Author: dmitriy.vasyura@gmail.com

The draw for the 2026 World Cup will take place on December 13, 2024. 55 national teams will be divided into 12 groups, the winners of the groups will reach the final stage, the second places and the 4 best teams of the Nations League will play the playoffs.

The European qualifying tournament for the FIFA 2026 World Cup is scheduled to begin in March 2025. The finals of the 23rd FIFA World Cup will be held with the participation of 48 teams in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Ukraine is in the second basket of the draw.

Writes UNN with a link to uefa.com.

The draw for the 12 groups, which will include the eight best teams of the Nations League (four winners and four runners-up will qualify for the playoffs), will take place on December 13, 2024.

Ukraine's national team is in the second draw basket, along with Turkey, Sweden, and Wales. Greece, Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic are likely to be there.

2026 World Cup qualifiers – how it works

The new format of the 2026 World Cup qualifying tournament was unveiled by UEFA on January 25.

55 national teams will be divided into 12 groups (without Russia, although the situation has not yet been resolved).

The preliminary stages will be reduced to groups of four or five teams (instead of five or six).

The winners of each qualifying group will advance to the final stage.

The runners-up and the four best-ranked teams in the League of Nations will participate in the playoffs.

The final will be held in 16 cities in Canada, Mexico, and the United States:

USA (11): Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle

Mexico (3): Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey

Canada (2): Toronto, Vancouver

The final will take place in New York on July 19, 2026.

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Erling Haaland scored 44 goals last year and that kept him clear of the competition despite playing no football in the final weeks of 2023.

He ended 2023 one goal ahead of Harry Kane and one more ahead of Kylian Mbappe, and that trio will be expected to dominate 2024 again for Manchester City, Bayern Munich and PSG/Real Madrid.

The criteria: All club goals in all competitions for clubs in Europe’s top 10 leagues.

10) Alexander Sorloth (Atletico Marid) – 21 goals
A slow-ish start to the season for his new club, but two goals v Leganes will do his confidence a whole world of good.

9) Cole Palmer (Chelsea) – 23 goals
Even without any European football stat-padding, Palmer has proven a goalscoring force. Three Premier League hat-tricks in 2024 include a couple of four-goal hauls and he is in the top ten for assists this year too.

8) Vinicius Jnr (Real Madrid) – 26 goals
One hat-trick helped beat Barcelona in January’s Supercopa de Espana while another helped break Borussia Dortmund in October ahead of the Ballon d’Or vote.

7) Luuk de Jong (PSV Eindhoven) – 26 goals
PSV dropped 11 points in the entirety of the Eredivisie season and De Jong’s form – at the age of 33 – was a major factor. Twenty-nine goals and 15 assists in a league season is fire. Started the new season with two goals in the Dutch equivalent of the Community Shield and finally netted in his third league appearance. And then again in his fifth. And sixth. And seventh. And eighth.

6) Jonathan David (Lille) – 29 goals
There was a Coupe de France hat-trick to kick of 2024 but since then there has been an avalanche of Ligue Un goals. It’s actually astonishing that he was not targeted more aggressively for a summer transfer. Has already scored seven times as Lille’s 24/25 season started early with Champions League qualification and then progressed to beating Actual Real Madrid and Actual Atletico Madrid.

5) Kylian Mbappe (PSG/Real Madrid) – 31 goals
Being drawn against a side in the sixth tier of French football is handy when you want to make a quick start to the new year. Mbappe scored a hat-trick in a 9-0 win before adding two more goals v a third-tier side. But he failed to turn up twice v Borussia Dortmund as PSG wimped out of the Champions League semi-finals.

Started life for Real Madrid with a Super Cup goal and has now scored eight in 13 for his Spanish club, which feels kind of underwhelming.

4) Erling Haaland (Manchester City) – 33 goals
Not bad for a League Two-standard player. And any talk of him being a flat-track bully should be silenced by a two-goal salvo v Spurs that pretty much won Man City the title. Then he started the new season with two hat-tricks and 10 goals in total in his first five games. Which is all quite mad. Though he was kept out by both Newcastle, Fulham and Wolves. But not Sparta Prague or Southampton.

3) Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) – 33 goals
He scored the most goals of any player in their debut Bundesliga campaign. And indeed the most goals he himself has ever scored in a single campaign, with 44. But he still ended the season without a trophy and that will never not be funny. Started the new season with a late goal after coming off the bench, then another in the league before scoring the 22nd hat-trick of his career against Holstein Kiel. Three days later he got his 23rd against Dinamo Zagreb in a four-goal haul. In Germany, some are questioning whether he is holding back Bayern. And then he scores a hat-trick v Stuttgart.

2) Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona) – 34 goals
There’s life in the old dog yet. He’s still starting (and scoring) for Barcelona at the grand old age of 35. A first hat-trick of the season came against Alaves and he babysat the academy kids to a Real Madrid thrashing.

1) Viktor Gyokeres (Sporting) – 38 goals
The former Coventry man scored 29 league goals as Sporting cruised towards the Portuguese title. And he has casually started the new season with 11 goals in his first eight league games of 2024/25, either side of scoring on his Champions League debut. It is actually astonishing that the top scorer of 2024 was not the subject of a summer transfer.

