It has been another four years. The World Cup is a ritual that begets rituals. The anticipation of another one unlocks memories of those that have come before. In my case, the return of the World Cup means yet again brooding over how the Netherlands stole Mexico’s path to the semifinal in 2014, with a faked dive and an unjust penalty. It means suddenly developing an aptitude for statistics and mathematical probabilities. It means more time with my dad. It means more than I can possibly express. 

It can seem at times that the joyful spark of mischief and resistance—the football for the poor— has been beaten out of the game by FIFA and its corporate sponsors. This World Cup feels doomed to be football for the rich; an excuse for Donald Trump, Elon Musk and allied foreign leaders like the libertarian Argentinian president Javier Milei to gather in a private box and mingle, only half watching as corporate-sponsored superstars play below. 

And yet that same game will be followed with rapt attention in favelas and slums and barrios all over the world. Undocumented line cooks in expensive restaurants will turn up the radio. Children living without running water from South Sudan to Gaza to Ciudad Juárez will pretend to be their footballing heroes as they re-enact the game, substituting unpaved dirt for grass, crumpled-up newspaper for a ball, bare feet for cleats. Will the immigrants trapped in ICE detention centers across the country be able to watch it? Probably not. But I guarantee you they would love to if they could. 

Jorge Bergoglio was pope for the three most recent World Cups: 2014, 2018 and 2022. Though he never returned to Argentina after becoming pope, Francis lived to see Argentina win a third World Cup before he passed away. Argentina remains the reigning champion and will look to defend its title in what is certainly, for real this time, Lionel Messi’s final appearance. This will be one of the great storylines of the tournament: Can Argentina become the first team since Pelé’s Brazil to win back-to-back World Cups?

This will be the first World Cup under our new pope—the first American pope. Many assume that as a Chicagoan, Pope Leo probably cares more about baseball. Yet the United States is increasingly becoming a football—sorry, soccer—nation in its own right. Of course, there are conflicting football cultures here. The Latin American immigrants who gather in public parks to play the game and then cheer on their home nations’ teams are a very different group of people from the English-speaking “soccer Moms” of the affluent suburbs, looking to get their kids into competitive pay-to-play clubs on the track to a college scholarship. 

The United States is hosting the bulk of the World Cup this summer—more games than are being played in its neighbors Canada and Mexico combined. When the idea for a joint North American World Cup first came up, it was seen by some as a celebration of North American unity; a NAFTA reunion tour, if you will. The relationship is much more fraught today. To my knowledge, this is the first time the World Cup has been jointly hosted by one country that has recently threatened to annex or military intervene in the others. Still, everyone seems determined to make it work. Some in Mexico and Canada may indeed hope that the imperative of staging the World Cup together will help keep the volatile relationship with the United States on track.

FIFA will no doubt be working behind the scenes, too—there is too much money on the line for something as silly as a war to ruin it. Laugh all you want at the FIFA Peace Prize, but FIFA definitely brings more political and economic power to bear than the Nobel Committee can. Indeed, FIFA has apparently managed to convince the notoriously anti-immigrant Trump administration to fast-track visas for World Cup fans coming to see the games—though the fans of several qualified countries, including Iran, Iraq and Haiti, remain categorically banned from U.S. soil.

My parents’ native Mexico City will host the opening game (on my 31st birthday no less), pitting Mexico against South Africa. A World Cup opener Mexico home game in the Estadio Azteca on my birthday? Dear reader, please mourn with me the fact I cannot possibly afford a ticket. There is much injustice in the world. One of them is that the final, unlike the opener, will not also be at the Estadio Azteca, where Pelé lifted the World Cup in 1970, and where Maradona lifted the World Cup in 1986. Instead, the final will take place in New Jersey, where nothing of footballing note has ever occurred. Ticket prices reach into the tens of thousands of dollars. 

Storylines to follow

For those looking to start believing in the World Cup this summer, there are a number of great storylines to follow. The likes of Uzbekistan, Cabo Verde and Curacao are going to their first-ever World Cup. Iraq is returning. Norway is returning. Haiti is returning. Scotland is returning. For some of these nations, simply qualifying is a victory. There are also a few true dark horses with a chance to root for. Could Norway and Senegal combine to upset France early on and eliminate the 2018 champion in the group stage? Can Morocco repeat its 2022 miracle run to the semifinals, and maybe go even further? I can’t wait to find out. 

But I should tell you who the favorites are. I’ve already mentioned Argentina’s hopes for going back-to-back. The other favorites are France and Spain, both diverse teams representing what have become nations of immigrants. France’s team in particular has become a symbol of its urban and post-colonial diversity, with Paris-born star player Kylian Mbappé’s Algerian and Cameroonian heritage representing the country’s transformation from colonial metropole into multicultural republic. For this reason, Marie Le Pen and the French far right often refuse to recognize the team as truly representing France. Mbappe has made it clear how he feels in return, telling French voters to reject them.

