The biggest sporting event on the planet is about to kick off. For the first time since 1994, the World Cup is coming to American soil. This one is bigger than anything that came before it.
I am thrilled for this event. Not only because I love the game, but because I know what a summer like this can do for a generation of kids.
Here is what is coming, what we can learn from some of the best youth systems in the world, and how we make sure this tournament leaves something behind that lasts longer than July.
⚽ THE BIGGEST WORLD CUP EVER
This World Cup is bigger than usual. Here are some important dates and details you should know about:
It runs from June 11 to July 19, across three countries: the United States, Mexico, and Canada, making it the first time the World Cup has been hosted by three nations.
The U.S. opens against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on June 12.
48 teams are competing, up from 32. That is 16 more teams than Qatar 2022.
104 matches across 16 cities and 39 days.
The U.S. hosts 11 of those cities and every match from the quarterfinals on.
The opening match is Mexico vs. South Africa at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, which becomes the first stadium ever to host games at three different men's World Cups.
The final lands at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on July 19.
This is the biggest stage the sport has ever had. Billions of people will be watching. Kids who have never seen a live match will see one this summer, and some of them will walk away wanting to play. That is the opportunity. Not just to grow registration numbers, but to build a generation that actually stays in the game.
🌍 HOW THE BEST IN THE WORLD BUILDS PLAYERS
Most American sports fans do not realize how deliberate this is. The countries that produce world-class players don’t do it by accident. They build it on purpose, and they build it on a philosophy. Here are some countries worth studying.
Start in Europe.
Spain built La Masia, Barcelona's academy, into the most famous youth system on earth. The philosophy runs on three ideas: possession, position, and pressing, all taught through small-sided games and rondos rather than lines and lectures. Coaches develop football intelligence before anything else, and they manage physical development on a long-term curve, refusing to chase short-term results. The output speaks for itself. Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, and now Lamine Yamal. In one 2012 match, every Barcelona player on the field was a La Masia product.
France took a different route and nationalized excellence. Their academy at Clairefontaine sits at the top of a network of regional centers. The best players from across the country are identified and trained while still living at home, then the very best move up. Inside, they get world-class coaching, sports science, physiotherapy, and academic schooling. The principle that matters: they develop people, not only players.
Germany rebuilt its entire system after a wake-up call in the early 2000s and turned itself into what its own federation called a "youth football paradise." Today Germany has more than 27,000 clubs and around 1.8 million junior players. Every coach working with youth must hold a license. And here is the part American parents should sit with: German kids do not specialize in a single position early. They learn the whole game first, then narrow down later.
Norway runs one of the most interesting youth sports models in the world. Their entire youth framework is built around one word: idrettsglede, the joy of sport. Kids play with no scorekeeping, no league tables, no national rankings, and no travel teams until at least age 13. You cannot even post youth game results online without risking a fine. It sounds soft to American ears, and yet this tiny country has produced elite players such as Erling Haaland, Casper Ruud, Viktor Hovland, and Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Their elite sport director put it plainly: the biggest motivation for a kid is doing it with friends and having fun, and they want to protect that feeling for an entire career. Norway qualified for the 2026 World Cup with a 100% record, winning all eight of their qualifying matches.
The Netherlands built the legendary Ajax academy, De Toekomst, on one idea: skill and game intelligence before everything else. Their "Total Football" philosophy teaches kids to read the game and play multiple positions before they are ever locked into a role. They encourage creativity and risk, and the system has produced Cruyff, Bergkamp, de Ligt, and de Jong.
Portugal punches far above its population, and Sporting CP's academy is a big reason why. It produced Cristiano Ronaldo, Luís Figo, and Bruno Fernandes by developing both the physical and mental sides of the game in players who are fast, technical, and fearless on the ball.
England is worth watching because they openly studied Germany and Belgium and rebuilt around a written philosophy called the England DNA. The foundation is striking for a country with that much soccer history. Their stated ethos for young players is three lines: love the ball and love the game, develop people and develop players, and create inclusive experiences for all. They push coaches to build a positive environment and let kids play with freedom, expressing themselves without fear of mistakes. They even proposed delaying 11-a-side matches until under-13. The country that invented the modern game decided the first job was protecting a kid's love of it.
