The men’s World Cup, the biggest global event in sports history (48 teams, 104 matches in 16 cities over more than five weeks), is coming to the U.S., Canada and Mexico in June and July.The Athletic will cover it like no one else, with reporters at every game and coverage for every level of fandom. If you’re an NFL or baseball fan in North America, wondering how to experience a tournament on home soil, then don’t fear — we’ll have you covered. Only care about how the United States or Canada fare? Don’t worry, our experts will hold your hand and guide you through the dizziness of the tournament.The men’s World Cup is a tournament that attracts sports fans who might not ordinarily follow soccer all that closely. So in that spirit, we asked some of The Athletic’s writers who cover other sports to share what they are excited about.Here, Marcus Thompson, Ken Rosenthal, Michael Silver, Chantel Jennings, Bruce Feldman, John Hollinger and Hannah Vanbiber — co-author of our upcoming newsletter, the World Cup Briefing — explain what they are most looking forward to this summer.Make sure you don’t miss a thing by following the best of our 2026 men’s World Cup coverage here.What does the World Cup mean to you?Rosenthal: To me, the World Cup is the ultimate sporting event, the World Series times 10, or even more. I played soccer, was the last man on the bench for the worst high-school team in Long Island — we went years without winning a game. In high school and college, I worked for the New York Cosmos ticket office when the team was in its glory. So, I can’t wait to see the World Cup played in the U.S. Americans unfamiliar with the sport are about to find out why so many call soccer the beautiful game.Silver: It means five-and-a-half weeks of me, my wife and our three adult children becoming immersed in and obsessed with the greatest men’s sporting event on the planet. Watching soccer’s greatest performers compete for country is a thrill like no other; knowing how much it means — to the competitors, to the fans, to the annals of the sport — makes the experience sublime. This is especially true when a compelling underdog (Croatia in 2018; any African nation, ever) has the potential to capture hearts and minds across the globe.Lionel Messi’s Argentina won the 2022 World Cup in dramatic fashion (Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)Feldman: Because soccer was a sport I didn’t play growing up and never followed, the World Cup was barely on my radar till I was in my early 30s living in NYC and would go out to bars with some friends who were soccer fans — and I did like the chants and the camaraderie you felt while watching a game between two countries I had no rooting interest in. I got a little more into it as my son started playing club soccer and I learned more about the game, but I’d be lying if I said I am a big fan of the sport. But I’ve learned to like the sport more and more and usually end up watching all the international tournaments, like I got sucked into Copa America in 2024.Thompson: It’s an opportunity to dive into the world’s most popular sport, with perhaps the highest stakes in sports, and essentially become more united with the world in this way. The World Cup is sports on PEDs. It has everything that makes sports exceptional and addictive. And as an American, it sometimes feels like we are deprived of the excellence of soccer. Less so now, as modern media affords us more access, but we’re still relative outsiders to the sport in the same way the rest of the world is to the NFL or NBA. So it’s special to be active participants in such a beautiful and dramatic sport.Hollinger: The best sports tournament on the planet, regardless of the attempts FIFA makes to mess it up. It’s the Olympics meets the NCAA Tournament, where a small country can still have their One Shining Moment even if we know one of the bluebloods will win the whole thing, except instead of once-every-four-year sports like gymnastics or figure skating, it’s the most popular game in the world.Jennings: Though I wasn’t much of a soccer player, my family became a soccer family when my younger sister got involved and ultimately played in college, and I also married into a soccer family, so I’m surrounded by devoted fans and through osmosis, I’ve soaked up a lot. But for anyone who hasn’t watched (or married into a family full of soccer fans), soccer is the ultimate “become a fan in 90 minutes or less” sport and the World Cup is the beautiful game on its biggest stage — winning a world championship and actually winning a world championship (not that other sport or league would claim such a thing…).I love the way sports can draw fans in with this kind of revelry and rivalry, and witnessing good competition can instantly make any sports fan invested. Being able to be swept up into that during the World Cup will be unlike anything else.Vanbiber: I played soccer briefly in middle school and was absolute trash, so I didn’t follow it much until I studied abroad (hold your groans, please!) in the UK during my junior year of college. It was there that I went to my first match and spent downtime in pubs cheering along to the Premier League. A few years later, I moved to NYC in time for the 2014 men’s World Cup, and it was truly magical watching it from a city where nearly every country in the tournament has a massive, built-in fanbase. I ended up pulling for Brazil after the U.S. was out, and I cried when they lost to Germany. Then, a year later, the U.S. women won! And then they won again in 2019! The energy in NYC during those World Cups was unforgettable and unmatched.The World Cup Briefing, a quick rundown of updates and insights for every fan — every day of the tournament. Sign up here.