FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread

[sana54210]

From the available signs; it is looking increasingly certain that both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi would participate at the next world cup in Canada/Mexico/United States. Either they are fit to play, or fit for the bench sides; both iconic players will appear at the worldcup; i believe it will be their final international and football appearance.

The coming worldcup is one that will be super interesting and also epic. Theres so much to look forward to!

Not just some players like Ronaldo and Messi, but many other players even at younger age won't play in the next world cup and doesn't matter how good they perform currently but the fact about these players is they are getting older and there is three years left for the next world cup in America and during this time these players can get even older and their performance will definitely decrease.
Instead of talking about these players, I think their national teams should start working on younger talents and me them ready.

That's going to be very true, like someone who is 33-34 right now ,will be 36-37 by that point and may not play. Not everyone can play in the world cup at 38, so there will be a lot of people who retired from national team by that point. Ronaldo will be 41 years old if I am not mistaken, and Messi will be 39 as well.

Those are some very old ages to play in a world cup in most cases, and I am guessing that neither may end up playing in these games. Of course it all depends on what they want as well, if they do not want to play at that age in their national club then it is not even a discussion but if they insist on it then some things may change. If they do insist on it, they provided so much for their clubs and may end up getting some minutes, because they do have that much power in their own nations.

[alegotardo]

Considering a retirement would be the ideal term for Messi's situation even if he already said that he will no longer join the Argentina in the 2026 World Cup and just like what @Maslate said above, it is not the first time that he said about his retirement in the national team, so I think that is already a clear sign that there is still a chance that Messi will participate together with his team because it will be an honor for him and for his team to defend the championship.

I believe that Messi will be able to play in the next World Cup, because although he initially said that it would be the last of his life, he later corrected it by saying that he was not completely ruling out the possibility of playing in the next World Cup in 2026 .

Lionel Scaloni has already assured that he will leave the shirt number 10 reserved for Messi in the next World Cup and if Messi is physically fit (now almost 36 years old) then he will certainly wear that shirt.

Unfortunately it will be a disappointment for Messi, because this time they will lose to Brazil

[Maslate]

It is too early to say that he will indeed retire from his national team for good and will not play anymore in the upcoming world cup tournament, and will just give his focus in his current team which is the Inter-Miami while spending some more time with his family in the US.

I mean, it is not really the first time where Messi said that he will retire and if I recall it correctly, he said the same thing after the disappointment loss against Chile in the Copa America in 2016.

From the available signs; it is looking increasingly certain that both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi would participate at the next world cup in Canada/Mexico/United States. Either they are fit to play, or fit for the bench sides; both iconic players will appear at the worldcup; i believe it will be their final international and football appearance.

The coming worldcup is one that will be super interesting and also epic. Theres so much to look forward to!

That might be the case especially Lionel Messi because he's much younger compared to Cristiano Ronaldo who have also said coincidentally that Euro 2024 will be his last dance together with his team. But I don't really believe fully that both named superstars will just retire like that because World Cup 2026 is a big event and that will be the most suitable event to make a statement for their exit in the sport.

[3meek]

~snip~
From the available signs; it is looking increasingly certain that both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi would participate at the next world cup in Canada/Mexico/United States. Either they are fit to play, or fit for the bench sides; both iconic players will appear at the worldcup; i believe it will be their final international and football appearance.

The coming worldcup is one that will be super interesting and also epic. Theres so much to look forward to!

From what I've read there's nothing set in stone yet. Both players might retire before the next world cup as well, who knows.

Personally I would prefer Messi to retire and give this opportunity to the new generation of players.

I don't think Messi will just leave football... The World Cup is three years away, that's not much time... Although it would probably be nice for him to retire from football after his team won the cup last year... If Messi stays in the national team, it's not certain they can win in 2026... And this championship will definitely be his last... I can't assume anything about Ronaldo... He was going to leave a long time ago... But he still plays every time...