Yaroslava Maguchikh was recognized as the best athlete of the year in Europe. The athlete won Olympic gold, set a world record of 2.10 m and won the European Championships in 2024.

Yaroslava Maguchikh became the best athlete of the year in Europe. This was reported by European Athletics, UNN reports.

Details

This is the first recognition for the athlete in this category after she was a finalist in 2022 and 2023.

In 2024, Yaroslava achieved significant success, becoming an Olympic champion and setting a world record with a 2.10-meter jump. In addition, she won the European Championships and the Diamond League finals, which underscores her outstanding achievements in global athletics.

This award is a clear recognition of her talent and perseverance, and reflects Ukraine's significant contribution to international sport.

There are some huge names on the periphery and Kevin de Bruyne’s lead as Europe’s premier assist provider in 2024 is starting to look a little shaky.

De Bruyne is on course to reclaim the crown he won for Manchester City in 2022, which Joey Veerman stole for PSV in 2023.

The criteria: All club assists in all competitions for teams in Europe’s top 10 leagues. The top scorers are here.

10) Raphinha (Barcelona) – 14 assists
Things have not been simple for the Brazil forward since he left the comfort of Leeds but the occasional Barcelona captain has risen to the role and has become one of the most creative players in Europe.

9) Dusan Tadic (Fenerbahce) – 15 assists
In his first season in Turkey, Tadic registered double figures for assists for the tenth different league campaign of his career. He is still flying at 35. No wonder Jurgen Klopp was “very angry” at not signing him all those years ago.

8) Viktor Gyokeres (Sporting) – 15 assists
The leading goalscorer of 2024 is on for a remarkable double which would surely culminate in the big transfer his form has warranted for some time.

7) Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid) – 15 assists
The Ballon d’Or favourite has wisely avoided knackering his knee in quite the same way as closest rival Rodri, giving him a couple of months to establish an unassailable lead in that particular. Assists in five consecutive La Liga games should do it, as should playing with Kylian Mbappe, Endrick and Jude Bellingham.

6) Pedro Goncalves (Sporting) – 15 assists
The natural successor to Bruno Fernandes always features prominently when assessing the chief continental chance creators. He might pick his next career move a bit more wisely. In the Portuguese league alone he has registered double figures for goals and assists in the past two seasons and is on course to complete that hat-trick with four and three respectively in 2024/25.

5) Wendel (Zenit St Petersburg) – 15 assists
They’re obviously built different in Russia, with Wendel laying on a couple of goals in each of Zenit’s first three league games, as well as their Super Cup final win over Krasnodar. Barcelona were linked in the summer but they probably had no money.

4) Alex Baena (Villarreal) – 16 assists
Few players have been quite as influential in Villarreal’s recent excellent run of form and academy product Baena has been good enough for La Liga’s surprise title challengers to crack into Spain’s victorious Euro 2024 squad.

3) Alejandro Grimaldo (Leverkusen) – 17 assists
One of the most important cogs in the Xabi Alonso machine, Grimaldo cost nothing in the summer of 2023 after his Benfica contract expired but he is worth an awful lot to the Bundesliga champions now. The left-back has embraced the Leverkusen heritage admirably, assisting stoppage-time goals against Augsburg, Leipzig, Qarabag and Patrik Schick’s late equaliser in the DFB-Pokal final against Stuttgart.

2) Dries Mertens (Galatasaray) – 18 assists
Having earned his Turkish Super Lig twilight years, Mertens is no doubt enjoying himself. Ten of those 18 assists were recorded across an eight-game period between early March and mid-May, helping propel Galatasaray to a remarkable title win. Many more have inspired a phenomenal unbeaten start to their defence.

1) Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City) – 18 assists
There is the slight added benefit of playing behind a robot who has converted half of those assists – De Bruyne laid Haaland on four times in one FA Cup rout of Luton in February – but the Belgian has also set up Phil Foden and Josko Gvardiol twice in 2024, as well as Bernardo Silva, John Stones, Oscar Bobb, Julian Alvarez and Jeremy Doku just the once.

And this is De Bruyne pretty much slowing down due to age, injury and being perennially internationally grumpy.

Forbes has published the top 10 football players with the highest salaries in the 2024/25 season. Cristiano Ronaldo leads the way with an annual income of $285 million, followed by Messi and Neymar.

Forbes has published the top 10 football players with the highest salaries in the 2024/25 season, UNN reports.

Details

It is noted that the ranking took into account not only the player's salary, but also various incomes, including income from non-football activities (advertising contracts or business income).

Top 10 highest-paid football players in the world in the season-2024/25:

1. Cristiano Ronaldo, Al-Nasr, striker – $285 million per year.

2. Lionel Messi, Inter Miami, forward – 135 million.

3 Neymar, Al-Hilal, forward – 110 million.

4. 4. Karim Benzema, Al-Ittihad, forward – 104 million.

5. Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid, forward – 90 million.

6. 6. Erling Holland, Manchester City, forward – 60 million.

7. Vinicius Junior, Real Madrid, forward – 55 million.

8. Mohamed Salah, Liverpool, forward – 53 million.

9. Sadio Mane, Al-Nasr, striker – 52 million.

10. Kevin De Bruyne, Manchester City, midfielder – 39 million.

The grid, principle and date of the 2026 World Cup draw have been determinedOctober 17 2024, 10:22 AM • 10701 view