Spain’s team has recently undergone a similar transformation that reflects the country’s growing diversity. Its star player will no doubt be Lamine Yamal, whose father is from Morocco and whose mother is from Equatorial Guinea. A practicing Muslim, Yamal publicly condemned Spanish fans who made Islamophobic chants during a recent Spain match against Egypt. He will be a powerful symbol for a nation that has recently stepped out onto the world stage as a leading critic of President Trump’s foreign policy, as well as of Israel’s abuses against the Palestinian people. Yamal has also embraced the Palestinian cause and recently waved the Palestinian flag during a celebration with FC Barcelona. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez himself has backed Yamal for doing so. In a World Cup hosted by a nation that has made pro-Palestinian speech by foreign nationals a deportable offense, this is no small thing. The plausible-enough outcome of a Spain-versus-Argentina final, with Pedro Sánchez and Javier Milei seated on either side of President Trump, would feel like a battle for the soul of the Spanish-speaking world. 

There are other World Cup contenders worth mentioning. England will in all likelihood be disappointed again, but with Keir Starmer’s government hanging on by a thread, maybe a run to the final and the long-delayed “coming home” of the World Cup will be just the vibes boost the Labour Party needs to hold on (England last won in 1966). At the very least, England still has the exclusive right to use the Beatles in its pump-up videos. Of course, the surge in specifically English nationalism this summer will probably do little to help the teetering status of the U.K. itself, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all giving recent wins to pro-independence parties. A better-than-expected Scottish performance in the World Cup could be just the boost the Scottish National Party needs as it begins to ask for a second independence referendum.

Germany used to be a safe bet to get into at least the semifinals. Yet it has performed poorly at every World Cup since its 2014 win. Maybe this is the year that Germany will have grown tired of seeing its once-mighty team humiliated. Calling up legendary but aging Manuel Neuer out of retirement to serve as Germany’s goalkeeper does not inspire confidence. Yet given what the old Germany was capable of, it’s always foolish to underestimate the team. Here, too, sports may imitate life, as Germany remilitarizes at a breakneck pace. 

On the other side of the Atlantic, the likely contenders are all South American. In addition to Argentina, the other South American participants include Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador and, of course, Brazil. All are tough squads that any team would be unlucky to meet in a knock-out game. The Ecuadorans have looked particularly good of late, while Colombia reached the final of the most recent Copa America in 2024. Brazil has not won a World Cup since 2002, but having won five—more than any other nation—it should not surprise anyone if the team takes this one as well. In Brazil and Colombia, both led by democratically elected left-wing governments at odds with the Trump administration, a successful World Cup could boost national good feelings to the left’s electoral advantage, though some of Colombia’s players appeared eager to snub Colombia’s left-wing President Gustavo Petro.

You may have noticed the likely contenders list exclusively includes European and South American teams. No country outside of these two continents has ever won the World Cup. Africa and Asia, the most populous continents, have not yet even reached a final. Perhaps this is their year, but probably not. And what of North America, the host continent? To be blunt, neither Canada, Mexico or the United States can be expected to win. But as a citizen of two of the host nations, my most fervent hope is this: If we cannot be a good team, let us at least be good hosts. 

But by that most important metric, the United States is failing. There is real concern about the Trump administration’s immigration policies affecting the safety of fans and even players. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists has even issued a safety guide for foreign sports journalists traveling to the United States to see the World Cup. How can fans, especially the millions of immigrants who call the United States home, be sure that the games and its many watch parties will not be used as bait for ICE to strike? 

This is a heartbreaking fear. In recent years the game has become unaffordable, which is bad enough. But it should never be a trap. Even after the bloodshed in Minneapolis, the Trump administration continues to threaten host cities with deportation raids. White House Border Czar Tom Homan has been publicly threatening New York City with such an “enforcement surge,” even as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a proud football fan, works to make the World Cup affordable and accessible to working-class New Yorkers. In Los Angeles, fears of deportation raids intersecting with football games have already played out, as last summer saw the Mexican national team’s tour overlap with brutal ICE raids. Many Mexico fans feared they might be targeted at the stadium after going to root for their team. The concern this year is such that the workers at SoFi Stadium, which hosts the games in Los Angeles, have threatened to strike if ICE is not clearly banned from World Cup games.

For all of FIFA’s crude commercialism and crass extortion, the World Cup is a moment for the whole world to come together and enjoy the beautiful game. Therefore, I sincerely hope President Trump lets us all enjoy the World Cup in peace. Please, no wars or ICE raids during the World Cup. Even Putin had to tone his repression down when hosting the World Cup in 2018. Surely, the United States can go five weeks without being brutal to its neighbors and guests. 

The rich and powerful have long been ruining our world. I continue to believe they cannot ruin the World Cup. But if an ICE raid unfolds on hard-working people just trying to watch the games, or if a World Cup host proceeds to bomb other nations mid-tournament, they may well finally ruin it even for me. 

Still, the beautiful game has never belonged to the authoritarians who host it, from Mussolini in 1934 to Putin in 2018 to Trump in 2026. It’s always been ours. It’s up to us to keep it that way. No, we can’t make the tickets affordable or the U.S. immigration system fair. But we can enjoy the games. Better yet, we can use them as an opportunity to welcome a stranger and to love our neighbor. We can beat our swords into goalposts and spears into crossbars. That would be the greatest World Cup victory of all.

Antonio De Loera-Brust is a writer and labor activist from Yolo County, California. He currently works for the United Farm Workers and previously worked for the U.S. Department of State. He was a Father Joseph A. O’Hare S.J. Fellow at America magazine from 2017 to 2018 and graduated Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles’ School of Film and Television.