[nullama]

~snip~
I don't think Messi will just leave football... The World Cup is three years away, that's not much time... Although it would probably be nice for him to retire from football after his team won the cup last year... If Messi stays in the national team, it's not certain they can win in 2026... And this championship will definitely be his last... I can't assume anything about Ronaldo... He was going to leave a long time ago... But he still plays every time...

Messi currently has a contract with Inter Miami until December 2025... that sounds like he will retire by then, and not play the world cup in 2026.

Basically it looks like he's just getting as much money as he can right now and then ride into the sunset.

Maybe he will just continue doing ads, but I reckon he won't be playing professional football in 2026.

[Leviathan.007]

~snip~
From the available signs; it is looking increasingly certain that both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi would participate at the next world cup in Canada/Mexico/United States. Either they are fit to play, or fit for the bench sides; both iconic players will appear at the worldcup; i believe it will be their final international and football appearance.

The coming worldcup is one that will be super interesting and also epic. Theres so much to look forward to!

From what I've read there's nothing set in stone yet. Both players might retire before the next world cup as well, who knows.

Personally I would prefer Messi to retire and give this opportunity to the new generation of players.

I don't think Messi will just leave football... The World Cup is three years away, that's not much time... Although it would probably be nice for him to retire from football after his team won the cup last year... If Messi stays in the national team, it's not certain they can win in 2026... And this championship will definitely be his last... I can't assume anything about Ronaldo... He was going to leave a long time ago... But he still plays every time...

Doesn't really matter if he stays and plays in his teams or not but as he said before, Messi is going to play in the net world cup and actually that's a smart move from Messi because he achieved what he wanted to achieve and now the best thing he can do is to stay in Inter Maimi and away from the world cup to have a peaceful life with his family.
I think That's the reason Messi chose Iner Maimi and leave the national games.


https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37846445/argentina-lionel-messi-doubts-play-2026-world-cup#:~:text=Argentina%20captain%20Lionel%20Messi%20announced,his%20fifth%20World%20Cup%20appearance.

[freedomgo]

~snip~
I don't think Messi will just leave football... The World Cup is three years away, that's not much time... Although it would probably be nice for him to retire from football after his team won the cup last year... If Messi stays in the national team, it's not certain they can win in 2026... And this championship will definitely be his last... I can't assume anything about Ronaldo... He was going to leave a long time ago... But he still plays every time...

Messi currently has a contract with Inter Miami until December 2025... that sounds like he will retire by then, and not play the world cup in 2026.

Basically it looks like he's just getting as much money as he can right now and then ride into the sunset.

Maybe he will just continue doing ads, but I reckon he won't be playing professional football in 2026.

If Lionel Messi wanted to get as much money as he can while he is still active in the sport then I he could've joined the team where CR7 is with because that contract was worth a staggering $450 Million compared to what Inter Miami gave to him which is only $60 Million per year and that will only last for two years.

So, that's not really the case and while searching for the answer of that question, it seems that Messi just wanted a calmer life and a lot of time with his family.

[Strongkored]

Apart from all the speculation about Lionel Messi at the 2026 World Cup, whether he will still be with Argentina or will he really do what he said some time ago by retiring from the Argentine national team, what is interesting is the record that Lionel Messi made at the World Cup, if he changes his mind and the Argentine coach makes him a main player again in the Argentine national team then the 2026 World Cup will be the 6th World Cup for Messi, he started defending Argentina at the 2006 German World Cup against Serbia. Source
Playing in 6 different World Cups is a record that might be difficult for other players to break, and of course, if he plays in the 2026 World Cup later it will also make his other records increase like playing the most and so on.
The key to his success is why he has been able to play in so many World Cups is consistency, but if he doesn't play again in 2026 it shouldn't matter because he has done a lot for his country, giving the world cup title is the best he has done.

[Sithara007]

If Lionel Messi wanted to get as much money as he can while he is still active in the sport then I he could've joined the team where CR7 is with because that contract was worth a staggering $450 Million compared to what Inter Miami gave to him which is only $60 Million per year and that will only last for two years.

So, that's not really the case and while searching for the answer of that question, it seems that Messi just wanted a calmer life and a lot of time with his family.

