Cristiano Ronaldo delivered a powerful response to his critics by scoring twice in Portugal’s emphatic 5-0 victory over Uzbekistan at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, becoming the first player in history to score in six different World Cup tournaments.

The 41-year-old striker had faced heavy criticism following Portugal’s disappointing 1-1 draw against DR Congo in their opening group match. However, Ronaldo answered in spectacular fashion, opening the scoring after just six minutes with a superb volley before adding a second goal before halftime.

After the match, an emotional Ronaldo looked directly into a television camera and declared, “I’m back,” a message aimed at those who had questioned his place in the team. He later explained that his statement was a reminder of the consistency he has maintained throughout a remarkable 23-year career.

Despite missing out on a hat-trick, Ronaldo’s performance helped Portugal secure a crucial victory. Additional goals from Nuno Mendes, an own goal by Uzbekistan goalkeeper Abduvohid Nematov, and a late strike from Rafael Leao completed the rout.

Portugal manager Roberto Martinez praised his captain for leading the squad through a difficult week of criticism, describing Ronaldo as a role model whose experience and professionalism helped unite the team.

Former Manchester United teammate Wayne Rooney also applauded Ronaldo’s response, highlighting the extraordinary achievement of scoring twice at a World Cup at the age of 41. Meanwhile, Roy Keane dismissed suggestions that Ronaldo had declined, insisting the Portuguese star had “never gone away.”

The brace made Ronaldo the second-oldest goalscorer in World Cup history and reinforced his status as one of football’s greatest players. Portugal will now face Colombia in their final Group K match as they look to secure top spot and advance to the knockout stage with momentum.

England and Ghana boosted their hopes of reaching the knockout rounds of the 2026 FIFA World Cup after playing out a goalless draw in Foxborough on Tuesday.

The result leaves both teams in a strong position to qualify for the last 32 from Group L, with England remaining top of the standings on goal difference.

Led by coach Thomas Tuchel, England now have four points from two matches and sit ahead of Ghana heading into their final group-stage encounter against Panama. A victory in that match would likely secure top spot in the group and a place in the knockout rounds.

England began their World Cup campaign in impressive fashion with a 4-2 victory over Croatia, showcasing an attacking display that raised expectations. However, they found it much more difficult against a disciplined Ghanaian side that defended resolutely throughout the match.

Despite enjoying large spells of possession, England struggled to create clear-cut chances against the Black Stars. Their inability to break down Ghana’s defensive structure meant goalkeeper Lawrence Ati-Zigi was rarely tested.

Ghana, meanwhile, felt they were denied a potential penalty in the 79th minute when defender Ezri Konsa appeared to bring down substitute Prince Adu inside the penalty area. However, no spot-kick was awarded.

England’s frustrating evening was summed up late in the game when captain Harry Kane blasted a golden opportunity over the crossbar from close range with the goal at his mercy.

The draw leaves England and Ghana level on four points while Croatia and Panama were scheduled to meet later on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, Croatia captain Luka Modrić was set to make his 200th appearance for the national team, a milestone achieved by only a handful of male international footballers.

Away from the pitch, Gianni Infantino confirmed that Donald Trump will attend the World Cup final in New Jersey on July 19 and participate in the trophy presentation ceremony.

Infantino said: “We will be together with the president enjoying the final and handing the trophy to the winner, of course, together.”

Meanwhile, tournament favourites France announced that head coach Didier Deschamps had temporarily left the team camp following the death of his mother. Assistant coach Guy Stéphan will oversee preparations for France’s final group-stage match against Norway.

With one group game remaining, both England and Ghana remain firmly on course to secure places in the knockout phase of the tournament.

The National Sports Commission (NSC) has confirmed that Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle will remain in charge of Nigeria’s senior national team after agreeing to new contract terms with the authorities.

In addition to retaining his role with the Super Eagles, the Malian tactician has also been appointed head coach of Nigeria’s U-23 team, the Olympic Eagles, as part of plans to strengthen the country’s football development structure.

NSC Chairman Shehu Dikko disclosed the development on Tuesday after a strategic meeting between the Commission and the Nigeria Football Federation in Abuja, where discussions focused on the future of Nigeria’s national teams.

Chelle’s current two-year contract is scheduled to expire at the end of 2026, and discussions over a renewed and improved agreement have been ongoing for several months.

