The Chelsea presence at the 2026 World Cup is not as high as many expected, and has left the Blues with a chance to break an unfortunate record which hasn’t been hit since 2002.
Some of the top stars at the club are not alongside their countries at the tournament. Joao Pedro and Cole Palmer were both surprisingly left out of the 26-man squads.
Estevao Willian missed out due to injury, with Xabi Alonso set to get a full pre-season working alongside a large portion of his first team squad.
Where was that work rate in a Chelsea shirt last season?! 😮
Enzo Fernandez's stunning stats for Argentina vs Austria.
Chelsea in danger of having no World Cup goalscorer for first time since 2002
Their presence at the tournament actually dropped after it started when Marc Cucurella departed, although there have still been regular minutes for Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Reece James.
Despite those regular starters, a Chelsea player is yet to find the net at the 2026 World Cup, a feat which hasn’t been managed since 2002.
Blues players first found the net in the tournament in 1998, when Dan Petrescu scored against England and Tore Andre Flo bagged against Brazil.
Ecuador v Curacao: Group E - FIFA World Cup 2026
Photo by Maja Hitij – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images
While there were no goalscorers in Japan and South Korea, the Blues were back amongst the goals with Hernan Crespo, Arjen Robben, Didier Drogba and Joe Cole all scoring in 2006.
Drogba would score again in 2010, while Salomon Kalou and Florent Malouda scored as both Ivory Coast and France went out in the group stages.
In Brazil in 2014, Oscar and David Luiz would both score for the home nation before their tournament would be brought to an end by Germany, who had three goals for Andre Schurrle. Fernando Torres would also score.
In 2018, it was just the Belgians who scored. Eden Hazard and Michy Batshuayi both scored for the side who would eventually finish third.
Last time out, there were a plethora of Chelsea goals, with attackers at the time Raheem Sterling, Hakim Ziyech, Christian Pulisic and Kai Havertz all scoring alongside Kalidou Koulibaly.
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Most likely Chelsea players to score at 2026 World Cup
So far in North America, no Chelsea player has scored, and this will be slightly worrying for Alonso ahead of taking over at the club.
The best chance could be for Nicolas Jackson or Pedro Neto. The latter already has an assist under his belt in this tournament.
Jackson however will need to step up with a result against Iraq in order to book their place in the knockout stage of the competition.
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