After a somewhat anecdotal 2024-2025 Nations League season, the French team will absolutely have to be present in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. The World Cup 26 in Canada, the United States and Mexico will host for the first time times 48 teams, but European qualifications can clearly bring down some of the greats from the Old Continent. Didier Deschamps’ Blues are among the top seeds in the draw scheduled for this Friday at Fifa headquarters (12 p.m. on Fifa.com) and will therefore avoid big names like Spain, England, Germany and Portugal , Belgium or Italy.
France will have to finish at the top of its group to secure its ticket for the next World Cup. The 12 runners-up will compete in play-offs with four drafted from the League of Nations, but the play-off format clearly favors surprises with Final Fours in one match (and not two-way confrontations). Italy, European champion in 2021, fell in its semi-final against North Macedonia. The disaster scenario would be terrible: Deschamps would not play his 4th last World Cup at the head of the French selection…
Deschamps’ EDF against Erling Haaland?
In hat 2, there are at least four teams capable of creating a surprise. If we take the ranking of the most valued European teams by Transfermarktwe find Turkey and Norway in 9th and 10th place. The Turkish group “weighs” 390 million euros thanks in particular to Hakan Çalhanoglu, Arda Güler and Kenan Yildiz estimated at 40 million euros. The Norwegian selection is valued at 368 million thanks to Erling Haaland (200 million euros!) and without the market value of Martin Odegaard (absent during the last gathering).
In 12th and 13th place among the European teams, we find Sweden of Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyökeres (two young scorers valued at 70 million euros) and Ukraine of Oleksandr Zinchenko, Artem Dovbyk, Ilya Zabarnyi and Mykhaylo Mudryk, all of which are estimated at 30 million. Finally, in this little game, we find the 19th and 20th from the Old Continent in pot 3 of the draw: Ireland of Evan Ferguson and Caoimhin Kelleher and Scotland of Scott McTominay and Andrew Robertson. It will absolutely be necessary to avoid this type of national teams…
