WORLD CUP 2026: THE CONTENDERS
6/5/202658 min
If England don't win it who will?
France, Spain, Portugal are all among the favourites, but only one European team has ever won in the Americas...can they change that?
Lionel Messi will be at his sixth World Cup, can he lead Argentina to defend their crown?
Brazil have gone twenty four years without a World Cup, can ageing talisman Neymar and the experience of manager Carlo Ancelotti guide them to the final?
Who are the dark horses - Senegal, Japan, Norway, Ecuador...
And lastly what of the rest, the first timers, the romantics choice and the rank outsiders.
Tom Allnutt, James Gheerbrant and Paul Hirst join Tom Clarke to asses the best of the rest.
We're here with our daily update show from Friday 12th June and we'll have a USA and the hosts special next week.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsTom Clarke· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to The Game football podcast from The Times and Sunday Times. This is our third special World Cup preview show, and after England and Scotland, this is the rather ambitious attempt to cover the rest of the world in one massive podcast. On this episode, we'll look at the favorites, the dark horses, the newcomers, and the biggest stars hoping to shine on the biggest stage. I'm Tom Clarke, and joining me for this jam-packed show we have three of the top football writers from The Times, who will be covering many, many stories at the World Cup. It's Tom Allnutt, James Geary-Brant, and Paul Hirst. Team, welcome. Are we up for the challenge? Do we think we can do this? Cover basically e- every team. I'm j- and we might not mention every team, but we're gonna do it. We're gonna give it a go, right?
Tom Allnutt· Guest0:47
Well, your, your normal thing, Tom, isn't it, in the Premier League is that you cover all clubs in a, in a podcast.
Tom Clarke· Host0:51
Right, well, we try and do all 20 on the Monday show, yeah.
Tom Allnutt· Guest0:54
So we should mention all 48, I think.
Tom Clarke· Host0:56
Yeah.
Tom Allnutt· Guest0:56
At some point we should- In an hour ... try and get, yeah We've got to try and work it in.
Tom Clarke· Host0:58
Um, Tom Allnutt and James Geary-Brant with me in the studio in London. Paul Hirst joining me down the line. I've got your kind of itineraries here, so I'm gonna run through some of the teams and, uh, big moments that you're gonna be following. And I'd just like a sense early on of like what's the one team, what's the one game that you're going to that you're particularly excited about? Uh, Tom, I'll start with you. You've got some big hitters in there, some interesting clashes as well. You're at the opening game, of course, Mexico, South Africa. You've also seen Portugal, Netherlands, Egypt and Iran in there as well. Anything that you're particularly excited about before