Now the Americas.
Brazil does something most American programs forget. They let kids play everything. Futsal alone has roughly 10 million practitioners in Brazil and is the most played sport among kids in schools. The fast, tight, small-ball game builds touch, creativity, and quick decisions under pressure. Brazilian academies actively layer in other sports too, because the agility, balance, and problem-solving carry straight back onto the pitch. Ronaldinho came out of this environment. The joy was never an accident.
Argentina, fresh off a World Cup title, develops players through baby fútbol: a fast, loose, five-a-side game played in tight spaces, often off the walls. It rewards explosive movement, deft touch, and quick thinking. The coaching philosophy is the part I love most. As one of their youth developers describes it, you let kids make mistakes so they learn to read the game on their own, without a coach's voice in their ear on every play. Confidence comes from ownership.
A wildcard in Asia.
Japan took a long-term approach that most countries would not have the patience for. After a disappointing 1998 World Cup, the Japan Football Association overhauled their entire development system from the ground up, investing in grassroots infrastructure, coach education, and a national playing philosophy built around technical precision and tactical discipline. They introduced small-sided games for young players, prioritized touch and technique over physicality, and built a culture of continuous improvement rooted in the concept of kaizen, incremental progress through consistent effort. The results took two decades to fully show up, and then they did all at once. Japan has now reached the knockout rounds of four consecutive World Cups. They beat Germany and Spain in Qatar 2022, two of the most storied programs in world football. That does not happen without a generation of kids who were developed the right way.
Ten countries, ten different systems. And these are just the ones we covered, many more are also doing great work at the youth level.
Belgium built one of the most celebrated golden generations in modern football through a structured youth overhaul in the early 2000s.
Croatia reached the 2018 World Cup final on the back of a country of just 4 million people, a feat almost entirely built on patient youth development.
Morocco became the first African nation to reach a World Cup semifinal in 2022.
Iceland is celebrated as a blueprint for grassroots development by investing heavily in coach education, leading to the most professional footballers per capita in Europe.
Senegal continues to produce elite talent through a youth pipeline that prioritizes technical skill and national identity.
The common thread across all of them is unmistakable: Great players are developed, not found, and every single one of these models protects a kid's love of the game through the development process.
📊 WHAT THE DEVELOPMENT DATA ACTUALLY SAYS
I wish every youth coach and sports parent in the United States understood this part.
We are very good at picking the kid who looks great at age 9. We are not the best at developing the kid who will be great at 19.
Research on the "relative age effect" shows that in elite youth academies, roughly 50% of players are born in the first three months of the selection year, and about 75% are born in the first half. Not because those kids have more talent. Because they are a few months older, which at age 9 or 10 often means bigger, faster, and stronger.
The studies are blunt about what comes next. Late-maturing players get picked less, get fewer minutes, face weaker competition, and are far more likely to quit the sport entirely. We lose them before we ever find out how good they could have been.
One more finding worth noting: kids who play multiple sports before age 12 show lower injury rates and better long-term athletic outcomes than kids who specialize early in one sport. The variety builds movement, prevents overuse injuries, and protects against burnout. Brazil figured this out decades ago.
The kid riding the bench at 10 because he is slightly smaller might be your best player at 16. If he is still playing.
📢 THE PLAYERS THEMSELVES KEEP SAYING IT
The greatest players in history did not fall in love with winning first. They fell in love with the ball.
Lionel Messi, the only player to ever win the FIFA World Cup, Olympic Gold, Copa América, and UEFA Champions League, said it as clearly as anyone could: "I have fun like a child in the street. When the day comes when I'm not enjoying it, I will leave football." On the academy that built him, Messi has said the Barcelona youth program teaches kids not to play to win, but to grow in ability as a player. His advice to young players is simple: enjoy your football, play it the way you want to play it, and make the most of it.
Cristiano Ronaldo has frequently discussed the importance of fun and hard work. "I was never the most talented kid on the pitch, but I was always the hardest worker." Ronaldo built one of the greatest careers in history on the belief that talent without effort is nothing. The kid who falls in love with the game finds a reason to put the work in. The work is what builds the player.
