Kolkata: Since the World Cup usually marks the end of a cycle, coaches changing and players retiring after one is common.
Senegal sacking Pape Thiaw took to 14 the number of coaches who have left their positions during the 2026 World Cup. Among those remaining, Didier Deschamps has said he will step down after France finish their campaign.
Manuel Neuer, Guillermo Ochoa, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric have called time on international careers after their race was run. Neither he nor his head coach has said it, but Argentina players have been heard singing about winning it “por la ultima de Leo” (the last one for Lionel Messi).
After 22 editions had seven players over 40, this one had eight. Figures why at 28 years and 117 days, this was the oldest average age for a player since Opta began keeping records on 1966.
And yet, after 100 of the 104 matches of this first-ever 48-team World Cup, a cursory glance at three of the four teams, former champions all, standing will tell you that most of their players are likely to be around in 2030.
The oldest player Spain used in the quarter-final against Belgium was 32-year-old Aymeric Laporte. At 31, goalie Mike Maignan was the second oldest after left-back Lucas Digne (32) in Deschamps’s line-up when France met Morocco. Dan Burns, whose debut at 34 years and 58 days made him the fourth oldest ever to pull on an England shirt, and 36-year-old Jordan Henderson (he is out of the tournament with injury) have skewed the numbers but Thomas Tuchel had only three over-30 players starting against Norway.
What Burns does for England, Messi and Nicolas Otamendi do for Argentina. Messi turned 39 last month and Otamendi is 38. Both featured in the quarter-final where Argentina laboured past 10-man Switzerland. Nicolas Tagliafico (33), Emiliano Martinez (33), Leandro Parades (32) and Rodrigo de Paul (32) were the other players over 30 used by head coach Lionel Scaloni.
How many of them will be around in the 24th edition? Strikers who can be fast over short distances can prolong careers, according to Emma Hayes. Because it is about positioning, timing and instinct all of which get better with time, she said.
“We have a habit of writing off senior players too quickly, based on how players lived in generations gone by, and overlook the innovations and lifestyles that keep current players at their peak for longer,” Hayes wrote in The Guardian. Closer home, Sunil Chettri, who will be 42 next month, is said to be preparing for another Indian Super League season with Bengaluru FC.
But even if they are not strikers, for France, England and Spain the rosters are likely to see tweaks and not purges. Including skipper Rodri and Ferran Torres, both 30, Spain could have the starting 11 against Belgium available in 2030. Among them Pau Cubarsi and Lamine Yamal are 19 and Alex Baena 24. Nico Williams (24) and Pedri (23) were among the substitutes used by Luis de la Fuente, who has a contract till 2028.
Ditto Tuchel. England rewarded him with an extension before the World Cup and he has a number of young players who have established themselves. Nico O’Reilly is 21, Noni Madueke and Bukayo Saka are 24 with Saka having already played a World Cup and two European Championship finals. There is also a bunch of 23-year-olds in Elliot Anderson, Morgan Rogers and Jude Bellingham. Yet to play in this tournament, Kobbie Mainoo is 21 and reserve goalie James Trafford 23.
Like Mexico’s Rafael Marquez taking over from Javier Aguirre who, according to a federation statement, left “behind a solid legacy of hard work, identity and competitiveness that strengthens the foundation for the national team’s next chapter,” Deschamps’s successor can build on a squad used to going deep in the World Cup and is led by the talismanic Kylian Kbappe, who is 27. Assist king Michael Olise is 24, Desire Doue 21, Warren Zaire-Emery 20, Bradley Barcola and Malo Gusto are 23 and William Saliba 25. Seven players used against Morocco were below 27 and two were 27.
Doue, according to Winsportsonline, is valued at €140 million. Its list of top players 21 or younger is headed by Yamal, who is valued at €200m and in the same bracket as Mbappe and Erling Haaland.
Their team built around Messi and 16 other world champions who arrived for this edition four years older, Argentina might have to look for replacements for a number of key players. But even as they do, they will know that Enzo Fernandez, Thiago Almada and Jose Manuel Lopez are 25, Julian Alvarez 26, Alexis Mac Allister 27 and Lautaro Martinez 28. It could be difficult but as Scaloni said in another context, Argentina have a habit of finding solutions.
