{"id":199689,"date":"2026-04-27T18:51:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T17:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/world-cup-2026-xavi-names-five-favourites-to-win-trophy"},"modified":"2026-04-27T20:02:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T19:02:36","slug":"world-cup-2026-xavi-names-five-favourites-to-win-trophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/world-cup-2026-xavi-names-five-favourites-to-win-trophy","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Xavi names five favourites to win trophy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Former Barcelona manager, Xavi Herna\u0301ndez, has named five teams that can win the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Romario\u2019s YouTube channel, Xavi named Brazil, Spain, France, Portugal and Argentina as the countries that can win the World Cup this year.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s World Cup will begin in the summer, and Argentina is the defending champion after winning it in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey [Brazil] can be champions. First, because Ancelotti is their coach who brings out the best in players and second, because Brazil dominates at the World Cup. They have good players. Ancelotti always competes,\u201d Xavi said<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe other favorites are Spain, Argentina, France, and Portugal. I see Germany as less of a favorite. England could make a run as well,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Former Barcelona manager, Xavi Herna\u0301ndez, has named five teams that can win the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Speaking on Romario\u2019s YouTube channel, Xavi named Brazil, Spain, France, Portugal and Argentina as the countries that can win the World Cup this year. This year\u2019s World Cup will begin in the summer, and Argentina [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":199688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-199689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>World Cup 2026: Xavi names five favourites to win trophy - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Barcelona manager, Xavi Herna\u0301ndez, has named five teams that can win the 2026 FIFA World Cup. 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