Ronaldinho, one of the most joyful players to ever play, said he learned everything about life with a ball at his feet, and that football is about joy and about dribbling.
Xavi Hernández, a La Masia product, said something that should reframe how we think about youth scores entirely: in football, the result is an impostor. He says the legacy lasts longer than the scoreline. The philosophy drilled into him as an 11-year-old at the academy was that a willingness to learn matters most, built on the idea that the result is not the point in the early years.
Pelé tied it together: success is hard work, perseverance, sacrifice, and above all, love of what you are doing.
Love the game first. The rest follows.
💡 WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME WE HOSTED
We have done this before, and it was wildly successful. The 1994 World Cup remains the most-attended World Cup in history, drawing nearly 3.6 million fans across nine cities, an average of 68,991 per match. It changed American soccer permanently. Major League Soccer was born out of it, along with the NWSL, the academy system, and our coaching education programs.
Youth participation took off. Registration climbed through the 1990s and eventually peaked at over 4 million registered players. Soccer went from a fringe sport to one of the most popular youth sports in the country. In 2022, it passed baseball to become the second most popular sport among American youth.
Now we get to do it again, on a bigger stage, with the whole world watching. FIFA projects more than 5 million tickets sold, which would easily surpass the 1994 record.
The question is not whether kids will sign up this summer. They will. The question is whether they will still be playing in three years.
🏅 HOW WE KEEP KIDS IN THE GAME
This is the truth that should guide every coach and parent this summer.
It does not matter if a kid is a superstar the first time they step on the field. They are not supposed to be. The goal is to help them fall in love with the game so they want to keep getting better. Development is a long road, and it requires smart coaching to keep kids on track.
When the new players show up this summer, here is what actually matters:
Make it fun before you make it serious. The number one reason kids quit is because it stopped being fun. Joy is not the opposite of development. It is the foundation of it. Many youth academies have built dynasties on exactly this.
Stop sorting kids by who is biggest at 10. The late developer on your bench may be your best player at 16. Give every kid real minutes and real attention.
Let them play more than one sport. Multi-sport kids get hurt less and last longer. The kid who plays basketball in winter is protecting their soccer future, not abandoning it.
Teach the whole game, not one position. Borrow from Germany and the Netherlands. Build the player's understanding first and let them specialize later.
Let them make mistakes. Argentina develops world champions by letting kids try the risky pass and learn from it. Correct less. Encourage more.
Invest in your coaches. Spain has consistently proved this works. Supported coaches are one of the best levers out there. The coach is the difference between a kid who stays and a kid who quits.
Measure love of the game, not just the scoreboard. A kid who leaves practice wanting to come back has already won the most important thing.
Get this right, and 2026 will not only be a great summer to watch soccer, it will be the start of a new generation who will develop a lifelong love of the sport.
📱 NEW TO SOCCER? START HERE.
A lot of people in the U.S. are about to watch their first ever World Cup with no idea what offside means, why a 0-0 draw can be thrilling, or what a "false nine" is.
Luckily, they can use Sportlingo as their soccer education companion.
Anyone can download the Sportlingo app on iOS or Android and learn the game from the ground up:
Player IQ packs that teach the fundamentals in plain language
Watch and Learn videos that show you the game in motion
Gamified quizzes that make learning the sport fun
Ask AI for advanced fans who want to go deep on the most complex parts of the game
Whether you are a parent trying to keep up with your kid or a fan who wants to sound dialed in by the knockout rounds, we have you covered.
🧢 SOCCER COACHES, THIS IS FOR YOU
If this World Cup pulls you off the sidelines and into coaching for the first time, welcome. You are about to do some of the most important work there is.
Whether you’re a first-time coach or a seasoned veteran, Sportlingo handles your team management so you can focus on the kids. Rosters, scheduling, messaging, assignments, calendar, and lessons, all in one place. You coach. We will handle the rest.
The world is coming to us this summer. Millions of kids around the world are going to watch soccer games on a screen and think, I want to do that.
Our job is simple. Catch them when they show up, and give them a reason to stay.
Sid El Saghir CEO, Sportlingo |
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