Marcelo Balboa doesn’t mince words. When asked about the chances of Mexico and the United States winning a World Cup—specifically as co-hosts of the 2026 tournament—the American acknowledged that “it would take a lot of luck,” because “neither team has the kind of player needed to achieve it.”
“To say that Mexico or the United States could win a World Cup, they would have to get very lucky. We don’t have that player who can single-handedly change the outcome of a match,” asserts Balboa, who played in three World Cups.
“We have Christian Pulisic, but look—the recent World Cup champions all had that special player,” Balboa explained regarding the U.S. national team.
In both Mexico and the United States, hosting a World Cup is viewed as an advantage that could lead to a “historic tournament,” even if the ultimate goal remains reaching the “quarterfinals.”
Former defender Marcelo Balboa deemed Alejandro Zendejas’s call-up for the 2026 World Cup squad to be a fair decision; he also described the “absence of Diego Luna”—of Real Salt Lake—as something to be expected.
“He’s a good player; he’s playing very well in Liga MX—the kind of player who can change a game. For me, it was a fair decision. I had him on my own personal 26-man roster, because we know that in the World Cup, some teams are going to sit back in a low-to-mid defensive block; you need to have skillful players who can break through that line, who can play in tight spaces, and Zendejas fits that description.”
“He’s good on set pieces—something Berhalter values as well. Honestly, that didn’t come as a surprise to me,” Marcelo Balboa stated.
“The United States is a team that, if they come together and play as a cohesive unit, can be a dangerous opponent. The same goes for Mexico. But to claim that either Mexico or the U.S. has what it takes to win a World Cup… look, you never know what might happen, but it would be very difficult—extremely unlikely—for either of those two countries to win the tournament this time around,” said Marcelo Balboa.