Messi's contract with Inter Miami is a bit complicated. Fixed salary is around $50-60 million per year. Apart from this, he is also given an opportunity to own a part of the MLS franchise (similar to the deal that was offered to Beckham by LA Galaxy). But even after factoring everything, it comes noway near the deal from Al Hilal. The Saudis were ready to pay $1.2 billion per year to Messi, and that too for just two years. In the end, it is all about personal preferences, but 99.99% of us would have selected Al Hilal, if such an opportunity gets presented to us.

[3meek]

~snip~
I don't think Messi will just leave football... The World Cup is three years away, that's not much time... Although it would probably be nice for him to retire from football after his team won the cup last year... If Messi stays in the national team, it's not certain they can win in 2026... And this championship will definitely be his last... I can't assume anything about Ronaldo... He was going to leave a long time ago... But he still plays every time...

Messi currently has a contract with Inter Miami until December 2025... that sounds like he will retire by then, and not play the world cup in 2026.

Basically it looks like he's just getting as much money as he can right now and then ride into the sunset.

Maybe he will just continue doing ads, but I reckon he won't be playing professional football in 2026.

If Lionel Messi wanted to get as much money as he can while he is still active in the sport then I he could've joined the team where CR7 is with because that contract was worth a staggering $450 Million compared to what Inter Miami gave to him which is only $60 Million per year and that will only last for two years.

So, that's not really the case and while searching for the answer of that question, it seems that Messi just wanted a calmer life and a lot of time with his family.

I think Messi has a lot of money without these contracts... I think you are right that he just needs a quiet life... Lots of players have gone to America at the end of their careers... Maybe after that Messi will start a coaching career... But still I don't think Messi will be able to help Argentina at the next World Cup...

[KTChampions]

Apart from all the speculation about Lionel Messi at the 2026 World Cup, whether he will still be with Argentina or will he really do what he said some time ago by retiring from the Argentine national team, what is interesting is the record that Lionel Messi made at the World Cup, if he changes his mind and the Argentine coach makes him a main player again in the Argentine national team then the 2026 World Cup will be the 6th World Cup for Messi, he started defending Argentina at the 2006 German World Cup against Serbia. Source
Playing in 6 different World Cups is a record that might be difficult for other players to break, and of course, if he plays in the 2026 World Cup later it will also make his other records increase like playing the most and so on.
The key to his success is why he has been able to play in so many World Cups is consistency, but if he doesn't play again in 2026 it shouldn't matter because he has done a lot for his country, giving the world cup title is the best he has done.

By the way, if we talk about records, then Ronaldo has the opportunity (if he can still take part) to set an "eternal" record (update his current one) - he took part in 5 World Cups and scored goals in each of them. If he can do it on the 6th (at least from a penalty), then I don’t know how many decades it will take for someone to beat this achievement.

[Lucasgabd]

~snip~
I don't think Messi will just leave football... The World Cup is three years away, that's not much time... Although it would probably be nice for him to retire from football after his team won the cup last year... If Messi stays in the national team, it's not certain they can win in 2026... And this championship will definitely be his last... I can't assume anything about Ronaldo... He was going to leave a long time ago... But he still plays every time...

Messi currently has a contract with Inter Miami until December 2025... that sounds like he will retire by then, and not play the world cup in 2026.

Basically it looks like he's just getting as much money as he can right now and then ride into the sunset.

Maybe he will just continue doing ads, but I reckon he won't be playing professional football in 2026.

If Lionel Messi wanted to get as much money as he can while he is still active in the sport then I he could've joined the team where CR7 is with because that contract was worth a staggering $450 Million compared to what Inter Miami gave to him which is only $60 Million per year and that will only last for two years.

So, that's not really the case and while searching for the answer of that question, it seems that Messi just wanted a calmer life and a lot of time with his family.

