ST World Cup Team Talk podcast: Football fans on Messi, Mbappe and fairy tales

SINGAPORE – With the FIFA World Cup 2026 just around the corner, The Sunday Times and Money FM 89.3’s Sports Minutes invited nine fans from participating nations, as well as columnist and pundit Neil Humphreys, on the World Cup Team Talk podcast show to talk about trophies, egos and locker room chemistry.

Here is an excerpt of what they told sports reporter Deepanraj Ganesan and guest co-host Zia-ul Raushan from Money FM 89.3.

Q: Let’s talk about Mexico, hosts of the World Cup – Mauricio, how are you feeling?

Mauricio Espinoza (Mexico): I‘m excited. I cannot wait. I’m a bit sad because I’ll be watching the games from Singapore, but back home everybody’s excited. Everybody’s ready. It’s very cool to see Mexico for the third time being a host. Mexico will be playing in three different cities, in Mexico City, Guadalajara and then Monterrey. So it’s going to be quite interesting to see people getting to see different parts of Mexico, different vibes, different food, different heat of how we love football.

Mexico have always played with a lot of heart... even though we haven’t really gone far for the longest time. But, overall, the team bring a lot of joy to the country, and that’s the main thing for us as fans to see how our communities are enjoying a tournament. The squad might be not super good yet. It’s quite tough because we only have a few people with experience, like Guillermo Ochoa, who is a veteran already, and then we have Raul Jimenez. Basically, these two guys will be leading the new guys, and hopefully, we can become a dark horse.

Q: Can football silence the noise of global tension?

Humphreys: Once the World Cup starts, it (the noise) tends to go out of the window. There’re only two audiences you have to worry about at a World Cup, the TV audience, which will be fine because we’ll watch it no matter what, and the stadium audience, who are my only slight concern.

We’re all seeing these stories, that they’ve got so many unsold match (tickets), they’ve got half-filled hotels near the venues, they’re charging exorbitant, Trump-like figures for these tickets. I’ve never seen that before. You can fake many things in a World Cup, but you can’t fake a half-empty stadium, and you can’t fake an atmosphere in a half-empty fan zone. I hope the Mexicans bring the atmosphere. We need the North Americans to turn up. If they do that, it’ll be a great spectacle.

Q: What are Argentina’s chances of retaining their crown?

Lucas Bilbao (Argentina): It’s going to be hard. We as Argentinians, we don’t like to talk much about how Argentina will do in the World Cup because we think we’re going to bring bad luck. Of course, we are champions. We have a great team, but it’s going to be hard. There are super good teams, as usual. It’s a World Cup.

I think we have a great squad. With the youngest, Nico Paz, we’re going to have good (players) that are really good with the ball, and they’re going to support (Lionel) Messi. I think it will be like the (previous) World Cup, where all of the guys are doing this for Messi, and they will leave the lives there just to back up Messi.

Q: What about France’s status as World Cup favourites?

Stephane Missier (France): France are on a mission. I think the mindset is like we were so close, right? Obviously, the French team are stacked. Maybe we’re the favourite, I don’t know. We always had great players... at some point, we had the best strikers in Spain, in Italy, in France, and in England in the same team.

We had Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet and Nicholas Anelka and so, the team were stacked. But what we always say in France, it’s all about the mayonnaise, and the mayonnaise is a chemistry in the locker room, and playing as a team, and it’s not about a list of individuals playing together. If you look at (Bradley) Barcola, (Desire) Doue, (Kylian) Mbappe, the current Ballon d’Or winner (Ousmane) Dembele, and (Michael) Olise, it’s an incredible team. Can they play together? Ego is a big thing in football. On paper, we have a great team, and I can’t wait to see them play.

Q: What do you think of Thomas Tuchel’s surprise exclusions from the England squad?

Faraaz Marghoob (England): The noise coming out is that Tuchel wants to play a system and he wants players to fit into that system. We’ve got a fairly good spine halfway up going forward. (Phil) Foden, for me, great player, but he was a systems guy at (Manchester) City. Cole Palmer’s been hit-and-miss, he’s been playing a saviour role at Chelsea, and he’s not always delivered.

So I can understand those decisions. (Harry) Maguire, I think it’s more that he’s not the fastest, he is a talismanic player. But we’ve also got Jordan Henderson.... if you need the experience, talismanic figure. I’m not really upset.

Q: Why do England need to be more like Germany?

Humphreys: One of the things that Harry Kane now has is the wonderful German mentality. England doesn’t have that. This psychological hurdle, it is the biggest of monkeys. Yes, there is a little bit of ingrained arrogance… even the lyrics (of Three Lions), although not intentional, do come across as arrogant, football’s coming home.

I genuinely hope that Tuchel does bring a little bit of that German mentality, that teutonic mindset. Harry Kane is a different player now, physically, mentally, psychologically. If he can pass a little bit of that into the England squad, they need to be more German, then they have a chance.

Karim Bencherifa (Morocco): (Tuchel) is quite rigid in the way he wants things, in the way he wants his team to play. I’m waiting to see how the players will respond to that. It’s good that players follow the philosophy of a coach, especially if he has some ideas, but again, it could sometimes backfire.

Q: Will any African teams be able to emulate Morocco’s 2022 fairy-tale run?

Bencherifa: Senegal definitely are a good team with (Sadio) Mane, with a well-balanced, physical team. When you talk about the heat and weather, Africa will be okay with that. In the African continent, Egypt are very strong, but never impressed at the World Cup level.

I still think Morocco, with all the hype, and the fact that they will (co-host) the World Cup in 2030 with Spain and Portugal, so there are so much (positive) things that are happening. The criticism on Walid Regragui, the previous coach, is that Morocco could sit back, could defend, but now Moroccans want to see their team at the upper stage playing (attacking) football. The new coach Mohamed Ouahbi, he’s from that brand of school. We have Brazil in our group, who we have beaten not too long ago. It is going to be exciting.

Q: Can Japan make a deep run at this World Cup?

Shuya Yamashita (Japan): Yeah, I am really confident about Japan at this World Cup because, they beat England and Brazil recently. Most of the players play in Europe... so now they have a lot of experience, and that is why I am confident. I think it’s possible (to make our first quarter-final at a World Cup) because while we will miss Kaoru Mitoma, we have a lot of (other) good players now, especially (Takefusa) Kubo.

Q: The guests’ hottest takes ahead of the World Cup?

Humphreys (on which team could disappoint): Our German friend is trying to be optimistic, but you can kind of see that it’s quite difficult. There are a lot of ifs, buts and maybes. So, of all the traditional titans, I do look towards Germany and think they’re just not at the level of France and Spain, and perhaps even England, and one or two others. So, if I had to pick one...I think Germany, if it’s going to be anybody.

Missier on why Argentina will fail: Nothing personal, but I think Lionel Messi is a bit too old now. There’s not enough talent around him. Everyone plays for Messi, and I feel like this is their game plan. ‘Let’s play for him, let’s play for our god’, but I don’t think it’s enough to win at that level.

Matheus Sena (Brazil) on why Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal could go far: If you have to look at the rest of the team, they have a very strong squad in the midfield. If you think about the quality of Bernardo Silva, Vitinha, all these guys that can make a very big difference, and then if you have a Cristiano Ronaldo, just there to score, I think they can be a surprise that can go very far.

At the last World Cup he was a cloud, but if you watch the last Nations League, he wasn’t, so they performed well. So I think it’s going to be a question mark. Let’s see, I think for the sake of football everybody hopes that he’s going to play well, right?