OFFSIDE | WORLD CUP 2026: Messi, Mbappe, Haaland and Superstars Day

Hello and welcome to our new daily FIFA World Cup column: OFFSIDE.Whenever there is a World Cup, we usually get two main ads from Nike and Adidas, who sponsor 26 of the 48 teams. Adidas’ ad was called Backyard Legends, fronted by Timothée Chalamet, where he puts together a team to defeat a trio of street football players who have been undefeated since 1996.It’s a throwback to street-meets-legends football commercials, the kind we watched growing up in the 90s, which usually involved putting professional footballers in various situations: hell, a Mission Impossible plot or an airport. The ad headlines Timothée Chalamet and also features Lionel Messi as the GOAT emeritus with special CGI versions of Beckham, Zidane and Del Piero. Timothée Chalamet jokingly tells Messi: “You were my backup plan” in the ad. Meanwhile, Nike has come up with a remarkable set featuring footballers past and present, from Eric Cantona to Kylian Mbappe to Erling Haaland, called Flip the Script, which has enough people to make Kevin Feige’s head spin. From Ted Laso to Kim Kardashian, the ad was fronted by Kylian Mbappe, whose antics are a little too much for the director, before Erling Haaland comes in at the last minute to do Haaland things. Matchday 6 was the Dawn of the Superstars, an amalgamation of the two commercials, with Lionel Messi showing he’s not quite ready to hang up his boots yet as he scored a hat-trick against Zinedine Zidane’s son Luca Zidane, who didn’t inherit his dad’s football prowess or headers. He became the oldest player to score a hat-trick at the World Cup, a record previously held by Cristiano Ronaldo. He also equaled Miroslav Klose’s World Cup goals record (16) and it would be rather unwise to bet against him.For those who are a bit confused as to why the descendants of France’s greatest footballer play for Algeria, such as the absurdist philosopher Albert Camus, Zinedine Zidane also has Algerian heritage. Algeria was a French colony for 132 years.While Messi’s hat-trick was fabulous, Zidane was a bit guilty of poor goalkeeping, especially for the second goal where he should have done better to keep it out. This does not take anything away from Messi, who reminded in time that he is not a passenger in his 200th game. Of course, some, such as Piers Morgan, believed that Messi had received special treatment and was lucky to be on the pitch despite a tackle he thought should have earned him a red card. Meanwhile, France banished the ghost of Senegal, who beat them in 2002, with a blistering performance from Kylian Mbappe, who scored a brace to set the stage for the rest of the tournament. Interestingly, 10 of Senegal’s 22 players were born in France, with 98 players born in France at this tournament, ahead of the Netherlands (67) and England (49).There’s always sadness when a talented player fails to make it to the World Cup because he wasn’t born in the right country, like George Best, but luckily we won’t have to think about that with Erling Haaland scoring his first World Cup goals and shaping up to be a machine of mass destruction. However, an interesting treat was the introduction of Zidane Iqbal in Iraq, making him the first player of Pakistani origin to play in a World Cup.Messi had his say on Dawn of Superstars and now it’s Cristiano Ronaldo’s turn as Portugal take on DR Congo at 10:30 PM IST. While Ronaldo may get along, the Portuguese squad is full of superstars, including Premier League man-of-the-match Bruno Fernandes, who can assist from anywhere.Later in the night at 1:30 IST, the team with the most annoying fan base in the world, England, will take on Croatia, still led by the ageless Luka Modric. Croatia defeated England eight years ago, who have not won a World Cup since 1966 and lost in the last two Euro finals.Thomas Tuchel has received some tough tackles and left some talented players behind, including Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Harry Maguire, and will look to Harry Kane to continue his remarkable scoring form.Meanwhile, Ghana will face Panama at 4:30 IST, which means Thomas Partey will miss Ghana as he faces rape and assault charges in the UK and will not be allowed to enter Canadian soil. Finally, Uzbekistan will take on Colombia in the early morning games at 7:30 AM IST at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. Fabio Cannavaro, a 2006 World Cup winner with Italy, has told his team they have “nothing to lose” but will struggle against a team that has Luis Diaz and nostalgia merchant James Rodriguez.See you next time.