For top players, road to the World Cup will go on, and on, and on

Argentina striker Julián Álvarez was involved in 83 matchday squads for club and country across the 2023-24 season. (Facebook via Julian Alvarez)

By Steve Madeley / The Athletic

Thomas Tuchel is worried.

Tuchel, the new coach of the England men’s national soccer team, is concerned that his players will be burned out by the time they arrive in North America next summer for the 2026 World Cup.

“I am not so concerned about the number of games the players play in total,” Tuchel said. “I am more concerned that they never have a real break of three to four weeks.”

Tuchel is not the first to raise the issue. Last year, FIFPro, the international players union, made its feelings known about the demands placed on athletes in the men’s game, echoing concerns expressed by a range of players — including Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham and Rodri — about the lack of breaks from the physical demands of competitive matches.

It will be worse for some than others.

Take Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson. He has been out injured since February but is expected to be available again soon.

It is unlikely that he will play every game possible and also that Chelsea and his national team, Senegal, will go the distance in every competition they are in, but if they did, he could theoretically be involved in more than 100 matches from now to the end of the 2026 World Cup.

Paris St.-Germain defender Achraf Hakimi could be in a similar position. His most recent significant break from action came last summer — about a month between a couple World Cup qualifying matches for Morocco and the start of preseason with his club.

He is unlikely to have another lengthy breather from top-level action for over a year, with club and international commitments filling his calendar well into the 2026-27 campaign if Morocco qualifies for the 2026 World Cup. He could also surpass 100 games in the 475 days from now to the World Cup final.

FIFPro’s workload monitoring tool, which keeps track of 1,500 soccer players spread across the globe, reported that 54% of players experienced “excessive or high workload demands” during the 2023-24 season. It highlighted Argentina striker Julián Álvarez, who was involved in 83 matchday squads for club and country across the campaign.

The union is calling for action to prevent player burnout. But there will be no letup for the foreseeable future. The sport is preparing for a 16-month slog, which includes an Africa Cup of Nations, an expanded Club World Cup, huge matches in domestic and European competitions, and the biggest World Cup ever.

The next 16 months will be dizzying for fans and exhausting for players. Here is an outline of what that schedule will look like for men’s soccer.

THROUGH MAY

Domestic league and cup games, UEFA club competitions, international friendlies/World Cup qualifiers/Nations League, CONCACAF Champions Cup

Steve Bruce, a former Manchester United player and a veteran manager of Premier League and English Football League teams, speaks often about the season hitting a new level of intensity “when the daffodils come out.”

The end of the current international break — this has included World Cup qualifiers and the latter stages of the Nations League — and the arrival of spring bring a nonstop sprint to the finish in the domestic league season.

Premier League clubs have nine more league games to play, and at least two clubs can look forward to three more games in the FA Cup.

The Premier League season ends May 25, as does La Liga in Spain and Serie A in Italy, while France’s Ligue 1 and the German Bundesliga end a week earlier. In the United States, the MLS regular season, which began in February, continues to October. Select MLS teams will also enter the U.S. Open Cup the first week of May.

European competitions also finish in May, culminating in the Champions League final in Munich on May 31.

The CONCACAF Champions Cup began in February and reaches the quarterfinals stage in early April, with the semifinals to follow later the same month and into early May.

JUNE

Postseason tours, international friendlies or qualifiers, CONCACAF Champions Cup, CONCACAF Gold Cup, Club World Cup

It was once a familiar sight to see players leaving the final games of the league season in shorts and flip-flops and boarding flights a few hours later to a beach somewhere.

Not this year. The Champions League final and the CONCACAF Champions Cup final are on the same weekend and are followed immediately by a nine-day international window. Most European national teams will play two games in World Cup qualifying or the Nations League.

For many players, there will be just a five-day break before the start of the expanded Club World Cup, featuring 32 teams from around the globe.

The winners and runners-up will play seven games in a month — three group matches and four more in the knockout stage — before the final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on July 13.

At the same time, the CONCACAF Gold Cup will be taking place in the United States and Canada, running from June 14 to July 6.

JULY

Preseason tours, Club World Cup, CONCACAF Gold Cup, Leagues Cup

For European clubs, the first week of July is the traditional start of preseason training.

Many clubs excuse their international players from the first phase of this to provide a manufactured break, but with the new Premier League season starting in mid-August, the scope for giving players a rest is limited.

And in the United States, the Leagues Cup — the tournament between Liga MX and MLS teams — gets underway in July.

AUGUST TO NOVEMBER

Preseason tours, domestic leagues begin, domestic cup games, UEFA club competitions, international qualifiers/friendlies, MLS Cup playoffs

The first games of the 2025-26 Premier League season will kick off on the weekend of Aug. 16, with La Liga due to begin a few days later and the other major European leagues likely to start about the same time.

For international players, there will be no breaks and many air miles until the end of the season.

There are windows for up to six international games in September, October and November before a relentless sequence of games through Christmas.

October marks the start of the MLS Cup playoffs.

DECEMBER AND BEYOND

Domestic league and cup games, UEFA club competitions, MLS Cup, Africa Cup of Nations, international qualifiers/friendlies, postseason tours, international friendlies, World Cup.

Some of Africa’s top players will be missing from club duty for up to a month across December and January so they can play in the continent’s premier international tournament, the Africa Cup of Nations.

The teams that reach the final of the tournament in Morocco will play seven games in four weeks (as will the losing semifinalists because of the competition’s third-place playoff).

And then, beginning in mid-January, the club season will take center stage again, punctuated by one more two-game international break next March. A two-game slot for pre-World Cup friendlies will take place in mid-June 2026 before the tournament itself begins June 11.