Several 'very interesting' or 'completely unnecessary' facts before the 2026 World Cup

2026-06-07 17:30 © AP

Before the 2026 World Cup - a few interesting facts. A significant portion of these was discovered by X (formerly Twitter) user Fredrik, who also provided some intriguing facts.

The club with the most players in this tournament will be "Manchester City" - 19. Next is "Bayern" with 17 of their representatives, while "Arsenal" and PSG will have 15 each. "Manchester United", "Al Hilal", "Atletico", and "Crystal Palace" will each have 12 players, and "Borussia", "Galatasaray", and "Liverpool" will have 11.

Out of 1248 players in this tournament, 48 are team captains. Interestingly, 69% of team captains are players who have played the most matches for their national team, and 92% of them are among the top 3 with the most matches played. Perhaps the strangest situation is in the Czech Republic, where captain Ladislav Krejčí is only the tenth in terms of matches played for the national team. The average height of the captains is around 182 cm, which is one centimeter less than the average height of players in this tournament. The only captain who is the tallest player in his national team is Shomurodov from Uzbekistan. Eleven captains wear the number 10, making it the most popular captain's number, while number 3 takes second place with four players.

The Spanish star Lamine Yamal has played an average of 13.2 matches for his national team since the age of 17. This average is the highest among all players, and the top ten also includes Cristiano Ronaldo (9.29 matches), Kylian Mbappe (9.18 matches), Lionel Messi (9.02 matches), Achraf Hakimi (8.98 matches), and three players from Qatar - Al-Haydos, Akram Afif, and Almoez Ali. The second place on such a list is taken by another young player Kendry Páez with an average of 12 matches per year.

The general of the Moroccan national team’s midfield, Sofyan Amrabat, is a player who has played the most matches for his national team without scoring a goal. He has played a total of 74 matches. Colombian player Santiago Arias is a defender with the most matches without goals (67 matches), while Ayman Yahya holds the same title among forwards (25 matches for Saudi Arabia without a goal).

And now for some lighter statistics:

The day of the week on which the most World Cup players were born is Wednesday - 207 out of 1248 players.

Four tournament players were born on August 4, 2001 - O. Appollis, C. Wi-je, M. Chamakhas, and G. Inacio. This is the day with the most World Cup football players born, while December 20 and February 25 are the days when 10 participants of the World Cup celebrate their birthdays.

The 2026 World Cup will take place from June 11 to July 19.