Mbappé Names Ronaldo and Neymar as His World Cup Dream Opponents

Kylian Mbappé named the two opponents he most wants at the 2026 World Cup in an interview with Sorare, the fantasy football platform, this weekend: Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr. “I dream of facing Cristiano and Neymar at the World Cup,” the Real Madrid striker said. “It will be their last World Cup.” The tournament opens June 11 across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with 48 nations competing in the largest World Cup field in the competition’s history.

Both players are confirmed in their squads. Ronaldo, 41, leads Portugal into Group K as captain and as the player heading to a record sixth World Cup. Neymar holds a place in Brazil’s 26-man group, but a grade-2 calf strain that has kept him out since May 17 leaves his group-stage availability genuinely uncertain as the opening week arrives.

Ronaldo’s Sixth, and the Trophy Still Missing

Portugal coach Roberto Martinez announced his 26-man squad on May 19. Portugal’s full 2026 World Cup roster has Ronaldo captaining a side built around a PSG-heavy midfield of Vitinha, João Neves, and Bruno Fernandes, with Rafael Leão and Francisco Conceição providing width beside him in attack. Portugal arrive in North America as reigning Nations League champions, ranked fifth in the world.

• 226 Portugal caps – the men’s international record
• 143 international goals – also the men’s international record
• Top scorer at the 2025 Nations League, which Portugal won as reigning continental champions
• Sixth World Cup appearance: more than any player in the competition’s history

The World Cup is the one major trophy Ronaldo has never won. Portugal’s best result at the competition remains a third-place finish in 1966. Under Ronaldo, their best came in 2006, a semifinal run France ended, with Portugal finishing fourth. The 2022 edition in Qatar ended in the quarterfinals against Morocco, a result that left Ronaldo in tears on the touchline and started another cycle of retirement speculation he ultimately set aside.

Martinez has demonstrated Portugal can produce results without Ronaldo. In March, when a hamstring strain kept Ronaldo out of two friendlies, Portugal drew with Mexico and beat the United States 2-0. He is still expected to start Group K’s opener against the Democratic Republic of the Congo on June 17 in Houston, then face Uzbekistan on June 23 and Colombia in Miami on June 27. Getting through that group looks manageable on paper. The knockout bracket beyond it is where a potential Mbappé matchup would need to develop.

Mbappé faced Ronaldo competitively once at club level, in the 2020-21 Champions League group stage when PSG and Juventus were drawn together. It’s the only time they have played against each other in competitive football. At both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, France and Portugal were never drawn to meet in a game.

Neymar’s Race Against a Grade-Two Calf Strain

The Diagnosis

Neymar last represented Brazil in October 2023, when an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) rupture ended his Al-Hilal season before it had properly started. He hadn’t played for the national team since, a gap of nearly two and a half years. His return to Santos, the boyhood club he rejoined for rehabilitation, produced enough appearances for Carlo Ancelotti, Brazil’s head coach, to keep him in consideration. When Estêvão’s hamstring injury opened a vacancy in the squad, Ancelotti used it on the 34-year-old.

The calf problem arrived on May 17, Neymar’s final Santos appearance before reporting to the national camp at Teresópolis. He joined the group but couldn’t train. Brazil’s team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar ordered imaging, and the scans confirmed a grade-2 muscle strain in his right calf, a partial tear of the muscle fibres requiring rest and rehabilitation, not the minor swelling Santos had initially told the press he was dealing with. Lasmar set a recovery window of two to three weeks. Brazil’s opener against Morocco was June 13.

Ancelotti’s Calculation

At Saturday’s press conference, Ancelotti was asked whether he would have called Neymar up had he known the injury was a grade-2 strain at the time of selection. He answered with a joke: “If my grandad had wheels, he’d be a car. Since I decided on the squad, Neymar was in the 26.” The squad has not changed. Ancelotti confirmed Saturday that Neymar is doing individual training and has an MRI scheduled for Sunday; if the scan is clean, he returns to group sessions next week. Brazil’s squad replacement window closes 24 hours before the tournament’s first match on June 11, so the MRI result carries a deadline of its own.

