World Cup newcomers Curacao and Cape Verde are amongst the list of teams with the most players born outside the country they are representing at the transatlantic showpiece.
Much has been made of the lower ranked sides in the newly-expended 48-team competition but so far, they have produced some spirited underdog performances.
Cape Verde have given themselves a chance of reaching the knockout stages after earning draws against Spain and Uruguay while Curacao bounced back from defeat to Germany by earning a point against Ecuador.
DR Congo also made a solid start to their campaign, sharing the spoils with Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal.
20 of DR Congo's 26-strong squad are foreign-born with players originating from all across Europe, including England, Belgium and Switzerland.
Just eight nations have no foreign-born players: Brazil, Sweden, South Africa, Austria, Colombia, Panama, Saudi Arabia and Czechia.
The country of birth responsible for the most participants at the World Cup is France.
96 players currently over in North America are French-born, appearing on as many as 12 different squad lists throughout the competition.
Rules around national representation are fairly lenient and co-hosts United States have been a beneficiary of this in the opening two matches. Their star striker Folarin Balogun could have represented Nigeria because of his parents' nationality, whilst also having the option of turning out for England after spending the majority of his childhood there.
However, he chose to represent the country of his birth: the USA.
Countries at the 2026 World Cup with the most players born outside the country they represent
- Curacao
- DR Congo
- Morocco
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Algeria
- Haiti
- Tunisia
- Cape Verde
- Qatar
- Senegal
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