MACKEMS AT THE WORLD CUP

With just three days to go until the beginning of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Sunderland has 11 players out in North America. In this piece, I will be looking back at the last three World Cups and which active Sunderland players were involved.

QATAR 2022

Jewison Bennette (Costa Rica)

I remember being incredibly excited to see Jewi on the world stage after a relatively promising start to his Sunderland career. He was seen as the next big thing for Costa Rica and many Sunderland fans were keen to see how he would get on in what was a difficult group consisting of Spain, Germany and Japan. At just 18, he started their first game against La Roja,  which ended in a 7-0 thumping before substitute appearances in their final two group games. In these, Costa Rica were knocked out in fourth, despite beating the Japanese 1-0 and then leading the Germans, 2-1, with 20 minutes remaining, alas they’d go on to lose 4-2. Sadly Bennette’s lack of game time on Wearside and a poor loan spell in Greece saw him not feature for his country for three years however, consistent game time for Ukrainian outfit LNZ Cherkasy saw him recalled to the squad during the March international break, although he hasn’t made the most recent one in which his country will face England. 

Bailey Wright (Australia)

Wright was one of the key members of the 2021/22 promotion-winning side and the experienced centre half was called up by Australia to head to Qatar. He played just one of the four games the Aussies had before their exit to the eventual world champions Argentina. That appearance came in the final group game against Denmark as a late sub, a game they won 1-0. Wright now plays his football in Singapore for Lion City Sailors.

RUSSIA 2018

Wahbi Khazri (Tunisia)

The 2017/18 season is one of, if not the, darkest one in our history so it's rather remarkable any of our players made it to Russia for the World Cup. It is no surprise that one of the two that did go spent the season out on loan in the top division of France. He spent the season at Rennes but featured three times in the Championship in the early stages of the campaign. Tunisia were actually in England’s group that tournament, with Khazri scoring twice (against Belgium and Panama) and starting all three games. Unfortunately for him though, it was not enough as Tunisia were knocked out finishing third in the group.

Bryan Oviedo (Costa Rica)

Another Costa Rican and this time it was left back Bryan Oviedo as the Sunderland representative. Oviedo is a strange one as he was one of the few players that did not refuse to play for the club when dropping into the third tier and was always professional even though he could easily have played at a higher level. At the same time, many would agree more was expected from him considering he was brought in to play Premier League football during our relegation under David Moyes. He started two of Costa Rica’s three group games including playing against current captain Granit Xhaka in a 2-2 draw, which would be the Central American nation's only point of the tournament. They finished fourth in a group that also contained  Brazil and Serbia.

BRAZIL 2014

Ki Sung-yueng (South Korea)

Despite the endless number of Italians we had at the club during the 2013/14 season, not one of them were involved in the World Cup that summer but South Korean loanee Ki Sung-yueng was. He spent the campaign on loan from Swansea and was relatively solid for us, scoring three in 27 Premier League games (plus one in the League Cup). He started all three group games but he couldn’t stop them from finishing bottom of a group consisting of Belgium, Algeria and Russia.

Jozy Altidore (USA)

Altidore was never great in a Sunderland shirt, and maybe that is kind given some of the performances he put in during his time here, but you could never doubt the lad’s effort. He is a player that many fans will always remember, even if it is for his lay off to Fabio Borini in the home derby win of that year, or winning the penalty at Stamford Bridge that ended Jose Mourinho’s 77 game home unbeaten streak as Chelsea boss. He went to Brazil hoping to lead the line for the US but sadly he picked up a hamstring injury in the first game against Ghana which ended his tournament prematurely, with his country going out in the round of 16.