Brazil’s football team head coach Carlo Ancelotti (L) and Executive General Coordinator for the Brazilian football confederation (CBF) Rodrigo Caetano (R) gesture as people celebrate after the announcement of Brazilian footballer Neymar Jr. during an event to announce Brazil’s squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the Museum of Tomorrow, in downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 18, 2026. (Photo by Mauro PIMENTEL / AFP via Getty Images)
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Selecting a squad for the World Cup should be easy.
Choose a list of the best players from a nation, balance them out in every position, tot it up to 26 and press send.
It’s that simple, right? If only.
Picking a successful World Cup squad is about more than cramming as much of a nation’s talent as possible onto a plane – although it does help – it’s about creating a group that fits together for the duration of a tournament.
Like any manager in any industry, the best international bosses know building a good team is more of an art than an exact science. There needs to be the right blend of personalities, leaders and ambition.
Most importantly when it comes to a high-pressure environment like a World Cup, the players need to get on. Because when they’re stuck in a training camp for six to eight weeks that can quickly feel like a goldfish bowl, minor gripes can soon become major issues.
How to avoid selecting unhappy players
One of the most common is if players become unhappy because they’re not getting as much game time as they’d expect. Sitting on the bench is always hard to take, but if managers have a squad brimming with talent, that will often see some big stars missing out on starting XIs – cue unrest building.
It’s a problem many international coaches have fallen foul of before. Options are great, but when they’re miffed because they’re not accepting their role in the squad and doing more training than playing, that becomes tricky to manage.
In the club game, fixtures lists are packed so minutes can be managed more easily, but there’s little chance for rotation at a World Cup. So if there are too many stars vying for the same spot, some bosses decide to leave senior players out of their squads altogether instead to keep the peace. It’s all about balance and harmony.
It was one of the key considerations for former England boss Glenn Hoddle when he left Paul Gascoigne – the architect of two runs to major tournament semis in the past – out of his squad in 1998. If Gazza wasn’t in the starting XI, he could become a distraction as a squad player due to the media attention he’d inevitably receive and the unspent energy he’d have from not playing.
France manager Didier Deschamps was more explicit about his reasons for leaving out Samir Nasri in 2014, saying it could be “felt in the squad” when the midfielder wasn’t a starter.
Creating a clear hierarchy
This helps to maintain a clear hierarchy among a squad. There can’t be too many leaders or senior figures that could clash, with a mix of experienced voices working alongside ambitious young bucks the recipe for the best squads historically. Even among groups that have a core of players who have grown up together, there has to be an element of structure to know who sets the standards and who follows.
Historically, certain managers have devised smart ways of testing the mettle of their players to look for indications that they might not be the right fit for a squad.
One of the most notable examples ahead of the current World Cup is how Thomas Tuchel has spoken about Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham in the press, left him out of his squad in October and started him on the bench at times too. It becomes a low-stakes test of how he’ll react.
Some are less public than others, such as the USMNT coach for the 1994 World Cup, Bora Milutinovic.
“Bora was the ultimate man manager in that he was constantly testing us,” defender Alexi Lalas said in the book, How to Win the World Cup: Secrets and Insights from International Football’s Top Managers. “He knew he had to assess who these players were, not just by kicking a ball, but who they were to get that best group of players. Whether it was making me cut my hair when I first got to camp, how a player tied his shoes or plays soccer tennis.”
These subtle tells explain why some players appear to be immune to form in squad selections, much to the chagrin of fans. These squad members are offering more than just what they do on the pitch, they’re important pillars of how the group works together.
Keeping a level of consistency backs that up, meaning that despite large gaps between some international windows, players have a familiarity of the sort of environment to expect when they join up with their national teams. This is built over months and years, with a manager normally relying on a set core for an entire tournament cycle, instead of mixing things up too much each time – especially ahead of a World Cup.
Leaving space for a wildcard pick
That makes the windows for late inclusions much smaller, but there is still space for a wildcard pick within a squad. It’s often felt that one or two of the lesser spots in a squad can be used to gamble on a younger player who has only recently emerged on the scene, an injury doubt, or an older head who thought their time had passed.
Take Neymar’s selection for Brazil this summer – he’s unlikely to be relied upon by Carlo Ancelotti, but his experience and aura could make a crucial difference if introduced late on in games.
It’s worked before. Take the inclusion of Paolo Rossi in Italy’s squad at the 1982 World Cup, having only just returned from a match-fixing ban. He was considered unfit and undeserving of selection by many, but he grew into the tournament and ended up playing a key role in leading the Azzurri to glory that summer. The gamble paid off.
For international managers, that’s all they want – pick a squad that won’t self-destruct and provide a platform for them to achieve their goals. The even harder work starts when the tournament begins, but it starts with getting the selection right.