Greece Wiretap

France enters the 2026 World Cup with the most valuable roster in the tournament at $1.76 billion, according to squad valuation data from Transfermarkt, with England ($1.507 billion) and Spain ($1.449 billion) ranked second and third.

Portugal, Germany, and Brazil round out the six nations surpassing the $1 billion threshold in total squad value.

Spain's Lamine Yamal and Norway's Erling Haaland share the top individual valuation at $238 million. Haaland alone accounts for roughly 33 percent of Norway's total $691 million squad value. Kylian Mbappe ranks third among individual players and leads France's roster.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ranks seventh among individual players but will not appear in the tournament after Georgia failed to qualify.

2026 World Cup Squad Valuations

1. France: $1.760 billion
2. England: $1.507 billion
3. Spain: $1.449 billion
4. Portugal: $1.173 billion
5. Germany: $1.148 billion
6. Brazil: $1.049 billion
7. Netherlands: $962.78 million
8. Argentina: $940.13 million
9. Norway: $691.15 million
10. Belgium: $624.34 million
11. Ivory Coast: $610.54 million
12. Morocco: $561.43 million
13. Senegal: $543.84 million
14. Turkiye: $543.61 million
15. Sweden: $492.18 million
16. Uruguay: $466.10 million
17. Croatia: $448.16 million
18. United States: $438.90 million
19. Ecuador: $432.63 million
20. Switzerland: $382.49 million
21. Colombia: $350.46 million
22.Japan: $320.74 million
23. Algeria: $295.44 million
24. Austria: $278.53 million
25. Ghana: $269.50 million
26. Canada: $226.15 million
27. Mexico: $220.63 million
28. Czechia: $216.41 million
29. Scotland: $195.79 million
30. Paraguay: $176.70 million
31. Bosnia-Herzegovina: $174.34 million
32. DR Congo: $165.49 million
33. South Korea: $159.91 million
34. Egypt: $133.95 million
35. Uzbekistan: $98.13 million
36. Australia: $89.07 million
37. Tunisia: $80.44 million
38. Haiti: $64.29 million
39. Cape Verde: $62.68 million
40. South Africa: $56.64 million
41. Saudi Arabia: $46.78 million
42. Panama: $39.73 million
43. New Zealand: $39.50 million
44. Iran: $36.86 million
45. Curacao: $29.65 million
46. Iraq: $24.38 million
47. Jordan: $23.58 million
48. Qatar: $22.92 million

UEFA will have a meeting with board members of the European Club Association to discuss their response to coronavirus.

"Discussions will include all domestic and European competitions, including UEFA EURO 2020," released the organization in a statement.

The 2020 European Championships are currently set to start on June 12th.

La Liga and Serie A recently suspended their domestic leagues, further complicating the start date for the Euros. 

Italy will play Sweden in the playoffs for the 2018 World Cup while Northern Ireland will face Switzerland.

Denmark will play Ireland, and Croatia is matched up against Greece.

The first legs will be played on November 9-11 and the second legs will be played on November 12-14.

Claudio Ranieri has been appointed manager of Greece on a two-year deal.

Ranieri will take over for Fernando Santos, who led Greece to the Round of 16 of the World Cup.

Ranieri was most recently manager of Monaco and most notably was at Chelsea from 2000 until 2004.

Cambridge University Press has completed a study to find the three words most frequently used during the World Cup to describe all 32 teams.

The team at Cambridge scoured over 15,000 football-specific online sources to produce the following chart.

Lionel Messi headlines the WhoScored Best XI leading up to the World Cup Final with a rating of 8.77.

Arjen Robben ranks second, followed by James Rodriguez, Neymar and Miralem Pjanic.

Tim Howard is in goal behind a back line of Ron Vlaar, Stefan de Vrij, Serge Aurier and Ricardo Rodriguez.

Thomas Müller, who has scored five goals with three assists, is also on the team.

The most probable World Cup quarterfinalists in order of likelihood are Germany (87%), Argentina (76%), Brazil (73%), France (67%), Netherlands (64%), Greece (58%), Colombia (54%) and the United States (50%).

In terms of winning the World Cup, Brazil are still most likely to do so (23.4%), but Argentina (19.3%) and Germany’s chances (15.6%) are much closer than many believed prior to the start of the tournament. The Netherlands (10.5%) are fourth favorites with nearly double the chance of fifth favorites Colombia (5.4%). 

There is just under a 70% chance that this year’s World Cup winners will come from Brazil, Argentina, Germany or the Netherlands.

Colombia has won Group C with nine out of nine possible points and a +7 goal differential. The other three countries all had negative goal differentials, but Greece snuck into the Round of 16 with a late penalty kick against the Ivory Coast to collect four points in total.

At one point with a 1-0 lead over Ivory Coast, Greece was in position to advance out of Group C despite scoring just one goal over three matches.

James Rodríguez was RealGM's selection for #ManOfTheGroup and was joined by the following 10 players on the WhoScored Best XI of Group C:

Spain enters the World Cup with the top spot in the final FIFA rankings ahead of the tournament.

Germany, Brazil, Portugal and Argentina round out the top-five.

Here's the breakdown of the FIFA rankings by group:

Group A - Brazil (3), Cameroon (56), Croatia (18), Mexico (20). Total 97.

Group B - Australia (62), Chile (14), Netherlands (15), Spain (1). Total 92.

Group C - Colombia (8), Greece (12), Ivory Coast (23), Japan (46). Total 89.

Group D - Costa Rica (28), England (10), Italy (9), Uruguay (7). Total 54.

Group E - Ecuador (26), France (17), Honduras (33), Switzerland (6). Total 82.

Group F - Argentina (5), Bosnia-Herzegovina (21), Iran (43), Nigeria (44). Total 113.

Group G - Germany (2), Ghana (37), Portugal (4), USA (13). Total 56.

Group H - Algeria (22), Belgium (11), Russia (19), South Korea (57). Total 109.

There are four Germans managing World Cup teams, the most of any other country.

Argentina, Colombia, Italy and Portugal each have three managers, while Bosnia and France have two apiece.

Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia, Brazil, Croatia, Holland, England, France, Germany, Ghana, Italy, Mexico, Nigeria, Portugal, South Korea, Spain and Uruguay are managed by their own countrymen.

Chile, Colombia, Algeria, Honduras, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, Switzerland, United States, Cameroon, Russia, Japan, Iran and Greece are managed by foreigners.