Neymar has scored 79 goals in 128 Brazil appearances. Vinícius Júnior reportedly handed back the No. 10 shirt when Neymar returned to the national setup. Ancelotti has been consistent: minutes are earned on fitness and form. Brazil’s second group game against Haiti on June 19 is the earliest realistic window for a meaningful contribution. A match against Mbappé’s France requires both squads to navigate multiple knockout rounds before their paths could cross.

The Bracket Behind the Dream

France sits in Group I alongside Senegal, Norway, and Iraq. The December draw in Washington placed Brazil in Group C and Portugal in Group K. None of the three share a group with France or with each other.

The 2026 World Cup bracket runs five knockout rounds from the Round of 32 to the final at New Jersey Stadium on July 19. The draw was structured to keep the four highest-ranked nations apart: France (ranked third) and England (fourth) cannot meet until the semifinals at the earliest. Brazil and Portugal follow their own bracket routes from Groups C and K respectively.

For France to face either team, all three sides need to survive the Round of 32 and the Round of 16 and arrive in the same bracket quarter. Group I poses no obvious obstacle for France. Senegal is the most credible resistance in the pool, while Norway and Iraq round it out. France and Brazil’s last World Cup meeting came in the 2006 quarterfinals, a match France won 1-0. Getting to a rematch in this expanded format requires both sides to win two knockout rounds first.

A Tournament That Has Done This Before

In the summer of 2006, Zinédine Zidane led France to the World Cup final in what became his professional farewell. Along the way, France faced Portugal in the semifinal and won 1-0, Zidane’s penalty settling it. Portugal finished fourth. Cristiano Ronaldo was 21 in that squad and walked off the pitch in tears.

Mbappé was seven years old that summer. He grew up watching a tournament built around a 34-year-old’s final campaign. Neymar is 34 now. Ronaldo is 41. The framing Mbappé is attaching to both of them in 2026 borrows the same arc.

Qatar 2022 carried heavy retirement expectations around Ronaldo. Fernando Santos benched him for matches, Portugal lost to Morocco in the quarterfinals, and Ronaldo left the stadium visibly distraught. Most observers treated it as a goodbye. He pushed through to reach a record sixth appearance. When Mbappé says “it will be their last World Cup,” he is stating his own expectation, not reporting a decision either man has made. Ronaldo’s recent tournament history is a reminder that the expectation and the reality have diverged before.

Ronaldo turns 42 in February; Neymar reaches 35 in the same month. The 2030 World Cup falls in a year when Ronaldo would be 45 and Neymar 38.

The Personal Equation Behind the Names

Mbappé and Neymar shared PSG’s forward line for six seasons, from 2017 to 2023. Those years generated Champions League exits at the knockout stage in all but one of them, reaching the final once, in 2020. Neymar left for Al-Hilal in the summer of 2023. Mbappé joined Real Madrid a year later.

With Ronaldo, the relationship is different in origin. Mbappé has described him as his idol since childhood and separated him from Messi plainly in a separate recent interview: “Cris is my idol, but I played with Leo too.” Mbappé spent two seasons alongside Messi at PSG, from 2021 to 2023, and lost the 2022 World Cup final to the Argentina squad Messi captained. The names he gave Sorare exclude Messi and also exclude Erling Haaland, who lines up for Norway in France’s Group I and represents a guaranteed group-stage encounter. Ronaldo and Neymar are the two opponents he has never faced at a World Cup.

I dream of facing Cristiano and Neymar at the World Cup. It will be their last World Cup.

Mbappé told Sorare this weekend, ahead of his third World Cup. France opens Group I on June 16 in East Rutherford. Neymar’s MRI on Sunday is the first variable that needs to resolve before any of what he described becomes a realistic prospect.