Twenty-one players who played in Scotland last season will be at this summer’s World Cup, representing thirteen different nations.
Scotland unsurprisingly have the lion’s share of SPFL players with eight, as the Tartan Army are set to travel in their thousands to witness their country play at the World Cup for the first time since 1998.
GROUP A: Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Czechia
Only one Scottish league player makes the plane for a Group A nation and that is Hyun-jun Yang of Celtic. The 24-year-old, who has been capped by South Korea eight times already and will be joined by former club teammate Hyeon-gyu Oh, was named as the champion’s Young Player of the Year after notching 10 goals and 3 assists.
Celtic loanee Julian Araujo made Mexico’s provisional squad, but misses out with an injury.
GROUP B: Canada, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Qatar, Switzerland
Celtic’s Alistair Johnston and Rangers on-loan defender Derek Cornelius make Jesse Marsch’s Canadian squad for the tournament. Johnston signed for Celtic on the back of an impressive showing in Qatar in 2022, whilst Cornelius did not feature for Rangers since November following an injury and reported fallout with Danny Rohl.
Former Ibrox pair Nikola Katic and Cedric Itten will travel over with Bosnia & Herzegovina and Switzerland respectively, and Johnston and Cornelius will be joined by Liam Millar, who had a loan spell with Kilmarnock before covid.
GROUP C: Brazil, Morocco, Haiti, Scotland
Only Scotland have SPFL representation from this group, with Craig Gordon, Liam Kelly, Grant Hanley, Kieran Tierney, Anthony Ralston, John Souttar, Findlay Curtis, and Lawrence Shankland making Steve Clarke’s final cut.
Ex-Celtic hero Odsonne Edouard declined the opportunity to play for Haiti after a remarkable return in his debut season at RC Lens in Ligue 1, whilst Lille summer signing from Rangers Hamza Igamane had his season ended prematurely at AFCON with Morocco.
GROUP D: USA, Paraguay, Australia, Turkiye
America’s Austin Trusty of Celtic and Australia’s Cammy Devlin of Hearts will face off against each other potentially for the first time since the dramatic climax to the Premiership campaign which seen Trusty’s side snatch the title from Hearts’ grasp.
Trusty will be joined by former Celtic and Rangers loanees Timothy Weah and Malik Tillman, whilst Devlin will be accompanied by a plethora of former SPFL talents, such as Tete Yengi, Jackson Irvine, Harry Souttar (brother of Scotland’s John), Aziz Behich, and also Scottish born defender Cameron Burgess. Hibs’ forward Martin Boyle was a late removal from the final squad.
GROUP E: Germany, Curacao, Ivory Coast, Ecuador
There are no active players from the SPFL in this group, but Curacao are managed by ex-Rangers gaffer Dick Advocaat, and his squad includes Juninho Bacuna, who had a quiet six months in Govan during the 21/22 campaign.
Ivory Coast will have Amad Diallo at their disposal, who was on loan at Rangers in 2022 when they made the Europa League final.
GROUP F: Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, Tunisia
Celtic teammates Benjamin Nygren and Sebastian Tounekti will face off against each other when Sweden go head to head with Tunisia in the opening round of fixtures, before both come up against a Japan side with fellow club teammate Daizen Maeda amongst its stars.
Three former Parkhead centre backs also feature in this group, with Gustaf Lagerbielke and Carl Starfelt potentially pairing beside each other for Sweden, and the Netherlands will have Virgil Van Dijk at the back captaining their side.
GROUP G: Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand
Rangers midfielder Nico Raskin will come up against Motherwell starlet Elijah Just will face each other when Belgium take on New Zealand. Raskin makes the Belgian squad for his first international tournament after making his debut in March last year, as does Just despite amassing over 40 caps for New Zealand already.
GROUP H: Spain, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay
No SPFL players make will appear in Group H. Marcelo Saracchi of Celtic did not make Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay squad, though he did captain them on his return from the international wilderness in a 1-0 friendly win over Dominican Republic in October last year.
GROUP I: France, Senegal, Iraq, Norway
Rangers’ Thelo Aasgaard will be in Norway’s camp for the summer with former Celtic centre-back Kristoffer Ajer. Dundee United’s Dario Naamo had been named in Iraq’s provisional squad after switching his allegiance from Finland, but was cut from the final selection.
GROUP J: Argentina, Jordan, Algeria, Austria
There is no link to the Scottish game in this group besides former St. Mirren trialist and Algeria captain Riyad Mahrez who fled the country whilst on Paisley because it was too cold. Mahrez’s teammate Fares Ghedjemis is also in squad, after a move to Celtic failed to materialise in January.
GROUP K: Portugal, DR Congo, Colombia, Uzbekistan
Kilmarnock’s Aaron Tshibola is in line to play against Cristiano Ronaldo as part of the DR Congo setup. The 31-year-old resigned for Killie in February for a third time, and played 14 times as Neil McCann’s men secured their Premiership status for another season.
GROUP L: England, Croatia, Ghana, Panama
Another group with no direct links to the SPFL, although the England squad does include three players who were once upon a time eligible for the Scotland squad – Anthony Gordon, Tino Livramento and of course Elliot Anderson who was named in one of Steve Clarke’s squads in 2023, before pulling out due to injury.
