Some of world’s best are coming to Foxborough for the World Cup. Here are 10 players to keep an eye on.

The World Cup is coming to Massachusetts, and with it some of international soccer’s biggest stars.

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Foxborough’s Gillette Stadium will host seven games, with five group matches full of star-studded talent, including three of the best goal scorers on the planet.

Here are 10 stars to watch at this summer’s World Cup games in Foxborough.

No player has been more synonymous with recent World Cups that Kylian Mbappé.

The French superstar burst onto the scene as part of France’s World Cup-winning squad in 2018, becoming the first teenager since Pelé to score in a World Cup Final. Four years later, he made more history with a hat trick in 2022 World Cup Final — the first in the title match in 56 years — in a loss to Argentina.

Mbappé remains the star at the heart of a French team loaded with talent and scored 42 goals in 44 games for his club, Real Madrid, this season. Five goals at this summer’s tournament would also make him the most prolific goal scorer in World Cup history.

England’s hopes of a first World Cup win since 1966 lie largely on the shoulders of Kane, the nation’s all-time leading goal scorer.

Kane is coming off three straight sensational seasons for German giants Bayern Munich. This past season, he scored 61 times in 51 games and won the European Golden Shoe as Europe’s most prolific goal scorer.

Kane is also looking for some redemption after his missed penalty helped seal England’s exit in the quarterfinals to France four years ago.

Rounding out a trio of lethal goal scorers — Haaland, Kane, and Mbappé are the last three winners of the European Golden Shoe — Haaland leads Norway into its first World Cup since 1998.

The Manchester City star racks up goals like few in history, topping the scoring charts in the English Premier League three times in the last four years. He set the Premier League record with 36 goals in 35 games in the 2022-23 season, and has hardly slowed down.

But unlike Kane and Mbappé, Haaland doesn’t have a star-studded team behind him. That hasn’t kept the big striker from what he does best, though; Haaland scored 16 goals in Norway’s eight qualifying matches, having tallied in each one to bring his country back to the World Cup.

If Haaland is going to fire in the goals, somebody has to set him up.

Odegaard, the captain of Norway and Premier League champion Arsenal, has largely been that creator, providing the primary or secondary assist for seven of Haaland’s 16 goals during qualifying.

Odegaard hasn’t been at his best for his club over the past two seasons as he struggled with injuries, but he’ll need to be the driving force from midfield for Norway to make a splash this summer.

It’s hard to take the spotlight from a star like Mbappé, but Dembélé — the reigning winner of the Ballon d’Or, given annually to the best player in the world — will try this summer.

Dembélé has led Paris Saint-Germain to back-to-back Champions League titles and has won the French Ligue 1’s Player of the Year award for two straight seasons despite some injury interruptions.

France has an embarrassment of riches up front, where Olise rounds out a lethal front three.

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Olise had a career year alongside Kane for Bayern Munich, winning Bundesliga Player of the Season. A flashy, creative winger with an eye for goal, Olise will be handful for any defender that he comes up against this summer.

The Moroccan captain, who joined Dembélé and PSG in winning back-to-back Champions League titles, is the one world-class player for a Moroccan team hoping to repeat the magic of reaching the semifinals in 2022.

One of the fastest players you’ll see, Hakimi should be all over the pitch for Morocco as an attack-minded right back.

Bellingham’s star has fallen a bit from the heights of 2024, when he was voted as the third best player in the world in that year’s Ballon d’Or rankings. Still, the Real Madrid superstar will be at the heart of England’s World Cup hopes as one of the most talented and well-rounded midfielders in the world.

After a breakthrough season that started with Premier League club Bournemouth and finished at Manchester City, Semenyo is the talisman for a Ghana team that has struggled to get out of the group stages since reaching the quarterfinals in 2010.

Semenyo scored a career-best 21 goals in 48 games playing as a winger this season, helping Man City win both of England’s domestic cup competitions.

Few nations have a cult hero quite like McTominay, who broke through from struggles at Manchester United to star for Italian club Napoli, winning Serie A’s Most Valuable Player award in 2025.

Scotland qualified for this World Cup with a 4-2 win over Denmark in November, which McTominay opened with a stunning bicycle kick.

How famous was that goal? The Bank of Scotland immortalized the image of McTominay’s acrobatics with a special £20 note ahead of the World Cup.

A few other names to keep an eye out for:

Declan Rice, midfielder, England: An all-around star with a special ability to win back possession. The goal scorers will get the headlines, but Rice is the rock in England’s midfield.

Désiré Doué, forward, France: As if the French didn’t have enough attacking talent, Doué was another star for PSG and might be the most overqualified backup at the entire tournament. He’s technical, tricky, and electric on the ball, and will likely make his mark off the bench at some point.

Frantzdy Pierrot, forward, Haiti: The Melrose native is third on Haiti’s all-time goal scoring list and will hope to add to that tally when Haiti takes on Scotland in the first game at Gillette Stadium. He scored the only goal in a crucial 1-0 win over Costa Rica to help Haiti qualify for the first time since 1974.

Aymen Hussein, forward, Iraq: The Iraqis face an uphill climb to get out of a loaded group with Norway, Senegal, and France. Hussein, fifth all-time in Iraq’s scoring records, scored the winning goal in a qualification playoff against Bolivia to bring his nation back to the World Cup for the first time since 1986.

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