Manchester City leads all clubs with most players in World Cup

Manchester City may not have won the Premier League or the Champions League this season, but they do now own the distinction of sending the most players to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The England side is the professional club home of 19 World Cup participants, one more than Germany’s Bayern Munich, which sent 18 representatives to the U.S, Mexico, and Canada this Summer.

After Man City and Bayern, the rest of the top five is unsurprising. It’s Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal, the 2026 UCL Final combatants, with 16 players. apiece and Barcelona in fifth with 15 players.

The next four clubs, all tied with 12 World Cup participants, do get interesting. There’s Man City’s primary rival, Manchester United, along with mid-table Premier League club Crystal Palace, Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal, and Spain’s Atletico Madrid, which bests its much more famous crosstown rival, Real Madrid, by two players.

Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund, and Galatasaray clock in T-10 with 11 players each.

The 19 Manchester City players heading to North America are Marc Guéhi, Nico O’Reilly, John Stones, and James Trafford (England); Rúben Dias, Matheus Nunes, and Bernardo Silva (Portugal); Nathan Aké and Tijjani Reijnders (Netherlands); Joško Gvardiol and Mateo Kovačić (Croatia); as well as Rayan Aït-Nouri (Algeria), Jérémy Doku (Belgium), Omar Marmoush (Egypt), Rayan Cherki (France), Antoine Semenyo (Ghana), Erling Haaland (Norway), Rodri (Spain), and Abdukodir Khusanov (Uzbekistan).

What makes the fact that Manchester City is sending the most players to the 2026 World Cup even more interesting is that this offseason is one of massive transition for the club. Manager Pep Guardiola is leaving after a decade and 20 major trophies. With him go longtime stalwarts like Bernardo Silva and John Stones.

So, after the World Cup, City has a lot of work to do in order to get ready for 2026-27 and beyond.

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