England’s next World Cup opponents will be the DR Congo as Thomas Tuchel’s squad look to advance from the Round of 32. England and the DR Congo will face off for the very first time, with the encounter taking place in Atlanta, Georgia.

England remain one of the tournament favourites after qualifying from the group stage unbeaten. But does the African nation pose a threat to the Three Lions’ World Cup crusade?

Who are DR Congo?

REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

Formerly named Zaire, the Democratic Republic of Congo is the second-largest country in Africa, with a population of approximately 124 million. The country was renamed the DR Congo in 1997 after President Mobutu Sese Seko was overthrown by rebel forces.

The country’s relatively new name is in reference to the great Congo River that flows through the country. The river’s name is derived from the historic African Kingdom of Kongo and the indigenous Bakongo people who lived in the region.

DR Congo Record at World Cup 2026

Who are the Best DR Congo Players?

REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

Northern-based England fans will be all too familiar with two of the DR Congo’s biggest threats. Newcastle striker Yoane Wissa is rediscovering his form after an injury-plagued start to life on Tyneside. He has netted three times in the World Cup already, making him the top scoring African player in the group stage.

Noah Sadiki was a pivotal part of Sunderland’s excellent 7th-place finish in the Premier League, earning them Europa League qualification. An energetic and forward-thinking midfielder, expect him to link well with Wissa.

DR Congo’s rearguard offers significant top-level pedigree too. Team captain and all-time leading appearance maker Chancel Mbemba is incredibly experienced at club and international level. The 31-year-old previously played for Newcastle as part of the squad that won the Championship in 2017. He is supported ably by West Ham’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Burnley’s Axel Tuanzebe in defence.

But the wildcard for the DR Congo is their veteran striker Cedric Bakambu. The 35-year-old is well travelled and has previously won the Golden Boot in both the Chinese and Greek Super Leagues. Bakambu contributed four goals in World Cup qualifying and is now just one goal behind the country’s all-time leading goalscorer, Dieumerci Mbokani.

DR Congo Manager and Style of Play

REUTERS/Raquel Cunha

• Manager: Sebastien Desabre
• Style of Play/Tactics: 5-3-2 or 4-4-2

Manager Sebastien Desabre is well-versed in international football, having coached both Uganda and the DR Congo during a 20-year managerial career. The Frenchman guided the DR Congo to the semi-finals of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. He also led them to impressive victories over Cameroon and Nigeria in World Cup qualification.

Desabre has shown tactical fluidity during the World Cup. The DR Congo adopted a five-man backline against Portugal and Colombia, earning a well-deserved point against Roberto Martinez’s side. But for their 3-1 win over Uzbekistan, Desabre was more offensive, opting for a 4-4-2.

With 29 clean sheets in their previous 57 games under Desabre, the African nation can soak up the pressure when required. This has paired well with a strong counter-attacking style boosted by the pace of Wissa and Sadiki.

World Cup on GIVEMESPORT

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have just become the first two men in history to play at six World Cups. The natural next question writes itself: could there be a seventh?

Their chances are low, but it isn’t impossible, and both men have left enough daylight for the question to be asked and to keep the hopes alive. The two careers have run in parallel for two decades, and now share this milestone in the same tournament.

Four years is a long time at the best of times, let alone in your forties, and will both players be able to hold on and feature on the world’s biggest stage again in four years?

Will Lionel Messi Play at the Next World Cup?

Peter Hansson/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

Messi has been typically professional and guarded on the subject. Asked directly about 2030 after his Algeria hat-trick, he laughed off the idea before more considered answers followed later in the tournament.

Pressed again after his Austria performance, in which he became the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer, he settled into a familiar noncommittal stance, claiming he isn’t thinking that far ahead.

He told reporters: “I don’t know. The truth is, I’m not thinking about that right now.”

It’s the kind of answer you expect from a professional, media-trained footballer. The kind of answer that commits to nothing whilst also ruling out nothing either.

How Old Will Messi Be at the Next World Cup?

Messi is 39 during this tournament, not that it has had an effect on his performances. By the 2030 finals, he will be 43. There is a genuine pull factor for the 2030 World Cup: it is the centenary edition, and as part of celebrations Argentina will host a one-off match in Buenos Aires, a country that hasn’t staged a World Cup game since 1978. So for a player who has never been able to play in a World Cup on home soil, that could be a real incentive for him to keep going.

However, his Inter Miami contract does expire in 2028, and it remains to be seen whether he will extend, move clubs, or call time altogether on his stellar career. And surviving and playing in the MLS is a lot different to playing in a World Cup campaign at the age of 43.

Will Cristiano Ronaldo Play at the Next World Cup?

Troy Taormina (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters)

Ronaldo has been more open and pessimistic about his own timeline. Speaking at a Tourism Summit in Riyadh, when asked whether this would be his last World Cup, he said: “Definitely yes. I will be 41 years old, and I think this will be the moment in the big competition. It’s probably one or two more years. I’ll still be at the game.”

