We looked at previous 22 winners to decide the key metrics behind predicting which team will win - and got a familiar ...

Interim Italy coach Silvio Baldini has raised eyebrows, and closed eyes, by getting the Azzurri to train blindfolded ahead of ...

From Uruguay, the first ever World Cup host, to Qatar, the most recent. Since 1930, the World Cup has united millions of fans ...

Get free access to the most comprehensive World Cup coverage in The Athletic app. A thousand matches. Many of them life-changing, several history-changing. All of them part of the story. After 96 ...

What can I expect from France? Didier Deschamps will attempt to bring the curtain down on 14 years in charge of France by ...

If you have a rare talent in your team, you build a team around that player. Zagallo had Pele in 1970, Carlos Bilardo in 1986 ...

Emiliano Martinez has been a vital figure in Argentina's current era of international success, making key saves and ...

From Mario Kempes to Lionel Messi, we look back over the winners of the men’s World Cup’s player-of-the-tournament award.

Goalies will keep making big saves and defenders will keep putting their bodies on the line, but it’s the strikers who will ...

Giorgio Chiellini has delivered a candid assessment of Italian football’s crisis following a third consecutive World Cup ...

The greatest players have graced the World Cup and often lived up to top billing. Lionel Messi has been named player of the ...

The 2026 World Cup has a plethora of players representing a country where they weren't born. The fact that a player plays for ...