Liverpool Players Set for World Cup Glory in North America

The World Cup is heading back to North America, bigger and louder than ever, and Liverpool’s fingerprints will be all over it.

With the tournament expanded to 48 teams and spread across the USA, Canada and Mexico, a host of Reds are packing their bags for a month that could redefine careers and reshape reputations. Some arrive as world champions. Others as first-timers. All of them with something sharp to prove.

(All kick-off times are BST.)

Alisson Becker (Brazil)

For Alisson, this is familiar territory – but the stakes never feel smaller.

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 latest edition. He anchors a Brazil squad that still walks into every tournament carrying the weight of history and expectation.

Carlo Ancelotti has named the five-time winners in a competitive-looking Group C, opening against 2022 semi-finalists Morocco. Former Red Fabinho, now at Al-Ittihad, joins Alisson in a squad expected to go deep.

Brazil’s fixtures

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

Wataru Endo (Japan)

Wataru Endo should not be here. Not if you looked at his foot in February.

The Liverpool midfielder limped out of club duty with a serious injury and a race against time began. He won it. Now he arrives not just as part of Japan’s squad, but as its captain.

"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 call-up was confirmed. That line tells you everything about how he operates: quiet belief, relentless work.

Group F hands Endo a uniquely Liverpool-flavoured challenge. Japan face the Netherlands, Tunisia and Sweden – four Reds in one pool, and storylines everywhere. The Samurai Blue know how to punch up on this stage; they escaped a group with Spain and Germany at the most recent World Cup, before losing to Croatia on penalties in the last 16. Endo played in four of those games. The memory will still sting.

This time, he leads from the front.

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)

If Group F has a heartbeat, it runs straight through the Netherlands and Liverpool.

Virgil van Dijk returns as captain of the Oranje, Cody Gakpo as a proven World Cup goalscorer, and Ryan Gravenberch as the new face on this stage. Of the trio, only Gravenberch is yet to feel the unique pressure of a World Cup knockout game. That will change quickly if the Dutch live up to expectation.

In Qatar, Van Dijk and Gakpo helped drive the Netherlands to the quarter-finals, where they fell on penalties to eventual champions Argentina. Gakpo struck in all three group matches, his form helping earn the move to Anfield from PSV Eindhoven a month later. He knows how to turn a World Cup into a launchpad.

The Dutch open against Endo’s Japan in a match that will pit Liverpool’s midfield steel against their attacking flair. Sweden follow, then Tunisia. It is a group that looks manageable on paper, but tournaments are rarely won there. They are won in the moments when Van Dijk has to stand firm, when Gakpo has half a yard in the box, when Gravenberch has to show he belongs.

Netherlands’ fixtures

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

Alexander Isak (Sweden)

Alexander Isak has waited for this.

Sweden missed the 2022 World Cup, leaving one of Europe’s most gifted forwards watching from afar. The route to 2026 was hardly straightforward either. They squeezed through via the play-offs, earning their shot thanks to their UEFA Nations League ranking.

That opportunity was enough. They took it.

On the touchline, Graham Potter provides another intriguing angle. Initially appointed on a short-term deal in October, he impressed enough for his contract to be extended through to 2030. Stability at the top, a centrepiece striker up front, and a World Cup stage finally beneath Isak’s boots.

The group throws him straight into familiar company: Tunisia first, then the Netherlands, then Endo’s Japan. Every game carries a Liverpool sub-plot. Every goal from Isak will be watched just as closely back on Merseyside as it is in Stockholm.

Sweden’s fixtures

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

Alexis Mac Allister (Argentina)

Alexis Mac Allister arrives with something no one else in this Liverpool contingent can match: a World Cup winner’s medal already in his pocket.

He earned it the hard way. In 2022, Mac Allister – then at Brighton & Hove Albion – started the tournament on the bench, watching Argentina slip to a stunning 2-1 defeat by Saudi Arabia. From that moment, he became indispensable, starting the next six matches as Lionel Scaloni’s side surged to the title.

Now the challenge is even more daunting. Argentina are chasing history, aiming to become just the third nation to retain the men’s World Cup. Only Italy (1934 and 1938) and Brazil (1958 and 1962) have done it. The names in that company say enough.

Lionel Messi, at 38, will captain his country at a sixth World Cup. The storylines will orbit around him, as they always do, but Mac Allister’s role inside Scaloni’s structure is central. He knits the game together, links defence to attack, and gives Argentina balance when the occasion threatens to tilt.

Group J offers a varied test: Algeria first, then Austria, then Jordan. On paper, Argentina should dominate. On the pitch, they will need the same calm, intelligent midfield control that Mac Allister delivered so consistently in Qatar.

Argentina’s fixtures

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

From seasoned champions to debutants feeling the first surge of World Cup adrenaline, Liverpool’s squad will be scattered across a continent this summer. Some will chase history. Others will try to write their first significant chapter.

By the time the tournament ends, the club’s landscape – and a few careers – may look very different.