I think Messi has a lot of money without these contracts... I think you are right that he just needs a quiet life... Lots of players have gone to America at the end of their careers... Maybe after that Messi will start a coaching career... But still I don't think Messi will be able to help Argentina at the next World Cup...

what we see in Brazil is that the best players usually go play in teams of europe
of course
because there are better salaries (better earning in euro than in brazilian reais)

[hahay]

Apart from all the speculation about Lionel Messi at the 2026 World Cup, whether he will still be with Argentina or will he really do what he said some time ago by retiring from the Argentine national team, what is interesting is the record that Lionel Messi made at the World Cup, if he changes his mind and the Argentine coach makes him a main player again in the Argentine national team then the 2026 World Cup will be the 6th World Cup for Messi, he started defending Argentina at the 2006 German World Cup against Serbia. Source
Playing in 6 different World Cups is a record that might be difficult for other players to break, and of course, if he plays in the 2026 World Cup later it will also make his other records increase like playing the most and so on.
The key to his success is why he has been able to play in so many World Cups is consistency, but if he doesn't play again in 2026 it shouldn't matter because he has done a lot for his country, giving the world cup title is the best he has done.

By the way, if we talk about records, then Ronaldo has the opportunity (if he can still take part) to set an "eternal" record (update his current one) - he took part in 5 World Cups and scored goals in each of them. If he can do it on the 6th (at least from a penalty), then I don’t know how many decades it will take for someone to beat this achievement.

I personally don't really believe that the two players Messi and Ronaldo can play in the 2026 World Cup, especially about Ronaldo who will be 41 years old when the 2026 World Cup starts. Also about Messi, even though when the 2026 World Cup starts Messi's age is 39 years old but of course, these ages are very unproductive ages.

Because yes, so far it's probably only about Ibrahimović playing until the age of 40 as a forward.
But the fact is, even though Ibrahimović is physically strong but still, Ibrahimović is also prone to injury. What's more about Messi and Ronaldo who are at least always key players in every match and also, in the World Cup every player doesn't have much rest time. So of course, I am very sure that Messi and Ronaldo will not play at the 2026 World Cup.

[Silberman]

Apart from all the speculation about Lionel Messi at the 2026 World Cup, whether he will still be with Argentina or will he really do what he said some time ago by retiring from the Argentine national team, what is interesting is the record that Lionel Messi made at the World Cup, if he changes his mind and the Argentine coach makes him a main player again in the Argentine national team then the 2026 World Cup will be the 6th World Cup for Messi, he started defending Argentina at the 2006 German World Cup against Serbia. Source
Playing in 6 different World Cups is a record that might be difficult for other players to break, and of course, if he plays in the 2026 World Cup later it will also make his other records increase like playing the most and so on.
The key to his success is why he has been able to play in so many World Cups is consistency, but if he doesn't play again in 2026 it shouldn't matter because he has done a lot for his country, giving the world cup title is the best he has done.

By the way, if we talk about records, then Ronaldo has the opportunity (if he can still take part) to set an "eternal" record (update his current one) - he took part in 5 World Cups and scored goals in each of them. If he can do it on the 6th (at least from a penalty), then I don’t know how many decades it will take for someone to beat this achievement.

That would be a great record to have, but FIFA is so concentrated on making money and extracting as many resources from the world cup that it would not surprise me if at some point they had the fantastic idea, notice my sarcasm, to play the world cup every two years instead of doing so every four years, in which case the record of Ronaldo will be easily crushed, now this may seem unrealistic now but it would not surprise me if they actually tried to do this in a few decades.

[bitgolden]

I think Messi has a lot of money without these contracts... I think you are right that he just needs a quiet life... Lots of players have gone to America at the end of their careers... Maybe after that Messi will start a coaching career... But still I don't think Messi will be able to help Argentina at the next World Cup...

The idea is that there are a lot of money and business to be made there after the football career is over. Think about it, if you had 500 million dollars or a billion dollars, would you rather be in Spain or France or USA? I would prefer to be at USA because there are a lot more money to be made there.

I know that Spain and France are not the nations you think of when you think of "poor" nations, but customers are used to spending a lot more money in the USA and that makes it a lot better for people to retire there. He could literally do a whole football kit type of merchandise, or even just shoes, and everyone all over the world would buy it, but if we are talking about Hollywood like big audience stuff, he is at the most perfect place he could ever be.

