Here’s our World Cup Fantasy 2026 Teams article with our former FFGeek Contributor Antonello and his first draft World Cup Fantasy 2026 Team. There’s also his views on the rules and strategy for the game
World Cup fantasy 2026 teams – Antonello’s First Draft Team
A Few Links
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Here’s the link to Play
https://play.fifa.com/fantasy/team
FFGeek League Code/Link
Code: F1MUQOX4
Link: https://play.fifa.com/fantasy/join-league/F1MUQOX4
World Cup 2026 FFGeek Slack Channel
https://join.slack.com/t/fantasyfootballgeek/shared_invite/zt-3n72s5gzm-tid7IiwcDVtE7hkCVENf3g
Introduction
Here we are at last, on the eve of the World Cup (I can’t wait for it to start, even though I’m annoyed by some high-profile omissions by the ‘managers’).
With its return, our favourite time of year officially begins: the fantasy football season.
I’m also very happy to be back contributing to the FFG community, which is always close to my heart. Having said that, I don’t want to go into all the rules of the game as Geek has already given a summary what I want to do in this introduction is share my views on the things that have caught my eye the most.
Comments on the various rules
Let’s move on to the most interesting changes from previous iterations of the game:
apparently, you can swap your players on the pitch right up until the start of each match, rather than at the start of each day. This means staying up to watch matches at 4 or 5 in the morning…
You’ll receive 2 bonus points if a player with less than 5% ownership scores 4 points or more (in my opinion, the most interesting and intriguing rule that could really shake up the game);
midfielders will earn 1 extra point for every 3 tackles and 1 for every 2 big chances created, whilst forwards will earn 1 extra point for every 2 shots on target (could this be the solution to revitalising forwards in FPL?);
finally, everyone will earn an extra point for a goal scored directly from a free-kick.
Strategy thoughts
Anyone who has played this game before knows that the most popular strategy used to be to build a team exclusively for GW1, play Limitless in GW2, and then use a wild card in GW3.
To get round this, I reckon the game developers have shaken things up for this edition.
There’s no more Limitless, so the strategy changes; I reckon it’ll go in this direction:
-build the strongest possible team for GW1 (mainly selecting players from Germany, Spain and Portugal);
– play a wild card for GW2 (selecting players from Brazil and France);
– regarding GW3, my general thinking is as follows:
Given that Qualification Boosters and Mystery Boosters are from the Round of 32 onwards and that before the Round of 32 you have unlimited free transfers, it follows that the Wild Card should be played in GW2 or GW3 and that the 12th Man and Maximum Captain must therefore be activated in the other two matchdays of the group stage.
In my opinion, this makes a lot of sense because you could consider activating the Maximum Captain in GW3 when perhaps some teams have already qualified and so the points are scored by another player, or in GW2 where there are more straightforward matches (in terms of the number of premium national teams).
In this scenario, you would activate the WC in GW3 (but this is Plan B), whereas 12th Man could be activated as early as GW1 or GW2 (since the further you go, the more players you can have from a single team, so it wouldn’t make sense; plus, matches for the premium national teams become tougher as they face each other).
I would activate the Qualification Booster in the first knockout round, when the premium teams still have an easy match (perhaps facing the third-placed teams from the groups, who knows), and it is easier to progress to the next stages, saving the surprise of the Mystery Booster for later in the game.
I hope that makes sense.
Player thoughts
The cheapest goalkeepers have a really easy match in GW1 (to use them as backup keepers). I’m not keen on having a goalkeeper on the bench, even though the game allows it (given the option to make changes before each match), but Colombia and Norway have a really good match and offer the chance to have a goalkeeper between the posts at a good price. It remains to be seen, however, who will be chosen between Monterò 3.8, Vargas 4.3, Tangvik 3.5 and Nyland 4.2 (this is the gap I need to fill in goal).
I just want to add that whoever you pick between Neuer and Raya, I don’t think you’ll change them because I really don’t think Spain and Germany will concede goals against Curaçao and Cape Verde, so it’s a bit pointless spending so much money on a second goalkeeper.
Xhaka and Alaba have been picked for my team for penalties and/or free kicks and corners.
As for the cheapest defenders, I’m keeping an eye on a few who are the only ones taking penalties:
Then there’s special mention for Kimmich, who is the absolute gem of the game and very likely to be my captain for GW1(1). Then a player from Spain, followed by one from either Portugal or Norway;
On the cheap side there’s Bacuna (4.0) from Curaçao, Doan (5.1) from Japan, Davis (3.9) from Panama and Abdi (4.1) from Tunisia.
Best regards, I might share my final team with you towards the end, see you soon!
Current Draft Team
The gaps are for cheap players yet to be confirmed
