I think the third continent to lift the world cup will be Asia and Japan is really a good contender
Whichever African country that finds a way to stop their players from playing for France…
Nigeria, south Africa, Morocco.
Morocco or Japan, potentially Saudi Arabia if they continue to invest with the same rate that they’re currently doing.
Other shouts like Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal, etc. are full of federations where corruption is rampant and there’s no planning whatsoever.
The US has the money, but it will take generations for the sport to be seen on the same level as the NFL and NBA, maybe Messi plus the next year’s World cup accelerates that.
Saudi Arabia … after buying citizenships of European, African and South American players.
Senegal, Uruguay or Morocco could surprisingly win it
If you would take a closer look at what Morocco did in the latest world cup (With most of their main line-up injured or playing with injury), I was actually impressed especially after they defeated Spain, even started rooting for them
Uruguay
They are south American
They have already won it twice
But apart from that
If that was to happen I feel it would be an African country like Ivory Coast or Ghana. African players are themselves typically pretty good at club level and if a country happened upon a good generation of players with a really good coach they might be able to surprise everyone
Mourinho rightly said that African players should stick to their roots to get their country on the global stage, instead of playing for already developed country like France or Germany. I am talking about those who emigrated after their teenage.
I’m not so sure, Africa has some quality players but it is quite rare to get enough depth across the whole squad.
They often have 1 or 2 superstars, a handful of decent players, but then at least a few weak links. Plus, lots of their best players play for other countries with more potential, like France.
I think some of the big African nations have alot of talent but not the infrastructure to develop them all at the same time so the really stand out ones get discovered whereas the not as good but still good ones end up falling through the cracks
Europe and South America have had way more time to build systems for success but Africa is relatively new and poor but if given adequate funding and time I believe they can show their potential
They’re not going to win, let’s be realistic, the winner will be from Europe and South America, none of the African or Asian countries are strong enough to win the World Cup, yeah they can defy expectations and make the quarters or semis sometimes but they’re not winning it.
none of the African or Asian countries are strong enough to win the World Cup
Right now? No, but Europe and South America have decades worth of years headstart but we don’t know the future and can’t say with certainty that no other continent will ever win the WC. It might take many more decades but it’s not outside the realm of possibility that other continents start to catch up at some point in the future
Morocco also did very good last world cup
Yes, but to be more specific I think a North African country are most likely to win it first. Their federations seem to work better than the East, West and South African regions.
Morocco
Realistically it’s likely to be somebody like USA or Australia. Countries that already have a strong sporting background but where football/“soccer” is not the leading sport in that country. Those countries could more easily fund developing a major push on developing youth football and their domestic leagues to building a strong national team.
Africa produces some great players but it’s hard to see any one country there ever being able to compete with the sporting infrastructure available in richer countries.
This is the first comment I saw to mention the USA. I’m not sure if we’d be the NEXT non-SA/Euro team to win it, but I do think we’re heading that way in a generation or two. The US is only just seeing the results of actual development programs, and I think the USMNT can only go up from here.
I think Japan is the next big one. They’ve got a golden team right now. If they make the most of it, they could squeak a win out.
US could be a good shout with their home world cup. Distance travelled for the tournament could be a key factor in how far teams go. Mexico too.
Japan and South Korea with more of their players playing in Europe and doing well. Australia are always a team that can challenge. A bit of luck and the green and gold will be on another World Cup trophy.
African teams are getting better and if they can get the infrastructure behind them, they could challenge. Morocco got to the semis, with a bit more luck who knows.
Bro we just lost to Trinidad, we are not winning the next World Cup haha we’ll get out of the group and immediately lose like last time.
You…you really think the USA has a chance at winning the next World Cup? Like seriously?
Not OP, but I think the US will get surprisingly far, but no shot at winning with our current team lol. Give it another 3 or 4 WC’s and then we’ll talk.
I think it is more the travel effect that the American players might be more used too. Imagine a team going from San Francisco to new York then to Seattle to play their group games. Then to Miami for the next round. There are lots of players that probably will never have to travel that far and that often.
I’d imagine they’ll sort the logistics out so this won’t happen
US can win the world cup if they send all the top seeds back and forward between Alaska and Texas for weeks
Even then, the planes the FAs are gonna use to transport the players aren’t exactly going to be cramped
They also need to shut down the airports.
