Bafana Bafana go into the 2026 World Cup as one of only eight teams among the 48 finalists with no players born outside the country, highlighting the growing influence of diaspora communities on many national teams.
All 26 players selected by Hugo Broos were born in South Africa. The closest the squad comes to having a player with ties to another nationality is defender Ime Okon, whose parents are Nigerian, though he was born in Johannesburg.
Another of the fully homegrown squads is in Bafana Bafana’s group, with every player in the Czech Republic squad born in that country.
Brazil, Colombia, Panama, Austria, Sweden and Saudi Arabia are the only other teams with entirely homegrown squads.
In all, there are 310 players at the World Cup who were born outside the country they will represent, which equates to a quarter of players on show and is a nod to the growth in human migration over the last 50 years.
The team with the most foreign-born players is Curaçao, with 25 of their 26-man squad born in the Netherlands. Midfielder Tahith Chong is the notable exception.
It is not surprising to see African nations feature prominently on the list. Second are DR Congo, who have 20 players born outside the country: France(11), Belgium (5), England (2) and Switzerland (2).
Morocco are next with 19 foreign-born players, including a strong Spanish influence through the likes of Achraf Hakimi and Brahim Díaz. Their foreign-born contingent includes players born in France (6), Spain (5), Belgium (3), the Netherlands (3) and Canada (1), the latter being goalkeeper Yassine Bounou.
Bosnia and Herzegovina are the European nation with the most foreign-born players, with 17, including four born in Germany.
Algeria have 16 players born outside the country, with 13 born in France and one each in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
Haiti also have 16 foreign-born players, including 12 born in France, two in the United States and one each in Canada and Switzerland.
Qatar are an interesting case, with 14 players born outside the country across nine different nations, including Brazil, Ghana, Portugal, Senegal and Somalia.
France, meanwhile, will have an incredible 75 players born in the country representing other teams at the World Cup. They also have three foreign-born players in their own squad: Michael Olise (England), Marcus Thuram (Italy) and Brice Samba (DR Congo).
That means almost 8% of the 1,248 players selected for the tournament were born in France.
Defending champions Argentina have two foreign-born players in Giuliano Simeone (Italy) and Nico Paz (Spain), while Portugal have Matheus Nunes (Brazil) and Diogo Costa (Switzerland).
Even England have one foreign-born player in defender Marc Guéhi, who was born in Côte d’Ivoire.
Germany’s lone foreign-born player is Waldemar Anton, who was born in Uzbekistan.
One of the more unusual cases is Netherlands midfielder Guus Til, who was born in Zambia and was pursued for a time by that country to represent them internationally.