Following Nigeria’s third-place finish at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, reports emerged that the 47-year-old coach had requested a monthly salary package of $130,000, which would cover the salaries of his assistants and other contractual obligations.

Providing an update on the negotiations, Dikko said both parties had successfully reached an agreement.

“We have reached new terms with the coach about his new remuneration. We are also going to take care of his assistants, and there are other benchmarks that we have put on the table, and I’m sure the coach will be very excited about it,” Dikko stated.

As part of the new arrangement, Chelle will also oversee the Olympic Eagles as Nigeria begins preparations for the men’s football competition at the 2028 Summer Olympics.

According to Dikko, the decision was made to create a stronger pathway between the U-23 team and the Super Eagles, ensuring that emerging talents can transition smoothly into the senior national side.

“With the NFF, we also agreed that the coach will take care of the U-23 national team because we have young players coming into the Super Eagles within that age bracket.

“So, Eric Chelle and his team, plus other people who will support them, will handle the project. The objective is not to give the coach more work but to start building for the future,” he added.

The additional responsibility places Chelle at the centre of Nigeria’s long-term football strategy, with expectations that he will help revive the fortunes of the Olympic Eagles.

Nigeria’s U-23 side has struggled in recent years, failing to qualify for both the men’s football tournaments at the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Similarly, the Super Eagles have missed qualification for the last two FIFA World Cup tournaments, increasing pressure on Chelle to deliver success at both senior and youth levels in the years ahead.

For 25 minutes on 13 June, Morocco made World Cup history during their 1-1 draw with Brazil – not one of their players on the pitch had been born in Morocco.

The 2026 Fifa Men’s World Cup has by far the highest proportion ever of players representing countries they were not born in – almost a quarter of all the participating players.

Already the tournament has seen a player score against his birth nation, when France-born Ibrahim Mbaye netted for Senegal in their 3-1 defeat to Les Bleus on 16 June.

This follows the awkward moment in 2022, when Switzerland attacker Breel Embolo, born in Cameroon, became the first player in the tournament’s more than 90-year history to score against his own birth nation.

Instead of leaping in triumph and delight, he briefly lifted his hands in an almost apologetic gesture.

“I knew that if I scored I wouldn’t celebrate the goal, out of respect. That didn’t mean to say I wasn’t happy about it, though,” Embolo told reporters at the time.

In the 2026 World Cup, only eight out of 48 teams do not have a player born abroad, according to official squad lists submitted to world football’s governing body Fifa.

World Cup debutants Curacao feature only a single player born on the Caribbean island as part of their 26-man squad. The country is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and most of its team are Netherlands-born.

Meanwhile Qatar has brought players from 10 nationalities, from Africans to Europeans and a South American.

A high-profile case is Michael Olise. Born and bred in London, the Bayern Munich winger has chosen to represent France, his mother’s birth country.

Among foreign-born players representing 2026 co-hosts the United States is Antonee Robinson, who was born in Milton Keynes in England but qualified for the US team through his father.

Such switches have created some family divisions, though.

Four sets of brothers are representing different teams: Desire and Guela Doue (France and Ivory Coast), Nico and Iñaki Williams (Spain and Ghana), Harry and John Souttar (Australia and Scotland) and half brothers Derrick Luckassen and Brian Brobbey (Ghana and Netherlands).

Before 2026, this had happened only twice – when half brothers Jerome and Kevin Prince Boateng played in two World Cups (2010 and 2014) representing Germany and Ghana. They faced each other on the pitch on both occasions.

Professor Gijsbert Oonk, a Dutch historian and expert in migration and identity studies at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, says the trend is a reflection of a changing world.

“Almost 4% of the world population lives in a country in which they were not born. This is even higher with high-skilled workers and elite athletes,” he explains. “It’s a reflection of migration patterns.”

A short(ish) history of flag-switching

The proportion of foreign-born players in World Cup teams has bounced up and down over the decades, until recently.

According to research from Oxford University’s Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), it stayed between 2% and 14% until the last two tournaments when it has surged, reaching 16.5% in Qatar in 2022.

The proportion rose to more than 23% in 2026 – with the total number of foreign-born players reaching 289 out of 1,248, as the number of competing teams rose from 32 to 48.

Fifa was created in 1904, but only established formal nationality rules in the 1960s. Until then, players could play for any country they chose to.

