All set for the World Cup? What are we looking forward to the most?

Kylian Mbappe Lionel Messi Cristiano Ronaldo 2026

Legends, last chances and rising stars: the stories that make football special on the grandest sporting stage of all – the World Cup.

The World Cup is almost here.

Unlike club football, where narratives are built over nine months and every detail is analysed to death, the World Cup feels different. It’s shorter, more emotional, and often more unpredictable.

I’ve learned not to obsess too much about predictions. Every tournament gives us stories nobody expects and disappointments nobody sees coming.

So instead of trying to predict the winner, here are the stories I’m most looking forward to following.

As a Moroccan, this is naturally where my attention starts.

The 2022 World Cup gave me memories that will last forever. Reaching the semi-finals changed how Moroccan, African and Arab football are viewed around the world.

The challenge now is different.

Everybody knows Morocco’s quality. We are no longer the surprise package.

Ironically, one of the teams that worries me most in the group stage is Scotland. Tournament football can become physical very quickly. Second balls, aerial duels, set pieces, long throws, and moments of chaos. Players like Scott McTominay thrive in exactly those situations.

Morocco have the talent to beat anyone, but tournaments are often decided by how well you handle uncomfortable games rather than beautiful ones.

I really like Ivory Coast’s squad. Looking at their group, I think they have a genuine opportunity to make a deep run if momentum starts building.

Senegal are another fascinating team. If they run into top teams later in the tournament, they have enough athleticism, physicality, and attacking quality to make life uncomfortable for anyone.

Algeria are harder to judge but I feel they can do well. Austria’s pressing intensity worries me, and Argentina would likely be waiting beyond that. Still, if they survive the group stage, they become dangerous.

I’m also excited to see what some of Africa’s less established World Cup nations can do.

Cape Verde’s first appearance in a World Cup group stage is a story worth following on its own. Drawn alongside Spain, Uruguay, and Saudi Arabia, they’ll have a difficult task ahead of them. What makes them interesting, however, is that they’ve built their recent success playing positive, attacking football rather than simply trying to survive games. Their qualifying campaign was impressive, and I’m curious to see whether they stay true to that identity on football’s biggest stage.

Congo are another team I’ll be watching closely. Their AFCON 2025 campaign caught my attention. They pushed Senegal to a draw and took Algeria all the way to extra time, showing they can compete with some of the continent’s strongest sides. With Portugal the clear favourite in their group, there is a genuine opportunity for Congo to compete with Uzbekistan and Colombia for qualification.

Ghana are perhaps the most intriguing of the three. England are deserved favourites in their group, but beyond that everything feels open. I’m particularly interested in seeing how players like Antoine Semenyo and Nico Williams perform, while Thomas Partey’s experience in midfield could be crucial in tournament football. If things click, Ghana have a realistic chance of reaching the knockout rounds.

Egypt might be the story I’m rooting for most.

Mohamed Salah is one of Africa’s greatest players, yet his World Cup story feels incomplete. Seeing Egypt win a World Cup match and finally reach the knockout rounds would be a fitting chapter in what could be Salah’s final World Cup.

Tunisia, on the other hand, worries me. Their path looks much tougher.

Outside of Morocco, there is probably no story I’d enjoy more than Cristiano Ronaldo lifting the World Cup.

Not because I think he needs it for his legacy. His place in football history is already secure.

But great sporting stories are rare.

The idea of Ronaldo completing football at the very end of his international journey would be one of the sport’s most remarkable endings.

As much as Ronaldo grabs the headlines, what excites me most about Portugal is their midfield.

Bruno Fernandes is probably my favourite Premier League player.

Bernardo Silva is one of the defining midfielders of his generation.

Vitinha has become my favourite midfielder in world football.

João Neves already looks destined to become one of the game’s elite players.

I’m fascinated to see how Roberto Martínez combines all of them.

The individual quality is obvious.

The challenge is making the collective greater than the sum of its parts.

The easy answer is no.

World Cups are hard enough to win once, let alone twice in a row.

Yet writing off Lionel Messi feels dangerous.

We’ve spent nearly two decades assuming the impossible would eventually become impossible for him, only to watch him prove otherwise.

What interests me most isn’t only Messi.

It’s what Argentina looks like after Messi.

Every great football nation eventually faces that question.

Which brings me to Nico Paz.

He’s one of my favourite young players in world football. Intelligent, creative, technical, and fearless. Watching him learn alongside Messi while beginning to establish himself for Argentina is one of the stories I’m most excited about.

Argentina may still belong to Messi.

But this tournament could also be the beginning of somebody else’s story.

For me, Neymar remains the closest player to Messi and Ronaldo from my generation.

Unfortunately for him, he spent most of his career competing with two players who dominated football’s biggest individual awards. By the time their era started slowing down, a new generation had already arrived.

Sometimes people forget just how extraordinary Neymar has been.

A sixth World Cup for Brazil would be one of the tournament’s most compelling stories.

At some point, football owes Harry Kane something special.

He’s finally won major trophies at club level, but international football still feels like the missing chapter.

England always arrive carrying enormous expectation.

I’m also fascinated by Jude Bellingham.

Not because we don’t know how good he is, but because I’m curious about where his game evolves next under Thomas Tuchel.

The World Cup may tell us whether he becomes a midfielder who attacks or an attacker who happens to play in midfield.

Every tournament I tell myself this is the end.

Then Croatia find a way.

Luka Modrić is my favourite midfielder of my generation.

Ivan Perišić is an Inter legend and one of the most underrated tournament players I’ve ever watched.

Every World Cup we expect Croatia to fade away.

Every World Cup they remind us why experience, belief, and quality still matter.

One thing I wrote about recently was reconnecting emotionally with football.

Part of that came from the return of players willing to take risks.

Lamine Yamal.

Rayan Cherki.

Michael Olise.

Vini Jr.

Players who don’t just solve football problems but create football moments.

Football will always need structure and organisation.

But tournaments are remembered for magic.

And these players are capable of producing it.

Spain might be the best team in the world.

The challenge is that World Cups rarely unfold the way club football does.

Eventually every favourite faces a stubborn low block.

A team that refuses to attack.

A game decided by a set piece.

A game decided by a mistake.

Spain seem to have answers to almost every football question.

The World Cup will test whether they have answers to all of them.

One record has been sitting quietly in the background throughout all the discussions surrounding this tournament.

Miroslav Klose’s World Cup goalscoring record.

For years it felt untouchable.

Yet heading into this World Cup, both Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé have a chance to move closer, with Mbappé looking the more likely of the two to eventually break it.

That’s what makes this tournament fascinating.

On one side, we have Messi, one of the greatest players the sport has ever seen, still chasing history at the twilight of his career.

On the other, we have Mbappé, arguably the player best positioned to define the next era of international football.

World Cups often feel like a passing of the torch.

This one may give us a front-row seat to it.

Every World Cup feels like a changing of the guard.

Haaland feels capable of finishing as the tournament’s top scorer.

Mbappé remains the player most likely to dominate the competition.

Yamal may already be preparing to inherit the game.

The future of football is arriving faster than most of us realise.

My favourite part of every World Cup isn’t predicting winners.

It’s discovering something new.

The player nobody expected.

The nation nobody believed in.

The tactical idea nobody saw coming.

Every World Cup gives us a story that surprises everyone.

And after everything football has taught me over the last year, that’s probably the lesson I’ll carry into this tournament.

The game is always bigger than our predictions.

That’s why we keep watching.