Manchester gave a stunning 19 players for this World Cup
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Reading Time: 3min | Wed. 03.06.26. | 20:59
Bayern Munich is second placed with 18 players from 10 nations
Although the deadline for submitting final World Cup squads expired yesterday, we still cannot say with complete certainty that we know all 1,248 players who will officially be considered participants in this year's biggest football event. Unfortunately, last-minute squad changes are sometimes unavoidable. Due to injuries, national team coaches are allowed to make replacements up to 24 hours before their team's first match at the tournament. At the moment, two roster spots remain open for that reason: Canada must name a replacement for Marcelo Flores, while Austria still needs to replace Christoph Baumgartner.
As a result, some of the statistics summarized here could still change. However, based on yesterday's official snapshot, Manchester City are the outright record holders—not only for this World Cup, but for any World Cup in history—in terms of player representation. They will have no fewer than 19 players at the tournament in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Those 19 players represent 12 different national teams:
Nico O'Reilly, John Stones, Marc Guehi, and James Trafford (England)
Ruben Dias, Matheus Nunes, and Bernardo Silva (Portugal)
Nathan Ake and Tijjani Reijnders (Netherlands)
Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic (Croatia)
Jeremy Doku (Belgium)
Omar Marmoush (Egypt)
Rodri (Spain)
Rayan Cherki (France)
Erling Haaland (Norway)
Rayan Aït-Nouri (Algeria)
Abdukodir Khusanov (Uzbekistan)
Antoine Semenyo (Ghana)
In fact, it is easier to list the players Pep Guardiola relied upon this past season who will not be at the World Cup: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Rico Lewis, Nico Gonzalez, Phil Foden, and Savio. This is the second time in the last three World Cups that the Premier League runners-up have supplied the most players to the tournament, as was also the case ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Had Serge Gnabry not suffered a serious injury, Bayern Munich would likely have matched City at the top. Instead, the German champions have 18 players representing 10 different nations. Aside from Gnabry, only Raphael Guerreiro and Tom Bischof will miss out.
Next come the Champions League finalists, Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal, with 16 World Cup participants each. Then follow Barcelona with 15, while four clubs have 12 representatives apiece: Manchester United, Atletico Madrid, Al Hilal, and, perhaps surprisingly, Crystal Palace. As has become tradition, England supplies the highest number of World Cup players overall: 205, or 16.45% of all participants. Of those, 169 played in the Premier League this season, while the remainder came from lower divisions. Germany ranks second with 108 players, followed by Spain and France with 86 each, and Italy with 71.
When it comes to squad composition, six nations do not have a single player from their domestic leagues: Curacao, Ivory Coast, Cape Verde, Uruguay, Senegal, and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Meanwhile, the Netherlands have reached an unprecedented situation. Only two players in coach Ronald Koeman's squad play domestically: Wout Weghorst of Ajax and Guus Til of PSV Eindhoven. The remaining 24 are based abroad, including 15 in the Premier League. By contrast, no World Cup nation among the 48 participants is composed entirely of domestic-based players. However, Qatar and Saudi Arabia each have only one foreign-based player. For Qatar, that is Homam Ahmed, who plays for Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa. For Saudi Arabia, it is Saud Abdulhamid of Lens. Just behind them comes England. Only five of coach Thomas Tuchel's players are based abroad: Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham, Marcus Rashford, Ivan Toney, and Jarell Quansah.