His contract at Al Nassr runs out in 2027, with reports circulating about an executive role at the Saudi Club upon its expiration.

What Age Will Ronaldo Be at the Next World Cup?

The case against Ronaldo at 2030 is steeper than Messi’s. He’d be 45 by then, Portugal’s attack has begun to lean less on him for goals than it once did, and he has repeatedly framed this tournament as a farewell. However, you couldn’t put it past Ronaldo to keep playing until 2030.

The ex-Real Madrid forward has confirmed he wants to keep playing until he reaches 1,000 career goals. Whilst he isn’t far away from that milestone, he might need an extended contract to reach the target, and he may well keep going until 2030 to play in one last tournament, especially considering Portugal are one of the hosts.

Who Are the Oldest Players to Play at a World Cup?

The record book offers some perspective on just how rare this would be. Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El Hadary holds the record, turning out for Egypt against Saudi Arabia in 2018 at 45 years and 161 days, marking the occasion with a penalty save.

Colombia’s Faryd Mondragon is next, coming on as a substitute in 2014 at 43 years and 3 days, in what was also his farewell appearance. Cameroon’s Roger Milla remains the record-holder among outfield players, being 42 years and 39 days when he scored against Russia in 1994.

The Verdict

Most names on the list are goalkeepers, bar one. Milla’s record still sits three years younger than Ronaldo would be if he was to make it. History suggests longevity at this level belongs almost exclusively to those in the posts, which is precisely why one more World Cup campaign remains a long shot for two of the world’s greatest ever players.

It begins with a handful of people. Someone jumps to their feet, arms in the air, and then the person next to them follows, then the next, then the next, until a ripple of human hands is sweeping around an entire stadium like a tide rolling in from the sea.

The Mexican wave is one of sport’s most universally recognised rituals, a piece of collective theatre that can turn 50,000 strangers into a single, synchronised unit. It needs no instruction, no referee and no training; it just happens.

But where did it come from, why does it work the way it does, and what does Mexico have to do with any of it? The answers are more surprising than you might expect.

What is a Mexican Wave?

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In technical terms, a Mexican wave is what’s called a transverse wave: the spectators themselves move only vertically, standing up and sitting back down, but the wave they create travels horizontally around the stadium. The result, when viewed from above or from a camera on the far side, is a ripple of people moving in near-perfect unison, like a slow-motion breaker rolling along a coastline.

The mechanics are simple. A small cluster of fans in one section stands up with their arms raised, then immediately sits back down. The section beside them, seeing this, follows. Then the next section. Then the next. The wave is self-sustaining; each group of fans is simultaneously reacting to those just before them and triggering those just ahead.

It can take as few as 30 fans standing simultaneously to trigger a wave, with most going in a clockwise direction. The wave is, in short, a beautifully simple piece of crowd physics.

Where and When Did it Originate?

For many people around the world, it may seem like an obvious question. But the truth is considerably more complicated, and the real origin of the wave lies several thousand miles to the north, in the stadiums of the United States.

The strongest claim to inventing the wave belongs to a professional cheerleader known as Krazy George Henderson. Armed with a drum, a pair of cut-off jeans and an almost supernatural ability to animate a crowd, Henderson had spent years refining his craft at sporting events across North America.

On October 15 1981, at the Oakland Coliseum during a Major League Baseball playoff game between the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees, he finally unleashed it on a major stage. After a couple of failed attempts, it clicked. The wave circled all three decks of the stadium multiple times. It was nationally televised, and Henderson claims that this was the day the wave was born.

From those American beginnings in the early 1980s, the wave spread rapidly through US sports culture, appearing at NFL games, College Football, Baseball and beyond. By 1984, Henderson had even led one at a football match at the Los Angeles Olympics. Mexican crowds picked it up too, took to it enthusiastically, and made it a fixture of their football culture.

Why is it Called the Mexican Wave?

Reuters

The name comes down to one tournament: the 1986 FIFA World Cup, held in Mexico. While the wave had been circulating through North America stadiums for several years by that point, it was the global broadcast of the 1986 competition that introduced the spectacle to the television audiences across Europe, Asia, Africa and beyond, most of whom had never seen anything like it.

To those watching from outside the Americas, the wave appeared to be a Mexican invention. The packed, passionate crowds at The Azteca and other venues performed it so often, and so joyfully, that it became inseparably associated with that summer. Broadcasters and commentators from English-speaking countries began calling it the Mexican wave, and the name stuck.

In North America, where people had been doing it for five years before 1986, it is still known simply as the wave. But for the rest of the world, Mexico got the credit, and Mexico got the name. It is perhaps one of the most ironic pieces of sporting branding in history: an American invention that became a Mexican icon.