Five players we dumped will miss the 2026 World Cup
The FIFA World Cup will feature some of the biggest names in the sport, but there will be some major stars to watch from home. Here are five players we gutted and are missing the 2026 tournament.
Robert Lewandowski (Poland)
The 2026 World Cup certainly feels like a farewell to some all-time greats. Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric are all set to play their last World Cup, three Ballon d’Ors and a trio among the greatest of their generation.
A name that also falls into this category is Robert Lewandowski. Only a global pandemic prevented Lewandowski from winning his own Ballon d’Or, although he won FIFA’s best men’s player award in 2020 and 2021.
However, the Polish poacher will be absent this summer after his country failed to qualify. The 37-year-old appears to be on this stage for the last time.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Georgia)
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia hopes not to join the list of world-class players who have never participated in a World Cup. Georgia upset all odds to reach Euro 2024 and impressed, but had a dismal World Cup qualifying campaign.
It means the Paris Saint-Germain superstar will spend the summer at home, after a club season which saw him shine en route to Champions League success.
Victor Osimhen (Nigeria)
Nigeria are the largest African nation to miss the World Cup, after losing their play-off on penalties to DR Congo. The Super Eagles’ absence means the World Cup will go ahead without Galatasaray striker Victor Osimhen.
The current game lacks elite number nines, but there’s an argument that Osimhen fits that bill. He has scored 59 goals in 74 games for Galatasaray, including seven in 10 Champions League games this season.
Cole Palmer (England)
Cole Palmer’s snub was one of the biggest shocks for Thomas Tuchel’s England side, even in the midst of a below-par season at Chelsea. Palmer is a player who has proven he can handle the pressure of the big stage, with goals in the European Championship and Club World Cup final already under his belt.
After shining at the Club World Cup in North America last summer, few saw Palmer missing out on a place on the plane with England.
Dominik Szoboszlai (Hungary)
Fresh from a career-best campaign at Liverpool, Dominik Szoboszlai will spend this summer on the sidelines. Hungary lost in the UEFA play-offs, despite the efforts of their captain.
Szoboszlai stood out despite Liverpool’s poor season, where he often carried the Reds through games. A summer of rest will suit new head coach Andoni Iraola.
Read – Football World Cup: the best scorers in the history of the World Cup
See more – Remembering the last five World Cup Ballon d’Or winners
Follow the football faithful on social media:
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | TikTok
PakarPBN
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.
In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.
The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.
