World Cup regulars who missed the main draw: Chile, Costa Rica, African duo + Russia

The qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup have come to an end. 48 teams have been selected for 42 seats. Group draws will be held in December, and the final six seats will be determined in the play-offs in March next year.

Thirteen of the top 15 teams that have participated in the World Cup in history have already confirmed their qualification. Italy (4th in history) and Sweden (15th) will both participate in the play-offs and still have a chance to compete. At the same time, many familiar World Cup regulars have decided to miss this World Cup.

Serbia: The team has many famous players such as Vlahovic, Kostic, and Pavlovich. It has participated in the World Cup main matches 13 times in history, which is the most among teams that are currently determined to miss the World Cup.

In the World European Preliminary Group K, they were in the same group as England. In the end, they accumulated 13 points in 8 rounds. They were squeezed out by their old enemy Albania (14 points), who had a tense relationship, and failed to obtain a play-off spot.

Costa Rica: It has participated in the main competition 6 times in history, and has advanced to 5 times in the past 6 years. It has been called the "one hegemon" in Central and North America for many years before.

However, in the third stage of Group C of this World Cup preliminaries, Costa Rica only gained 1 win in 6 games, ranking behind Haiti and Honduras.

Russia: Participated in the main competition 11 times in history.

Due to well-known reasons, he is still suspended and has not been given the opportunity to participate in the qualifiers.

Hungary: It has participated in the main match 9 times in history. Strictly speaking, Hungary is not a familiar face of the World Cup. The last time they participated in the World Cup was in 1986. However, thanks to the "rich ancestors" in the era of Kocsis and Puskas, they still rank at the top of the historical record of teams that have failed to qualify for this World Cup with 9 times.

Hungary has shown a momentum of resurgence in recent years and has produced many well-known players including Szoboszlai, Orban, Kyle Kesz, etc. However, in this year's group with Portugal, Ireland, and Armenia, Hungary's "new golden" generation has still not been able to realize the long-cherished wish of its predecessors.

Cameroon and Nigeria: The former has participated in the main competition 8 times in total, and the latter has participated in the main competition 6 times.

Cameroon has many well-known stars such as Mbemo, Baleba, and Onana in the team, while Nigeria also has famous players such as Osimhen, Lookman, and Iwobi.

Both two veteran African teams ranked second in the group stage of the African World Cup preliminaries and could only advance through the play-offs.

However, the Democratic Republic of the Congo defeated Cameroon 1-0 in the semi-finals and eliminated Nigeria 4-3 on penalty kicks in the play-off final, gaining the only qualification in the African region to participate in the intercontinental play-offs.

Chile: Participated in the main draw 9 times in history.

The Chilean golden generation with Vidal, Sanchez, and Bravo as the core defended the America's Cup in 2015 and 2016, and reached the top 16 of two consecutive World Cups.

However, after the golden generation has aged, Chile has missed the World Cup for the third consecutive time, and was embarrassingly last with only 11 points in the 18 rounds of the South American World Cup preliminaries.