Can England Win the 2026 World Cup?

Thomas Tuchel stood in front of his players in March 2025 and told them: the target is to win it. Not to do well. Not to progress from the group. Not to make a quarter-final. To win the World Cup. England have not won a major international tournament since 1966. They reached the final of Euro 2020 and Euro 2024. They have a squad of genuine depth and quality. They have a manager who has won the Champions League. And they have Harry Kane, the greatest goalscorer England has ever produced, playing the best football of his life at 32.

So. Can they?

The Case For

Kane is in the form of his life

Harry Kane scored 61 goals for Bayern Munich in 2025/26. Sixty-one. He won the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal and ended years of individual trophy drought by winning a first team honour at the highest level. He goes into this World Cup as the most prolific goalscorer in world football and England's all-time international top scorer. He has six World Cup goals from 2018. He is the most complete number nine England have ever had and at major tournaments, when the pressure is highest and the margins are finest, Kane delivers. He missed a penalty against France in the 2022 quarter-final that might have changed everything. He will have been thinking about that ever since.

Bellingham and Rice are a generational midfield partnership

The combination of Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice in the middle of England's midfield is the most exciting the country has had since the era of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard — and in many ways it is more complementary. Rice is the best defensive midfielder in the world. Bellingham is one of the best attacking midfielders anywhere. They cover different ground, they have different attributes and they produce together in a way that gives England a midfield capable of matching Spain, France or Argentina in a knockout match. Bellingham in particular goes into this tournament having spent a season at the Bernabeu developing every aspect of his game. He is the player Tuchel builds around and the player who will define England's tournament.

The draw has been kind

England are in Group L alongside Croatia, Ghana and Panama. They should win the group. Croatia are not the force they were in 2018, Ghana are a mid-tier African side and Panama are participating as a CONCACAF qualifier. A straightforward group gives England the opportunity to build, to rotate and to avoid the physical and psychological toll that a difficult group can inflict. It also means they could potentially avoid Spain or France until the semi-finals. That is the bracket they need.

The squad has genuine depth

Tuchel's 26 includes Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Gordon, Ollie Watkins, Kobbie Mainoo and more. England can name different starting elevens for different types of games. They have pace on the left in Rashford and Gordon, creativity in the number ten position through Bellingham and Eze, and a striker rotation in Kane, Watkins and Toney that covers different physical and technical requirements. That depth, if Tuchel uses it intelligently, is one of England's biggest advantages.

Tuchel has won the biggest prize

Thomas Tuchel won the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021. He has managed at the very highest level in Germany, France and England, reached Champions League finals on multiple occasions and built a reputation as one of the most tactically inventive coaches in Europe. This is his first major international tournament as a manager. Whether the skills translate from club to international football is the genuine unknown. But his track record of winning when it matters, his ability to get a defined defensive structure combined with attacking quality and his experience of managing big players in high-pressure environments gives England a manager whose credentials are legitimate.

The Case Against

England and tournament pressure

Italy 1990. Euro 96. France 1998. Korea Japan 2002. Portugal 2006. The list of England tournament exits on penalties, by a single goal or through a catastrophic collapse at the worst possible moment is one of the defining features of modern English football. Euro 2020 ended with Rashford, Sancho and Saka missing penalties in the final. Euro 2024 ended with an extra-time winner for Spain in the final that England spent 89 minutes looking like they might actually win. The structural ability to win a major tournament has been there. The finishing of it has not. That is not a random outcome. It is a pattern, and patterns need to be broken consciously.

The full-back problem

Tuchel's most difficult selection decision has been at right-back. Trent Alexander-Arnold, who many would argue is the best attacking right-back in world football, has not won a cap since the summer of 2025 and is not in the squad. Reece James has been selected but has spent the better part of eighteen months managing injuries. Whether he can play an entire knockout tournament at full pace is a genuine question. At left-back, there is nobody of the quality that Luke Shaw provided when fit. Nico O'Reilly gives Tuchel an athletic option but at a World Cup, the full-back positions are where elite teams apply pressure and where England could be exposed if the solutions do not hold up.

The number ten debate

With Bellingham, Eze and Rogers all capable of playing the number ten position and Rashford and Gordon competing on the left flank, Tuchel has a wealth of attacking options that could become a distraction. The best tournament teams know their best eleven and stick to it. Too much rotation in positions that require combination play to develop can prevent the understanding that wins knockout matches from forming. Tuchel needs to make a decision about who starts where and commit to it early enough for the team to function as a unit rather than a collection of individual talents.

The Spain and France problem

If England get out of the group and win their round of 32 and round of 16 matches, they will almost certainly face either Spain or France before the final. Spain are the reigning European champions with Lamine Yamal, who at seventeen is one of the most frightening opponents any defence will face this summer. France have Mbappe and Dembele. Beating one of those two sides in a quarter or semi-final would require England's absolute best performance and considerable fortune. It is not impossible — England beat Germany at Euro 2020 and have beaten top nations at tournaments before. But it is the hurdle that most England fans quietly fear.

The Verdict

Yes. England can win the 2026 World Cup. The squad is deep enough. The individual quality in Kane, Bellingham, Rice and Saka is among the best in world football. The manager has the credentials and the ambition. The draw has given them a realistic route to the latter stages. All of those things are true.

They are also third in the betting at around 6/1 — behind Spain and France — which is roughly where the evidence puts them. Not favourites. Not no-hopers. A team with a genuine chance, which is precisely where England have been at the last two major tournaments and have come so tantalisingly close.

What is different this time? The manager is different — Tuchel has a different background, a different authority and a different set of experiences than Gareth Southgate. The squad has matured. Bellingham is a year older and better than he was at Euro 2024. Kane has trophies in his cabinet now and a hunger to add the only one that really matters. Rice is at his absolute peak.

If England are going to win a World Cup in the next decade, this is the squad to do it with. It's coming home? The truthful answer, for the first time in a while, is: possibly. And possibly is the most hopeful word England supporters have had to play with in a long time.

Wear England this summer. Harry Kane. Jude Bellingham. Declan Rice. Bukayo Saka. Explore the full England football fanwear collection at Players Couture and back them properly.