[Zlantann]

I personally don't really believe that the two players Messi and Ronaldo can play in the 2026 World Cup, especially about Ronaldo who will be 41 years old when the 2026 World Cup starts. Also about Messi, even though when the 2026 World Cup starts Messi's age is 39 years old but of course, these ages are very unproductive.

Because yes, so far it's probably only about Ibrahimović playing until the age of 40 as a forward.
But the fact is, even though Ibrahimović is physically strong but still, Ibrahimović is also prone to injury. What's more about Messi and Ronaldo who are at least always key players in every match and also, in the World Cup every player doesn't have much rest time. So of course, I am very sure that Messi and Ronaldo will not play at the 2026 World Cup.

Both Ronaldo and Messi place much importance on records. These rivals will want to feature in the next world cup because they like breaking records. Ronaldo did not have a good world cup in Qatar. Coach Fernando Santos humiliated Ronaldo in the tournament that he had to be kept on the bench in some matches. The new coach of Portugal Roberto Martinez respects the Al-Nassr striker. And the good relationship between Martinez and Ronaldo might pave the way for the striker to feature in the next world cup. On the other hand, Argentina's head coach, Lionel Scaloni said that Messi will be welcomed by the national team anytime. This entails that the decision to play in the world cup co-hosted by US, Canada, and Mexico depends on the seven times Ballon d'Or/FIFA Ballon d'Or winner. Messi and Ronaldo will decide if they will feature in the world cup or not.

[Sithara007]

There is still a lot of confusion regarding the venue for the final match of 2026 FIFA World Cup. The two possible venues are MetLife Stadium in New Jersey and AT&T Stadium in Texas. Both these stadiums are being used by franchises from the National Football League (NFL), and need extensive modifications before they can be used for association football. MetLife Stadium has a larger capacity (82,500 compared to 80,000 for AT&T). As per initial reports, FIFA is leaning towards the stadium in Texas, but they are concerned with extreme temperatures that this region is experiencing recently.

[Daniel91]

Apart from all the speculation about Lionel Messi at the 2026 World Cup, whether he will still be with Argentina or will he really do what he said some time ago by retiring from the Argentine national team, what is interesting is the record that Lionel Messi made at the World Cup, if he changes his mind and the Argentine coach makes him a main player again in the Argentine national team then the 2026 World Cup will be the 6th World Cup for Messi, he started defending Argentina at the 2006 German World Cup against Serbia. Source
Playing in 6 different World Cups is a record that might be difficult for other players to break, and of course, if he plays in the 2026 World Cup later it will also make his other records increase like playing the most and so on.
The key to his success is why he has been able to play in so many World Cups is consistency, but if he doesn't play again in 2026 it shouldn't matter because he has done a lot for his country, giving the world cup title is the best he has done.

By the way, if we talk about records, then Ronaldo has the opportunity (if he can still take part) to set an "eternal" record (update his current one) - he took part in 5 World Cups and scored goals in each of them. If he can do it on the 6th (at least from a penalty), then I don’t know how many decades it will take for someone to beat this achievement.

That would be a great record to have, but FIFA is so concentrated on making money and extracting as many resources from the world cup that it would not surprise me if at some point they had the fantastic idea, notice my sarcasm, to play the world cup every two years instead of doing so every four years, in which case the record of Ronaldo will be easily crushed, now this may seem unrealistic now but it would not surprise me if they actually tried to do this in a few decades.

In fact, the idea of holding the World Cup every 2 years has been discussed for a long time and is no longer a big news.
As far as I remember, UEFA and the European national teams were the most opposed to that idea, because even now European football players have too demanding a schedule and too many matches in the season.
FIFA has stopped discussing this proposal for now, but I am almost certain that it will happen because every world cup brings huge profits to FIFA and they will not give up those profits.
FIFA has already increased the number of national teams participating in the next World Cup in 2026, and holding the World Cup every 2 years is the next logical step in that process.

