What made the 2026 World Cup memorable: all the highlights

The 2026 football World Cup will be remembered for a flood of memes and scandals:

🔵 Trump activated a real Trump card: American player Folarin Balogun received a red card and was set to miss the match against Belgium. Trump personally called Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, after which the suspension was unexpectedly lifted. Karma responded, and the US national team was thrashed by Belgium 4:1, giving FIFA a new nickname: “Fix It For America.”

🔵 Messi once bathed his future final opponent Lamine Yamal: in 2007, twenty-year-old Messi took part in a charity photo shoot and bathed six-month-old Lamine Yamal. Nineteen years later, they met in the final — the last World Cup for Messi and the first for Yamal.

🔵 The World Cup’s biggest meme was Argentina’s “goose team”: a farmer turned out to be such a huge Messi fan that he painted his 11 pet geese in the white and light-blue colors of the Argentina national team. The paint is safe, and the geese have become a local attraction.

🔵 Conspiracy theories were inevitable too: football fans agreed that the World Cup was rigged, and that the referees and FIFA had pushed Argentina’s national team into the final by giving them an easy bracket of opponents.

🔵 Water breaks became the tournament’s biggest embarrassment: FIFA introduced mandatory three-minute stoppages in each half, regardless of temperature or heat conditions. Coaches used them for tactics, TV channels for advertising, and the stands regularly booed them.

🔵 Boston ran out of beer because of fans from Scotland: some bars arranged emergency deliveries, and the state’s governor stepped behind the bar and tried pouring beer herself, according to the Telegram channel “Exploit.”

As a reminder, the United States co-hosted the 2026 World Cup together with Canada and Mexico. The tournament’s final match took place at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. In the decisive match, Spain’s national team defeated Argentina 1:0 in extra time. The only goal was scored in the 106th minute by forward Ferran Torres.