The farewell of a generation: the veterans who played their last World Cup in 2026
The 2026 World Cup was also a goodbye. Names that have defined two decades of football —Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modrić, both 40, Manuel Neuer at 39, or Guillermo Ochoa, now retired— in all likelihood played their last World Cup. We look back at the farewell of an irreplaceable generation.
Every World Cup crowns a new generation, but it also bids farewell to the previous one. The 2026 edition, the first with 48 teams, was probably the last great appointment for several footballers who have defined the past two decades and whose names are already part of the sport's history.
Cristiano Ronaldo, at 40, played his sixth and in all likelihood last World Cup with Portugal, who bowed out in the last 16 to champions Spain. At the same age, Luka Modrić closed his World Cup cycle with Croatia, ever elegant in midfield. Manuel Neuer, 39, again guarded Germany's goal, who fell in a surprise penalty shootout to Paraguay in the round of 32. And Guillermo Ochoa, after playing his sixth World Cup with Mexico, announced his retirement from football outright.
They are different profiles —an insatiable scorer, a passing master, two goalkeepers for the ages— but they share something: the longevity of the chosen few and the feeling that a way of understanding football goes with them. Many faced the tournament knowing it was a goodbye, and lived it with the emotion of someone closing an unrepeatable chapter.
The changing of the guard is already under way —Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsí, Jude Bellingham and so many others took up the baton at this very World Cup— but it is worth pausing to thank those who entertained us for twenty years. See the profiles and ages of the tournament's protagonists on our site.