Ageing but still hungry: The legendary World Cup stars to watch

The World Cup, beginning Thursday afternoon, features the biggest names in global soccer, including two — Lionel Messi of Argentina and Cristiano Ronaldo — who are considered among the greatest to ever step on a field.

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Before the matches kick off, let’s preview the players who are expected to have the largest impacts for their countries. First up are the legends, players who have competed at the highest levels for years and figure to do the same again in the coming weeks.

Lionel Messi, Argentina

Messi is arguably the best player to ever compete. He has won the Ballon d’Or award a record eight times, claimed 10 Spanish championships and four European Champions League titles and scored 672 goals for Barcelona — the most for a single club ever. Internationally, he was instrumental in leading Argentina to victory in the 2022 World Cup and paces the country with 116 career goals scored. In the final against France, Messi scored the opening goal on a penalty kick and added another in extra time to propel Argentina to victory.

Simply put, the only thing that could stop Messi at the 2026 World Cup is Father Time. At 38, he’s still a high-level player but not exactly what he was in his prime. He has 12 goals and eight assists for MLS’ Inter Miami, which ranks second in the MLS standings.

Argentina, ranked No. 3 in the world by FIFA, needs Messi’s elite skills to remain among the best in the world. He fits up top with Julián Alvarez and should work well with midfielders Enzo Fernández and Alexis Mac Allister. Argentina is looking to become the first team since Brazil in 1962 to win back-to-back World Cups. Because of Messi’s playmaking ability and incredible goal-scoring prowess, he could help it do just that.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal

Ronaldo is among the most famous, most decorated and wealthiest players ever to step on a soccer pitch. What, then, is motivating the 41-year-old to don Portugal’s kit for his sixth and final World Cup this summer? The lack of a World Cup title is the one gap on his historic résumé. And it doesn’t help that the other player most mentioned alongside him in soccer’s GOAT debate, Argentina’s Lionel Messi, claimed his long-sought World Cup trophy in 2022.

Ronaldo burst onto the international scene as part of a so-called golden generation of Portuguese players ready to make the country a legitimate contender, yet Portugal’s win at the 2016 Euros remains its high-water mark on the world stage. Portugal finished fourth at the 2006 World Cup; it has advanced as far as the quarterfinals just once since then.

Ronaldo hasn’t played against top-flight competition since he left for Saudi Arabia’s domestic league in 2023, so how he will adjust to world-class competition remains to be seen. And he will be playing on a roster that isn’t quite what Portugal once envisioned. Diogo Jota, a spellbinding forward and national team mainstay, died in a car crash last year, a loss that gutted his teammates and is still being felt a year later as they try to compensate for his creativity.

It puts even more pressure on Ronaldo, the all-time leading men’s goalscorer internationally, to return to top form.

Kylian Mbappé, France

Kylian Mbappé already cemented himself among the greats in French history at 19 when he helped secure the country its second World Cup title in 2018. Now 27, Mbappé is a veteran returning to the international tournament with hope of securing France its third star as it leads the FIFA world rankings.

Soccer is a family business for Mbappé, the son of a former coach and older brother to another professional player. The Paris-born forward began his career at just 14 when he left home to play for AS Monaco’s academy and garnered international attention at just 18 when he scored 21 goals for Paris Saint-Germain in his first year at the team.

His World Cup appearance in Russia, his first, was when Mbappé became a household name for fans of the game, becoming only the second teenager to score in a FIFA World Cup final. The technical skill that makes him hard to defend against also makes for a stylish offensive press that was on full display in his first World Cup appearance.

Mbappé returned to the World Cup final in 2022 as a force to be reckoned with, single-handedly tying Argentina with two goals in the 80th and 81st minutes of regulation. France fell in penalty kicks, though Mbappé technically earned a hat trick in the shootout. It’s a moment that Mbappé told Vanity Fair the French team has to move past as it faces enormous pressure going back to the world stage this summer. “We have to take that disappointment and transform it into motivation to try to truly change the course of history, and to give ourselves the opportunity to reach another final, which will be extremely difficult, and to try to bring back the third star,” he said in a pre-tournament interview.

Mbappé returns to the World Cup this year after having scored 24 goals with Real Madrid this season but fresh off a recovery from a hamstring strain. If he can remain healthy through the tournament, he is expected to lead Les Bleus back in the quest for a third star above the national crest.

Sadio Mané, Senegal

One of the greatest Africans to ever play the sport, Mané is expected to make the 2026 World Cup his swan song for Senegal, as he has said he’d like to retire from international competition after the tournament.

Mané, one of the best wingers of his generation, is 34 and nearing the end of his career, which could provide an extra boost of motivation to the Teranga Lions as they look to hoist the trophy for the first time.

