Haaland could face Manchester City teammates in World Cup 2026 run

Manchester City sent 19 players to the 2026 World Cup, more than any other club, and those call-ups were spread across 12 national teams. That record haul put Erling Haaland in the middle of one of the tournament’s sharpest club-versus-country tensions as Norway prepared for a run that could bring him face to face with familiar City dressing-room voices.

Norway earned its place in the tournament with a 4-1 win over Italy in its final qualifier, ending a 28-year absence from the World Cup finals. The victory sent Norway back to the competition for the first time since France 1998, with Haaland driving the campaign by scoring 16 goals in eight qualifying matches. At the time of FIFA’s profile on the striker, the 25-year-old had already reached 55 goals in 49 international appearances, making him Norway’s all-time leading scorer.

FIFA placed Ståle Solbakken’s side in Group I alongside France, Iraq and Senegal. That draw gave Norway a clear route into the knockout stage, but it also sharpened the possibility that Haaland could run into Manchester City teammates deeper in the tournament, when the stakes rise and club bonds matter less than national survival.

The City contingent underlined how international football now fragments elite club squads into competing national camps. Pep Guardiola’s team supplied players to 12 different countries for a World Cup staged across Canada, Mexico and the United States, where the tournament opened on June 11. For Haaland, whose scoring touch carried Norway through qualifying, the competition offered a rare test of how long football friendships can hold when progress in the bracket depends on beating the men who know his game best.

Haaland’s scoring run has already made him the central figure in Norway’s return to the global stage. If Norway advance from a group that includes France, the path ahead could put him on the same pitch as City teammates wearing different shirts, a reminder that modern football’s strongest club connections often survive only until the whistle turns national duty into direct confrontation.