Predicted Winners of the 2026 FIFA World Cup - ESPN Power Rankings 30
Predicting the winner of the FIFA World Cup has long fascinated analysts, fans and researchers alike, and one of the many prediction methods is to look at the opinions of experts. Twenty ESPN global reporters ranked their top 15 favorites from No. 1 to No. 15, with their combined ballots used to produce the final rankings below.
Final Order Prediction (Rank)
Here is the predicted finishing order of the top 15 teams for the 2026 tournament, according to ESPN experts. Spain will win, most of them thought, and they were right! The top four were predicted correctly.
| # | Predicted | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spain | Spain |
| 2 | France | Argentina |
| 3 | Argentina | England |
| 4 | England | France |
| 5 | Brazil | Norway |
| 6 | Portugal | Belgium |
| 7 | Germany | Morocco |
| 8 | Netherlands | Switzerland |
| 9 | Morocco | Mexico |
| 10 | Norway | Colombia |
| 11 | Belgium | Brazil |
| 12 | Colombia | United States |
| 13 | Senegal | Portugal |
| 14 | Croatia | Canada |
| 15 | Japan | Egypt |
Notes:
- Power Rankings as published on ESPN (https://www.espn.com.au/football/story/_/id/48677225/fifa-world-cup-power-rankings-spain-brazil-germany-england-argentina)
- This analysis was made 30 days before the start of the tournament.
- Out of the 20 experts, 12 of them have predicted that Spain will win the tournament. Six experts chose France as the winner.
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