Liverpool's Stars Shine at the World Cup 2026

The World Cup is back, bigger than ever and stretching across the USA, Canada and Mexico, and Liverpool’s fingerprints are all over it. With the tournament expanded to 48 teams and the group stage kicking off on Thursday, the club’s core will be scattered across continents, time zones and expectations – but all of them arrive with something very real at stake.

(All kick-off times are BST.)

Alisson Becker (Brazil)

For Alisson, this is familiar territory, but the stage has never felt quite this vast.

Called up for his third World Cup, the Liverpool No.1 is poised to be the club’s first representative to step onto the pitch at this edition, anchoring a Brazil side that still carries the weight of five titles every time it walks into a stadium.

He is joined in Carlo Ancelotti’s 26-man squad by former Red Fabinho, now of Al-Ittihad, as Brazil aim to reassert themselves among the elite after recent disappointments. The route is demanding from the very first whistle.

They open Group C against 2022 semi-finalists Morocco, a team that no longer surprises anyone and will relish the chance to bloody a heavyweight nose again. Then comes Haiti, a different kind of test, before a finale laced with Anfield subplots: a clash with Andy Robertson’s Scotland that could carry huge implications for the group.

Brazil’s fixtures:

• v Morocco – June 13, 11pm
• v Haiti – June 20, 1.30am
• v Scotland – June 24, 11pm

Wataru Endo (Japan)

A few months ago, Wataru Endo’s World Cup dream looked fragile. A foot injury with Liverpool in February threatened to rip it away just as Japan’s captaincy and leadership had settled squarely on his shoulders.

He refused to let it go.

"It wasn't an easy way to recover from the injury but I believed in myself to make this happen and will keep working hard to get fit for the games," he said when the squad was announced. That line tells you plenty about how he has reached this point at 33.

Now fully recovered, Endo leads a Japan side that has grown used to defying reputations. At the last World Cup, the Samurai Blue fought their way out of a group containing Spain and Germany, only to fall to Croatia on penalties in the Round of 16. That campaign hardened them. This one could define them.

Their Group F schedule throws Endo straight into a Liverpool-heavy battleground. Japan open against the Netherlands, where he will face Cody Gakpo, Virgil van Dijk and Ryan Gravenberch, then move on to Tunisia before rounding things off against Sweden. Four Liverpool players, one group, and very little margin for error.

Japan’s fixtures:

• v Netherlands – June 14, 9pm
• v Tunisia – June 21, 5am
• v Sweden – June 26, 12am

Cody Gakpo, Ryan Gravenberch and Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands)

For the Netherlands, this tournament feels like unfinished business. For one member of Liverpool’s Dutch trio, it is a first taste.

Ryan Gravenberch arrives as the newcomer to World Cup football, the only one of the three yet to experience its particular pressure and noise. In contrast, Virgil van Dijk and Cody Gakpo know exactly what awaits them. In Qatar, they drove the Oranje to the quarter-finals, only to be knocked out on penalties by eventual champions Argentina in a bruising, emotional night.

Gakpo walked out of that tournament with his reputation dramatically enhanced. He scored in all three of the Netherlands’ group-stage games, then sealed a move to Anfield from PSV Eindhoven a month later. This time, he does not arrive as a surprise package. He arrives as a focal point.

Van Dijk remains the organiser and enforcer at the back, the presence that sets the tone. Gravenberch, now, has the chance to translate his promise into something more tangible on the biggest stage.

Their path mirrors Endo’s. The Netherlands begin against Japan in a game that doubles as an internal Liverpool reunion. Sweden follow, with Alexander Isak waiting. Tunisia complete a group that looks competitive rather than glamorous – the kind of section that punishes any lapse in focus.

Netherlands’ fixtures:

• v Japan – June 14, 9pm
• v Sweden – June 20, 6pm
• v Tunisia – June 26, 12am

Alexander Isak (Sweden)

World Cups do not come around often. Alexander Isak has had to wait longer than most.

Sweden missed out entirely in 2022, and the sense of absence has hung over a generation that promised more than it had been able to deliver. They made it to this expanded 2026 edition the hard way, through the play-offs, squeezing in via their UEFA Nations League ranking.

That tension now gives way to opportunity.

Isak, still chasing his first World Cup minutes, steps into a side that has quietly been reshaped. Graham Potter arrived as head coach on a short-term deal in October and did enough to convince the federation to extend his contract through to 2030. That decision brings stability and a clear idea of what Sweden want to be over the next cycle.

For Isak, it means a defined role and a long runway.

Sweden start against Tunisia in the early hours, then run straight into that heavyweight meeting with the Netherlands, before closing the group against Endo’s Japan. Three games, three very different challenges, and a stage perfectly set for a forward who thrives when the spotlight narrows.

Sweden’s fixtures:

• v Tunisia – June 15, 3am
• v Netherlands – June 20, 6pm
• v Japan – June 26, 12am

Alexis Mac Allister (Argentina)

Some arrive at a World Cup searching for history. Alexis Mac Allister arrives trying to repeat it.

He and his Argentina teammates are chasing a place in the rarest of company: becoming just the third nation to win back-to-back men’s World Cups. Only Italy, in 1934 and 1938, and Brazil, in 1958 and 1962, have ever done it. The weight of that statistic hangs over Lionel Scaloni’s squad, but so does something else – the belief forged in Qatar.

Back then, Mac Allister was still at Brighton & Hove Albion. He started the 2022 tournament on the bench, watching a 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia send Argentina into panic mode. From that point on, he barely missed a minute. He started the next six games as Argentina rebuilt themselves and marched to glory, his influence growing with every round.

Now he returns as a Liverpool midfielder and a fully established part of the world champions’ core.

Argentina will again be captained by Lionel Messi, heading into his sixth World Cup at the age of 38. That number alone underlines the scale of what this team is trying to extend – an era defined by one player, one nation, and a trophy that once seemed cursed to elude them.

This time, they open Group J against Algeria, then face Austria and Jordan. On paper, it is a group they should control. On the pitch, with the target on their backs, there will be no easy nights.

Argentina’s fixtures:

• v Algeria – June 17, 2am
• v Austria – June 22, 6pm
• v Jordan – June 28, 3am

From Alisson’s Brazil to Mac Allister’s Argentina, from Endo’s resilience to the Dutch and Swedish collisions, Liverpool’s influence will be impossible to miss across North America this summer. The only question now is which of these stories will still be alive when the knockout lights come on and the World Cup truly starts to bite.