Mané, who is club teammates with Cristiano Ronaldo for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, has made 126 appearances for the Senegalese national team. His 53 goals are the most for the country all time, while he’s second in appearances.

Though Senegal appeared in the 2022 World Cup — and made it all the way to the round of 16 — it did so without Mané, who missed the last tournament because of injury. He was long one of the sport’s top players, however, particularly with Liverpool from 2016 to 2022. In that time, he won a Premier League Golden Boot for scoring the most goals and helped the club end its 30-year title drought in 2020.

Mané may have limited World Cup experience, but he has shone on the world stage. He has been a major factor in Senegal’s recent success at the Africa Cup of Nations, which it won in 2021 and in which it finished as runner-up in 2019 and (quite controversially) 2025.

The Lions hope their recent showings at international tournaments, plus Mané’s experience and leadership, can power them to their best finish since 2002, when they made their memorable run to the quarterfinals.

Son Heung-min, South Korea

Son Heung-min made quite the splash in August when he chose to leave Tottenham Hotspur for LAFC, joining MLS on a contract that runs through next year. The 6-foot-tall forward is widely considered the best-known Asian player in the world, so beloved back home that the Los Angeles Times once described him as “more popular than K-pop.”

Leaving South Korea as a teenager, Son began his professional career in Germany, where he played in the Bundesliga for Hamburger SV and Bayer Leverkusen. He joined Spurs in 2015 and played in 454 games. Son captained Spurs to a UEFA Europa League championship in his final year in London, the team’s first major trophy in 17 years.

His evolution as a leader for both club and country owes in part to the dynamism he brings to the pitch. He’s known for creative playmaking and his willingness to slip into any role when the situation calls for it. His long stride creates pace that makes him a dangerous opponent regardless of his position on the pitch.

Son, a former Premier League Golden Boot winner, has been in a scoring slump both at his club and with his international squad. However, the unselfish captain has led MLS in assists so far, which may still bode well for South Korea. This summer would mark his fourth World Cup appearance for South Korea, whose biggest threat in the group stage is expected to be co-host country Mexico.

Virgil van Dijk, Netherlands

It’s a classic movie trope: the group that reunites for one last job. Who best fits that role in the context of the World Cup? It could be the Netherlands.

The ringleader is Virgil van Dijk, one of the best defenders of his generation with Liverpool, who has captained the Oranje for a national record 72 appearances and represented the Dutch national team for a decade. Though he hasn’t declared anything certain about whether this will be his last World Cup, he already mulled an international retirement once, in 2024. Now 34, he certainly doesn’t have many opportunities left to earn a long-sought World Cup title for a country that finished second in 1974, 1978 and 2010.

“We’ve never done it before,” he said last year, “but I think we have a great group that can make things difficult for anyone. That would be a very beautiful dream coming true.”

High expectations follow the Netherlands after it breezed through qualification last year, outscoring opponents by 23 goals. It has reached the knockout stage of every World Cup it has played in since 1974, and in its last three appearances, it finished second and third and made the quarterfinals.

Though their title chances took a hit when Xavi Simons sustained a season-ending injury this spring, the Dutch will surround van Dijk with a deep group of younger teammates, including Frenkie de Jong, Denzel Dumfries and Tijjani Reijnders. Ranked seventh in the world, the Dutch are a factor this summer and could be again during the next World Cup cycle.

Yet whether van Dijk will still be in uniform in 2030 is unclear, making this a chance the Netherlands can’t afford to lose.

Luka Modrić, Croatia

Eight years ago, in 2018, Luka Modrić was the best soccer player on the planet. That year, he won his third consecutive Champions League title with Real Madrid, and he led Croatia to its first World Cup final. Though Croatia lost to France, 4-2, Modrić won the Golden Ball award, given to the tournament’s best player.

By the end of the year, Modrić had won the Ballon d’Or, too, the prestigious award given to the world’s best player. He was the first player not named Messi or Ronaldo to win it in about a decade.

Four years later, at 36 years old, Modrić shone again at the 2022 World Cup. He led Croatia to the semifinals, where it lost to Messi and Argentina, who went on to win the whole thing. Modrić won the Bronze Ball, awarded to the tournament’s third-best player.

Modrić is now 40, and his career is nearing an end. After having spent 13 years with Real Madrid, he’s now playing for AC Milan. In April, he broke his cheekbone during a match, but he’s expected to be back in time to play in one final World Cup this summer. He’s one of a number of legends we could be seeing for the last time on this stage, along with Messi and Ronaldo.

Croatia isn’t near the top of the world rankings and isn’t expected to finish in the top three as it did at the previous two World Cups. But perhaps Modrić and Croatia can surprise everyone and make one more run. It’d be a fitting capstone to the best period in Croatian soccer history.