[Leviathan.007]

There is still a lot of confusion regarding the venue for the final match of 2026 FIFA World Cup. The two possible venues are MetLife Stadium in New Jersey and AT&T Stadium in Texas. Both these stadiums are being used by franchises from the National Football League (NFL), and need extensive modifications before they can be used for association football. MetLife Stadium has a larger capacity (82,500 compared to 80,000 for AT&T). As per initial reports, FIFA is leaning towards the stadium in Texas, but they are concerned with extreme temperatures that this region is experiencing recently.

But it's not too soon to talk about the stadiums for the final match. I think the most important thing about the 2026 world cup is how the USA is going to get itself ready for the world cup and if they are planning to increase the capacity for the stadiums or not because we know just like the last world cups we saw the interest to buy the ticket is really high and this huge demand can be the reason for the USA to even increase the stadium capacity and this can make us have more options other than these two stadiums.

[LUCKMCFLY]

Freaky statistic in my opinion. If a player made 5 successful dribbles, but it was 5 successful attempts out of 100, then all these actions were at a loss for the team. Miracles of univariate analysis when, with the right approach, you can achieve any result you want and pass off bad indicators as good ones. I'm not saying that Messi was consistently bad, but such statistics are only annoying.

Well, we all know that Messi does not want to continue at PSG, obviously PSG has a lot of power worldwide, a lot of money, any article that they can filter in the news to justify a possible PSG departure is possible (this is also mere speculation ) now if they say it as a measure to discredit the Argentine national soccer team a bit, it is something else, it is known that in Europe it hurts a lot that France has not won, things can go in that direction, although it is not something very nice, but It is quite possible, players like Messi, CR7 make enemies out of nowhere, just for playing well, sometimes it is to cause more shock or it can be mere envy.

I don’t know what you meant (maybe you didn’t understand what I wrote), these statistics are just in favor of Messi, but I see that it is completely divorced from reality and does not mean anything. I don’t think that PSG is interested in somehow influencing the reputation of the Argentina national team or Messi - for them, his departure is a competent mutually beneficial decision. He's not worth the money they pay him.

Could be right and could be wrong, Paris Saint-Germain might save a lot of money about Messi's departure because it will be too much to ask that he will still play like he is still in his younger days as he is now getting older as the goes by but that also gives the Paris Saint-Germain a negative reputation because somehow, their power is not that good anymore, I know that they still have a lot of great players like Neymar, Hakimi and Mbappe, but with Messi's departure, that will certainly make a difference.

Yes, the problem with this is that everyone thinks that when the players reach a certain age they are no longer useful, that the youngsters can replace them, if PSG let Messi go, another team will go and buy him whatever They won't care about age, they only want crack and everything he can do, otherwise you have to ask some like Ibrahimovic who, even at 42 years old and still giving it his all, I understand that the statistics were in favor of Messi, but What I want to say is that PSG is not happy with him, they want to get out of it, that is something obvious, what happens is that the Messi case is very covered, it is not finally known what could happen with the future of the Argentine star .

It's not just the PSG because Messi himself also wanted to have freedom away from them because of the toxicity they've showed recently when he visited Saudi Arabia, hence why he was not looking forward anymore to play with the PSG. Well, the truth is, it is the PSG who are turning the tables to look like they are the ones who freed Messi when the in-fact it was Messi who gave up on them.

We think that the best thing Messi did was to leave PSG, because the atmosphere there was very bad, I really don't know how he could resist so much, if in Barcelona they took him out through the back door, then they wanted him back I don't understand how human beings can be like this, it's a great gesture that Messi has rejected them, that's something that can be very significant for his life and when they interview him he himself says that he said NO to Barcelona because of the way they scared him at the beginning, in fact since Messi left Barcelona they never won a UCL again.

Now things for the Argentine star are going to change much more , at Inter Miami things are not as Stressful as in Europe , things can look bad for many , but you also have to think about your well-being as a person and for your family , things can Change from one moment to another and everything is going for a better path.