Aging but still hungry: The legendary World Cup stars to watch

 The World Cup, beginning Thursday afternoon, features the biggest names in global soccer, including two — Lionel Messi of Argentina and Cristiano Ronaldo — who are considered among the greatest to ever step on a field.

Before the matches kick off, let’s preview the players who are expected to have the largest impacts for their countries. First up are the legends, players who have competed at the highest levels for years and figure to do the same again in the coming weeks.

Lionel Messi, Argentina

Messi is arguably the best player to ever compete. He has won the Ballon d’Or award a record eight times, claimed 10 Spanish championships and four European Champions League titles and scored 672 goals for Barcelona — the most for a single club ever. Internationally, he was instrumental in leading Argentina to victory in the 2022 World Cup and paces the country with 116 career goals scored. In the final against France, Messi scored the opening goal on a penalty kick and added another in extra time to propel Argentina to victory.

Simply put, the only thing that could stop Messi at the 2026 World Cup is Father Time. At 38, he’s still a high-level player but not exactly what he was in his prime. He has 12 goals and eight assists for MLS’ Inter Miami, which ranks second in the MLS standings.

Argentina, ranked No. 3 in the world by FIFA, needs Messi’s elite skills to remain among the best in the world. He fits up top with Julián Alvarez and should work well with midfielders Enzo Fernández and Alexis Mac Allister. Argentina is looking to become the first team since Brazil in 1962 to win back-to-back World Cups. Because of Messi’s playmaking ability and incredible goal-scoring prowess, he could help it do just that.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal

Ronaldo is among the most famous, most decorated and wealthiest players ever to step on a soccer pitch. What, then, is motivating the 41-year-old to don Portugal’s kit for his sixth and final World Cup this summer? The lack of a World Cup title is the one gap on his historic résumé. And it doesn’t help that the other player most mentioned alongside him in soccer’s GOAT debate, Argentina’s Lionel Messi, claimed his long-sought World Cup trophy in 2022.

Ronaldo burst onto the international scene as part of a so-called golden generation of Portuguese players ready to make the country a legitimate contender, yet Portugal’s win at the 2016 Euros remains its high-water mark on the world stage. Portugal finished fourth at the 2006 World Cup; it has advanced as far as the quarterfinals just once since then.

Ronaldo hasn’t played against top-flight competition since he left for Saudi Arabia’s domestic league in 2023, so how he will adjust to world-class competition remains to be seen. And he will be playing on a roster that isn’t quite what Portugal once envisioned. Diogo Jota, a spellbinding forward and national team mainstay, died in a car crash last year, a loss that gutted his teammates and is still being felt a year later as they try to compensate for his creativity.

It puts even more pressure on Ronaldo, the all-time leading men’s goalscorer internationally, to return to top form.

Kylian Mbappé, France

Kylian Mbappé already cemented himself among the greats in French history at 19 when he helped secure the country its second World Cup title in 2018. Now 27, Mbappé is a veteran returning to the international tournament with hope of securing France its third star as it leads the FIFA world rankings.

Soccer is a family business for Mbappé, the son of a former coach and older brother to another professional player. The Paris-born forward began his career at just 14 when he left home to play for AS Monaco’s academy and garnered international attention at just 18 when he scored 21 goals for Paris Saint-Germain in his first year at the team.

His World Cup appearance in Russia, his first, was when Mbappé became a household name for fans of the game, becoming only the second teenager to score in a FIFA World Cup final. The technical skill that makes him hard to defend against also makes for a stylish offensive press that was on full display in his first World Cup appearance.

Mbappé returned to the World Cup final in 2022 as a force to be reckoned with, single-handedly tying Argentina with two goals in the 80th and 81st minutes of regulation. France fell in penalty kicks, though Mbappé technically earned a hat trick in the shootout. It’s a moment that Mbappé told Vanity Fair the French team has to move past as it faces enormous pressure going back to the world stage this summer. “We have to take that disappointment and transform it into motivation to try to truly change the course of history, and to give ourselves the opportunity to reach another final, which will be extremely difficult, and to try to bring back the third star,” he said in a pre-tournament interview.

Mbappé returns to the World Cup this year after having scored 24 goals with Real Madrid this season but fresh off a recovery from a hamstring strain. If he can remain healthy through the tournament, he is expected to lead Les Bleus back in the quest for a third star above the national crest.