It’s a risky plan but its what they need
I’m sure they’ll have it all planned extensively
It wasn’t much of an advantage in World Cups in Brazil and Russia.
Also high level players nowadays are always traveling around even in Europe, they are definitely used to travel and its effect on them.
Take a look at the Brazilian Serie A ou Brazil’s Cup. Brazil continental continuos land mass is bigger than the US. Also CL games can be very far away, Cyprus and Turkey games come to mind. Old school Libertadores also had Mexicans playing in it, and it wasn’t uncommom for a Brazilian team to play in São Paulo Sunday, then Tijuana Wednesday, then Recife next Sunday, just to travel again to São Paulo to train at Tuesday. Nah, I don’t think the distance matter that much. Also World Cup schedules are usually thought ahead to avoid long travels in a row.
better chance than any asian country yes
American ‘soccer’ fans in a nutshell
as if you aren’t delusional about your own country. the usa has a stronger and bigger pool to choose from. and more resources and and easier region to get into the world cup from . so yeah the usa has a better chance of winning it compared to any asian country. cope fucming tool
Yeah sure they have a bigger pool and more resources, then they still ended up with 4 of the starting 11 being players not born and raised in America in their last game. Also they don’t need to qualify with it being a home tournament lol so obv it’s easier to qualify.
i meant more so future tournaments on the regular. CONCACAF is easier to advance through imo and doesn’t matter if they weren’t born or raised in the usa. born to american servicemen and women’s theyre american. you are showing a bit of xenophobia on your end
Id say African nations have a much higher chance than the US at the next World Cup
No way lol.
i agree about an african team
In a world where Mexico is also in the list, then yes. For years now, the US has been consistently winning against them, so it’d be just prejudice to say Mexico would have a chance but the US doesn’t.
We all know it’s not their favorite sport or that they’re not that great at it, but a question was asked and this fella’s trying to answer it from existing data.
Brazil and russia were big countries. They have matches grouped in areas of the country.
US team also isn’t good
While I do think the world rankings aren’t fully comprehensive, the US has consistently been top 20 for a long time. That alone would put them into the conversation.
With the number of young Americans in top academies in Europe I’d say it’s only a matter of time until they start seeing semifinal appearances at least.
They also have players like Pulisic and now Balogun who can spirit goals out of seemingly nothing like Dempsey and Donavan did in years past — except now there’s a decent team behind them and not just Michael Bradley playing backwards passes every time he gets the ball
USA in 20 - 40 years time
Only someone who don’t know nothing about football or sports in general believe that the us is going to be nothing more than a irrelevant nation in football lol!
Fairly sure they said this back in 1994 too.
It’s going to happen. A lot more kids who don’t come from a football background are plying more and more. I’m excited for the next generation of players.
Lol! Even if football was the most popular sport in the us your country still would be irrelevant in football. The us play in the concacaf against weak teams while other countries in Europe and South America face much better opponents playing against each other. You can’t increase the level of your game playing facing low level competition
It’s the USA. We always find a way.
Algeria if players stopped going for France instead of
Japan or South Korea
Yeah, Japan always gives everything in each game, South Korea too but Japan seems to have more chances because their players are a little bit more talented
And really disciplined.
Just need them to host it again…
Saucy. Have an upvote.
It would be an African nation if we didn’t have a million African players identifying as french. It’s sad more players don’t represent their country
Mexico baby
Unpopular opinion, but if the Chinese start taking football seriously, they have a decent chance at winning the competition. They have incredible world class athletes on pretty much every other sport, they collected 89 medals in the recent Olympics. Same goes for Americans, although I don’t think they care as much about “soccer”.
Realistically speaking, Japan or Morocco seem like the better teams outside of Europe and South America right now.
Even if football was the number one sport in China they still wouln’t get even close to win the world cup
What makes you think China isn’t taking football seriously? They had a very serious plan, invested billions in training facilities, their league that bought players from abroad on inflated wages, and Chinese businesses invested heavily both locally and abroad. It’s just been a dismal failure, but not because they didn’t try or aren’t taking it seriously.
And now they have to clean up the debris.
None of that matters if they don’t take it seriously for grassroots levels but I have no idea what they did with that