One question for each 2026 World Cup team. Is Paraguay’s new generation ready to restore the golden years?
Would you love me in a Bentley? Would you love me on a $95 bus from downtown Boston to Gillette Stadium? Footnote is asking 48 questions, and they’re all about the 48 teams at the 2026 World Cup. This post is part of our Group D preview. You can also read previews of the United States, Turkiye, and Australia.
Is Paraguay’s new generation ready to restore the golden years?
The internet is full of nostalgia for the soccer of the early 2000s and mid-2010s. Spend enough time on TikTok and Instagram reels, and you’re bound to be confronted with fan edits for just about anyone who scored enough goals for an eventually relegated Premier League team, usually set to “Miss Alissa” by the Eagles of Death Metal or an indie rock song that was on the FIFA 07 soundtrack.
And yet no one seems to remember that the Paraguay team of that era was quite good.
For 15 or so years from the late 1998 through 2010, Paraguay were ever-presents at the World Cup, and mostly-presents in the World Cup knockout stages. Just qualifying out of South America consistently in that era was difficult enough — the presence of Brazil and Argentina meant that realistically the other eight teams in the region were fighting for three spots — but making it out of the group stage in all but one tournament is a mark of a consistently competent team.
This era of Paraguayan football probably peaked at the start of the 2010s under Tata Martino, when they followed a run to the quarterfinals in South Africa with an appearance in the final of the 2011 Copa America.
And for 15 years after that, Paraguay have not been so good: No World Cup appearances at all, a last place finish in 2014 qualifying, and a solitary deep run in the Copa America. Largely this is because the core of those great teams were all almost exactly the same age: Center back Paulo da Silva, midfielder Jonathan Santana, and striker and iconic Barclaysman Roque Santa Cruz were all born in 1980 or 1981, and all started to age out of their primes shortly after that 2011 Copa America run.
A country of just 6 million people, it makes sense that after that group of players aged out of true stardom, Paraguay struggled to produce the talent to replace them.
Now they have, or at least somewhat. Paraguay finished sixth in CONMEBOL qualifying for 2026, which would have sent them to an intercontinental playoff prior to the expansion to 48 teams. However, they also finished the campaign with the same number of points as Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay, so they were a very competitive and competent team in their region.
This is a group headlined by Miguel Almirón, who is back in Major League Soccer after an up-and-down but occasionally electrifying six years in the Premier League with Newcastle United. Almirón does not quite have the gamebreaking pace that defined his first stint with Atlanta, but is still dangerous as a ball carrier and chance creator.
Meanwhile, the rest of the roster is full of competent European league pros including Cremonese striker Antonio Sanabria,1Sanabria is also six feet tall and goes by Tony, meaning he does qualify for the nickname “Big Tony,” which I think is wonderful. Brighton midfielder Diego Gomez, and Sunderland defender Omar Alderete. Julio Enciso has gotten somewhat buried in the world of BlueCo multiclub player laundering, but he has put together a solid season for Chelsea’s Triple-A team Strausburg in France, putting up good numbers creating chances for both himself and others.2Enciso appears to have picked up a significant injury in a warmup friendly, and at the time of writing in remains unclear if he will be healthy in time for the tournament More importantly, he is just really good at kicking the ball at the goal from very far away:
After a long absence, Paraguay will hope that this World Cup marks a return to the permanent competence from the beginning of the century. They certainly have a core capable of being competitive with anyone, and it’s just possible that this new group of players will be able to restore the golden years of 2010 and 2011.
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