The most prominent example is Luis Monti. The Argentine midfielder represented his country in the 1930 World Cup, where the South Americans finished second. He then switched allegiance and joined Italy for the 1934 tournament, winning the trophy with them.

Monti remains the only person to have played in World Cup finals for two different nations.

In 1962, Fifa issued eligibility criteria, dictating that players must have citizenship of the country they wished to play for, and could no longer represent more than one nation over their career.

Exceptions were made only for players whose nationalities changed involuntarily, such as for athletes from the former USSR and Yugoslavia.

In one example, the late 80s and 90s saw more than a dozen UK-born footballers called up to represent the Republic of Ireland by manager Jack Charlton. They qualified through Irish relatives and made a big contribution to the success of that team.

Further changes came in 2004, when Fifa began allowing players to represent one country at youth level and switch to another at senior level.

However, it also stipulated that a player should have a “clear connection” to a country – either at least one parent or grandparent who was born in the country, or to have been resident for at least two years.

Since then, the residency requirement has increased to five years, while players are now allowed to switch nationality if they have played three or fewer senior international matches prior to the age of 21 for the side they are switching from.

Enter the Atlas Lions

These rule changes have been welcome news for so-called diaspora nations, where a significant portion of their eligible citizens are spread across the globe – like Morocco.

In the 2010s, in a push to improve the quality of its football, the country placed scouts in European countries with large Moroccan communities, such as France, the Netherlands and Belgium.

The resulting injection of talent from diaspora players was one the factors behind Moroccan football’s finest hour: becoming the first African nation to reach World Cup semi-finals, in Qatar in 2022.

Two of the three Morocco players who scored during the quarter-final penalty shoot out were not born in Morocco – Netherlands-born Hakim Ziyech, and Achraf Hakimi, who secured the victory over his own birth nation, Spain.

“This is a story of a country that has learned to treat its diaspora not as an afterthought, but as a crucial part of its national football system,” says Dr Myriam Cherti, a senior researcher at COMPAS.

Decision ‘from the heart’

Dr Cherti says footballers’ choices can be shaped by “professional, emotional and political considerations”, including family expectations or international opportunities they might not otherwise have had.

For example, Ibrahim Mbaye had played for France at all youth levels, but made the surprise announcement last year, aged 17, that he would play for Senegal, his mother’s birth country.

“I will never regret choosing to play for Senegal because it was a decision from the heart,” he told Senegalese broadcaster RTS at the time.

Others, such as former Real Madrid defender Pepe, opt to represent the country in which they have become naturalised.

According to Brazilian media citing his father, Pepe turned down an approach about representing Brazil in 2006 and instead chose Portugal, where he had been living and playing since 2001.

He ended up facing his birth country in a heated group stage match at the 2010 World Cup.

“I never regretted my decision to become Portuguese,” he said at a press conference at the time. “I see facing Brazil as any other game: I will always honour Portugal’s colours.”

Sometimes, recruitment can be unexpected. In 2018, Dublin-born Roberto Lopes, whose father is from Cape Verde, received a message from the country’s manager Rui Aguas via LinkedIn, enquiring whether he would be interested in playing for the national team.

Lopes, who plays for Irish side Shamrock Rovers, ignored the message for months thinking it was spam, before realising his mistake. “I felt so rude,” Lopes told BBC Sport.

The defender went on to become one of the heroes of Cape Verde’s goalless draw against European champions Spain on 15 June.

Divisive issue

So-called “flag-choosing” does not, however, come without controversy.

Sepp Blatter, Fifa president from 1998 to 2015, was critical during his tenure about the growing trend at the time of countries fast-tracking naturalisation for players – particularly Brazilians.

He warned in 2007 that a World Cup dominated by teams “full of Brazilian players” was a “real danger”.

Public judgement can also be harsh: Brazil-born Spain attacker Diego Costa was booed relentlessly by local crowds during his adopted country’s brief participation in the 2014 World Cup – played in Brazil – for choosing to represent the Europeans.

Prof Gijsbert Oonk, who teaches students of various nationalities, reports that the issue proves divisive every time it is raised in his lectures.

Some argue that fans “cannot identify with a country anymore” if its team relies on foreign-born players, he says. “But others take a human rights approach and say ‘let them be, it’s their job, their income’,” he adds.

For Dr Cherti, football cannot remain immune to societal shifts: “The national team is no longer only a reflection of population inside the border. It’s increasingly a reflection of migration, history and global mobility.”