With Bafana Bafana out and every South African club player eliminated, new data shows just how deeply the country was represented at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
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23 nations have been eliminated from the 2026 FIFA World Cup and WinSports Online revealed which clubs and countries have been hit hardest by the tournament’s early exits – and South Africa featured prominently in both lists.
Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates have each lost all eight of their listed World Cup players, placing them alongside Bayern Munich and Saudi Arabian giants Al Hilal in a group of clubs with the joint third-highest number of eliminations.
At club level, Czech side Slavia Praha sits top of the unwanted list, having lost all 10 of their players, followed by Galatasaray with nine. Bayern’s situation is softened by the fact that nine of their players remain active through other national teams.
For Sundowns and Pirates, no such consolation exists. Both clubs have zero players remaining in the competition.
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South Africa as a football nation has also suffered heavily. Clubs based in South Africa have lost 19 players from the tournament, placing the country tenth on the country-based ranking, one place below France and Italy, and notably ahead of Czechia, the United States and Belgium.
The data underlines just how many South African players featured across the 48-nation field, even if Bafana Bafana’s own tournament ended in the Round of 32 against Canada.
The broader picture shows English clubs suffering the heaviest overall losses, with 76 players eliminated across their vast pool of 199 listed players.
German clubs ranked second with 50 eliminations, while Qatari clubs faced the sharpest proportional collapse – 27 of their 29 listed players have been eliminated, a rate of 93.1 per cent.
Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Uzbekistan, and South Africa are the only countries whose clubs have lost 100 per cent of their listed World Cup players.
Originally published by Soccermag.
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