Meet the Two Smallest Nations to Ever Qualify for the FIFA World Cup
As we head into the second month of 2026, the summer is starting to loom on the horizon, and with it, the FIFA World Cup. Football's quadrennial extravaganza gets underway on June 11th when co-hosts Mexico welcome South Africa to the stunning Estadio Azteca, kicking off a five-week festival of football. Between then and July 19th, an increased number of 48 teams will battle it out across North America in a bid to leave MetLife Stadium with the famous gold trophy in tow.
Reigning European Champions Spain head across the Atlantic as the tournament favorites, with online betting sites pricing them as the 9/2 frontrunners. They're closely followed by Thomas Tuchel's England, the team that La Roja famously beat in that Euro 2024 final in Berlin 20 months ago, courtesy of Mikel Oyarzabal's late winner. But it isn't the big guns we're interested in.
With the World Cup being expanded from 32 to 48 teams, more nations than ever before were handed golden opportunities to punch their tickets to the grandest stage for the first time. Four countries were up to the task, securing their maiden World Cup berth. But two of those nations in particular deserve the spotlight as they became the two smallest countries in history to secure their spot on football's grandest stage.
Cape Verde
With a population of barely 500,000, Cape Verde was never supposed to qualify for the World Cup. But back in October, 15,000 of those locals crammed into the Estádio Nacional in Praia to watch something they'd been told was impossible. An island nation of volcanic islands you'd struggle to find on most maps, smaller than Rhode Island, was about to punch its ticket to the grandest footballing party on planet Earth.
The Tubarões Azuis welcomed lowly Eswatini, knowing that victory would cement their spot at the World Cup for the first time, and goals from Dailon Livramento, Willy Semedo, and veteran fullback Stopira duly secured a 3-0 win. This wasn't supposed to happen. Not for a country that barely existed in international football a generation ago.
Pedro Leitão Brito—everyone calls him Bubista—has been at this for five years. He watched his side get demolished 4-1 in Cameroon on match day three and heard the whispers that maybe this was a bridge too far. Then Cape Verde rattled off five straight wins, and suddenly topped Group D ahead of the Indomitable Lions to become the second-smallest nation by land area to ever reach a World Cup. All of that with a population comparable to Cambridge, England.
But just because the tiny nation has been invited to the big dance, don't expect them to make much of an impression. The bookies certainly don't, pricing them as 50/1 outsiders just to win Group H. As the below betting tool shows, that's not all.
Examples shown using screenshots from this betting calculator: https://thunderpick.io/betting-calculators/implied-probability-calculator
As one can see from the above betting calculator, Cape Verde has an implied probability of less than 2% to win their group. Compare that to Spain, who have over an 18% chance of winning the tournament outright, and the gulf between the two nations is clear. And guess what? They have both been drawn into Group H and will play each other in their opening game of the tournament in Atlanta on June 15th.
The Blue Sharks then clearly have their work cut out. But if qualifying is anything to go by, they will certainly be up for the fight.
Curaçao
From the second smallest nation to qualify for the World Cup to the smallest, and by some distance. Just approximately 185,490 call Curaçao home, and they can now call their nation a proud qualifier to the beautiful games' biggest event. And what's more impressive, iconic manager Dick Advocaat wasn't even in Jamaica to watch his team punch their ticket against all odds.
The Dutch manager who'd built this impossible dream couldn't make the November trip to Kingston, with family matters keeping him away. So his staff watched from the bench as the Reggae Boyz rattled the woodwork three times, as VAR overturned what could've been a decisive penalty, and as 156,000 people back home held their breath for ninety-plus minutes. Never had Curaçaoans been happier to see their side play out a 0-0 draw.
Curaçao had done it. The smallest nation by population to ever qualify for a World Cup. A nation smaller than the Isle of Man was going to share a tournament with Brazil and Germany.
This wasn't a squad assembled from Europe's elite academies. The Bacuna brothers, Leandro and Juninho, were and will be the stars of the show in midfield. Gervane Kastaneer plays in Malaysia and finished as their top scorer with five goals. Eloy Room kept six clean sheets because he had to—there's no margin for error when you're pulling players from Turkish and Saudi leagues, from wherever you can find Caribbean talent scattered across the globe.
They went unbeaten through the CONCACAF Final Round: twelve points, topped Group B. Put seven past Bermuda. Beat Jamaica 2-0 at home. Advocaat orchestrated the whole thing, and when the final whistle blew in Kingston, you had to wonder: how does an island with one main highway prepare to face four-time champions Germany? It won't be long before we find out.