Despite football icon Cristiano Ronaldo being on the verge of playing in the FIFA World Cup for a record sixth time, he wasn’t included in the first promotional poster for the upcoming World Cup.
42 nations have officially qualified to compete at the 2026 World Cup that will be hosted in the US, Mexico and Canada at the time of writing. It is the first World Cup to have 48 nations compete in.
Ahead of the official draw for the competition on December 5, FIFA released its first promotional poster featuring players from all qualified nations.
The image of Ghana captain Jordan Ayew was included in the poster; the veteran forward is set to compete in the World Cup for the third time after featuring in the 2014 and 2022 editions.
The image of prominent players including Argentina captain Lionel Messi, Egypt captain Mohamed Salah, Senegal captain Sadio Mane, Norway’s Erling Haaland and France captain Kylian Mbappe were featured in the promotional poster.
However, the image of Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo wasn’t included in the poster with Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes featured as the representative of Portugal instead.
Scroll down to view FIFA’s first promotional poster for the 2026 FIFA World Cup
