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article <\/p>\n article <\/p>\n
WASHINGTON, D.C. – With all 48 teams now set for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, early predictions are already shaping who could lift the trophy next summer.<\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
Prediction market data<\/a> shows Spain as the early favorite to win the tournament, with roughly a 16% chance.<\/p>\n France and England follow closely behind, each just above 12%, while defending champion Argentina sits under 10%.<\/p>\n RELATED: All 48 teams in 2026 FIFA World Cup confirmed: See the full list of nations coming the tournament<\/a> <\/p>\n Brazil and Portugal round out the top tier of contenders, both drawing strong early interest from bettors.<\/p>\n Germany, the Netherlands and Norway also appear among the next group of contenders, though with significantly lower odds.<\/p>\n Top 2026 FIFA World Cup favorites Spain \u2014 16%France \u2014 12\u201313%England \u2014 12%Argentina \u2014 9%Brazil \u2014 8\u20139%Portugal \u2014 6\u20137%Germany \u2014 5\u20136%Netherlands \u2014 3\u20134%Norway \u2014 ~3%Italy \u2014 ~2%Belgium \u2014 ~2%United States \u2014 ~1.6\u20131.7%Colombia \u2014 ~1.6\u20131.7%Japan \u2014 ~1.6%Morocco \u2014 ~1.5\u20131.6%Uruguay \u2014 ~1.3\u20131.4%Croatia \u2014 ~1.2%Mexico \u2014 ~1.1%Switzerland \u2014 ~1.2%Ecuador \u2014 ~0.8\u20130.9% <\/p>\n Big picture view:<\/p>\n The 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a> will be the first to feature 48 teams, expanding the field and potentially opening the door for more surprise runs.<\/p>\n Still, early projections suggest traditional soccer powers remain the most likely champions.<\/p>\n Current FIFA World Rankings <\/p>\n The latest FIFA\/Coca-Cola Men\u2019s World Rankings show a tight race at the top heading into the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n France has moved into the No. 1 spot, followed closely by Spain and defending champion Argentina. The top teams remain tightly grouped, with several traditional powers and emerging contenders rounding out the top 10.<\/p>\n Top 10 FIFA men\u2019s world rankings (April 2026): FranceSpainArgentinaEnglandPortugalBrazilNetherlandsMoroccoBelgiumGermany <\/p>\n Big picture view:<\/p>\n The rankings highlight how dominant traditional soccer powers remain heading into the expanded 48-team World Cup.<\/p>\n FIFA notes that 37 of the 48 qualified teams are ranked inside the top 50, underscoring the overall strength of the field. Only a few highly ranked teams \u2014 including Italy \u2014 failed to qualify for the tournament.<\/p>\n At the same time, several countries have surged up the rankings during qualifying, including T\u00fcrkiye, Sweden and Bosnia and Herzegovina.<\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n The tournament kicks off June 11 across the United States, Canada and Mexico, with 104 matches scheduled through July 19.<\/p>\n As teams finalize rosters and prepare for the tournament, odds and predictions are expected to shift.<\/p>\n RELATED: How does the new 2026 FIFA World Cup format work?<\/a> <\/p>\n The Source: This article was written using information from Polymarket data and FIFA.<\/p>\n FIFA World Cup<\/a>World<\/a>U.S.<\/a>News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article WASHINGTON, D.C. – With all 48 teams now set for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, early predictions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,6,7,8,35,457],"class_list":{"0":"post-1555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-france","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-world","13":"tag-world-cup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}