Featuring in Group E alongside Germany, Ivory Coast and Ecuador

It’s December 5th, 2025. Bewildered members of the Curaçao delegation sit in the crowd at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. 

Donald Trump has just received his “FIFA Peace Prize”, a hackneyed ploy by Gianni Infantino to get Don on side for the World Cup.

Looking like four men drowning in quicksand and desperately trying to take their Adidas Tango down with them, the trophy beguiles Trump, who declares it “one of the great honours of his life”. 

A few minutes later, during the draw itself, Rio Ferdinand hands over to hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. “Let’s go”, he says as Gretzky gets on with the business at hand. He butchers nearly every name he pronounces. 

The worst example is Curaçao. But maybe you can forgive Wayne. This nation of just 156,000 is the smallest in population terms to ever qualify for a World Cup. 

And now they’re here, they’ll want to make an impression. Whether they can manage it in a group with the likes of Germany is another question.

He knows what he’s done.

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Fact pack compiled by The Tournament Scout

World Ranking: 

82nd (as of May 2026)

Play style: 

Manager Dick Advocaat has them set up in a way that demonstrates all of his guile and experience managing now his 8th international side. Incidentally, Advocaat and Curaçao are both types of beverage.

They like to let the opposition keep the ball, and when they get the ball back they smash it into wide areas or into the target man. 

It’s the kind of effective football you would expect from a manager who has seen everything and done it all in world football, working with rich and meagre resources along the way, and a team that has to cut its cloth accordingly, not blessed with the riches of household names.

The two Bacunas (Leandro and Juninho) are the heartbeat of the team, while Tahith Chong of Sheffield United provides a direct wing threat. 

They’re perhaps lacking a bit of cutting edge quality which will likely be the difference maker for their chances.

Expected formation: 

4-3-3 or 4-4-2. Against top teams they will shift into a very low block, sometimes with five at the back in order to protect their box.

It’ll be backs to the wall for most of the group games, and survival will be their key priority. Keep it tight and try to grab something. Smash and grab football.

Age profile: 

Averaging around 28 years old, this is a mix of youth and experience landing on a peak average. At the older end are 37-year-old goalkeeper Eloy Room (what a name!) and on the younger end expect to see players like winger Ar'jany Martha (22).

Key players: 

• CB: Riechedly Bazoer - Incredible name. Technical ball-playing defender.

• CB: Armando Obispo - PSV youth product, steel at the heart of defence.

• CM: Leandro Bacuna - Will be known to EFL Championship fans

• AM: Tahith Chong - Former Man United dynamo

• RW/FW: Juninho Bacuna - The other Bacuna brother, pacey playmaker

• FW: Jurgen Locadia - Explosive frontman plying his trade at Miami FC

  
  

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Curaçao didn’t lose a game in Group B in the third round of the CONCACAF qualifiers, beating fellow tournament minnows Haiti along the way.

How might they come unstuck?

• Defensively they are vulnerable. For all of Advocaat’s managerial nous, he’s managing a team that’s light on quality. They needed VAR and the interventions of the woodwork three times to hang on against Jamaica.

• They lack elite experience. They are missing depth at top flight level and that is likely to be punished brutally by sides with elite players like Germany.

  
  

Key fixture: 

Ivory Coast. If they can come out of that with anything they might have a glimmer of hope. But I think the gulf in quality in the group is so significant that there is very little chance of Curaçao even drawing games. 

Keep an eye on their friendly against Scotland on May 30th. If they’re creditable there, I may reassess their chances a little. But I still expect they will finish bottom.

Our prediction: 

I think they’ll finish bottom of the group. They’re outmatched in terms of quality by many of even the “smaller” teams at the tournament. I suspect Ivory Coast and Ecuador will have enough to beat them, and Germany will unfortunately wipe the floor with them. But it’s a hell of an achievement that they qualified and I’m super happy for the Curaçao fans that they can see their side at a tournament of this scale. I’ll be rooting for them!