Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, Uzbekistan: Meet the Four 2026 World Cup Debutants

F our nations will play their first ever World Cup match this summer. Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan are debutants from four different confederations, qualifying through different paths to the expanded 48-team tournament, according to ESPN and FIFA.com coverage of the qualified field.

Curaçao becomes the smallest nation ever

Curaçao is the smallest. With a population around 150,000, the island nation off the coast of Venezuela becomes the smallest nation ever to play in the World Cup, according to ESPN and Yahoo Sports. They land in Group E with Germany, Ivory Coast, and Ecuador.

Cape Verde, with a population of approximately 525,000 according to FOX 5 New York, becomes the third-smallest nation by population to qualify for a World Cup, after Iceland in 2018 and fellow 2026 debutants Curaçao. Group H pairs them with Spain, Uruguay, and Saudi Arabia.

Jordan and Uzbekistan break through from the AFC

Jordan and Uzbekistan came through Asia. According to FIFA.com and ESPN, both qualified through AFC. Jordan reached the AFC Asian Cup final in 2023, and that momentum carried into the World Cup cycle. Uzbekistan, with a population of around 38 million, becomes the first country from Central Asia to take part in a FIFA World Cup, per beIN Sports and Yahoo Sports.

Four nations. Four firsts. The 48-team format was designed to expand access to the global stage, and the debutant class is the part of it that landed exactly as FIFA hoped.

Reporting: ESPN ("Meet 2026 World Cup debutants"), FIFA.com, FOX 5 New York, Yahoo Sports, beIN Sports. The 150,000 population figure for Curaçao and 525,000 for Cape Verde are confirmed across ESPN and FOX 5; 38 million for Uzbekistan via FIFA.com.