling above field level at the biggest stadium of the 2026 World Cup, eighteen giant metal arms flood a newly laid grass pitch in an eerie pink glow.

Lionel Messi's career seemed complete after he led Argentina to victory at the 2022 World Cup, but the motivation to keep playing is still there for him and his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo as the duo prepare to make history at this year's tournament in North America.