These four countries are making their World Cup debut in 2026

This summer will be the 23rd edition of the World Cup, and the first since FIFA expanded the tournament to 48 teams. As a result, many nations are ending long periods without being featured on the biggest stage, while four national teams will actually debut this summer. This means, out of FIFA's 211 members, 88 have now qualified for the World Cup.

FIFA World Cup debutants by tournament (1990-present)

Four debutants is the most a World Cup has seen for two decades, which is to be expected given the tournament's expansion. It is still a substantial increase on 2022, when hosts Qatar were the only ones. Ahead of their respective group stage openers, we assess the strength of Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan and Uzbekistan, analyzing their chances of making the knockout rounds.

Cape Verde

Cape Verde is made up of 10 volcanic islands and has a population of around 500,000. It is frankly miraculous that Cape Verde has made it to a World Cup. The Blue Sharks did so by topping their CAF qualification group, finishing above Cameroon, the African country that has qualified for more World Cups than any other. Dailon Livramento's goal that saw them beat the Indomitable Lions 1-0 in Praia last September was surely the most famous in their entire history.

However, this success has not come completely out of nowhere. Cape Verde has appeared at four of the past seven Africa Cup of Nations, getting all the way to the quarter-finals of the 2024 edition, dumped out by South Africa on penalties in Yamoussoukro. The 26 members of Bubista's squad ply their trade all across the world, including Shamrock Rovers defender Pico Lopes. Born and raised in Dublin, he was recruited via LinkedIn, initially ignoring the message as it was in Portuguese, assuming it to be spam. But he now has 45 caps for the nation of his father's birth.

Looking at their fixtures, Cape Verde are very much being thrown in at the deep end. The Blue Sharks will take on European champions Spain in Atlanta and then Uruguay in Miami, before a meeting with Saudi Arabia in Houston. If they stand any chance of going through, that last game is surely must win.

Curaçao

Curaçao will become the 12th CONCACAF team to be featured at a World Cup. In doing so, Curaçao, the Dutch Caribbean island has become the smallest country by both population and land mass to ever qualify for the tournament — around 158,000 people live on this island of only 171 square miles!

Their manager Dick Advocaat will become the oldest in World Cup history, at the age of 78, having previously led the Netherlands during the 1994 World Cup and South Korea at the 2006 edition. All but one member of the Blue Waves' Curaçao squad were born in the Netherlands, with Tahith Chong of Sheffield United the sole exception. Thus, a heavy recruitment drive has gotten them to this point, albeit Curaçao still lacks quality, as underlined by recent emphatic friendly defeats at the hands of Australia and Scotland.

They have also landed in a very challenging group, facing Germany in Houston, Ecuador in Kansas City and then Côte d'Ivoire in Philly. Thus, any points at all would be an excellent achievement.

Jordan

Of the quartet of debutants, it feels as though Jordan is the side with the least hype. The Chivalrous Ones lost only three of 16 qualifiers, notably holding Korea Republic to a 1-1 draw in Suwon, as well as reaching last December's FIFA Arab Cup Final, defeated after extra time by Morocco. They were also Asian Cup Finalists for the very first time in 2024, beaten 3-1 by hosts Qatar.

Nevertheless, certainly in the western world, it still feels as though very little is known about Jamal Sellami and his team. The majority of his 26-man squad play domestically or in other Asian leagues, namely Qatar, Iraq, Malaysia, Korea or Saudi. Their sole European-based player is captain and talisman Musa Al-Taamari of Stade Rennais, who has 24 international goals to his name and, if Jordan are going to score a first-ever World Cup goal this summer, he feels like the most-likely source.

Jordan's maiden two fixtures at the tournament will be in the San Francisco Bay Area, taking on Austria and Algeria, before travelling down to Texas for a meeting with defending champions Argentina. Again, without wanting to be ill-informed about this team's qualities, they feel destined to finish bottom of Group J, potentially doing so pointless.

Uzbekistan

Last, but by no means least, Uzbekistan has become the first-ever double landlocked country to ever qualify for a World Cup. This sounds like a great fact, hence why we've chosen to include it, but is less so when you realize that there are only two in the entire world. The other are Liechtenstein who, considering they are sixth-bottom of the World Rankings, aren't going to make it any time soon.

This qualification though is a culmination of everything Uzbekistan has been working toward. The FA founded the now dissolved FC Olympic Tashkent, who joined the Uzbekistan Super League, in an attempt to get the under-23s to qualify for the Olympics, which they did in France in 2024. As for the senior national team, they will appear at a ninth successive Asian Cup next January, having reached the semi-finals in 2011 and the last eight of the most-recent edition.

Unlike other debutants, Uzbekistan does boast stars, none more so than manager Fabio Cannavaro, who won both the World Cup and the Ballon d'Or 20 years ago. On the pitch, the White Wolves can call upon Manchester City centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov, as well as former Roma striker Eldor Shomurodov. Now of İstanbul Başakşehir, the captain has scored a record 44 times for his country.

Just like the other debutants on this list, Uzbekistan have landed in a very challenging group. They will face Colombia at the Azteca and then Portugal in Houston, before concluding the group phase against DR Congo at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. This is a solid team, but it would be quite the storyline were they to collect anything against two of the World Cup favourites to start.

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