The only 11 players from the 2006 World Cup still playing in 2025: Messi, Ronaldo… | OneFootball

A total of 736 players went to the 2006 World Cup in Germany, with 32 nations fielding 23-man squads.

Nineteen years later, only 11 of those players are still playing professionally in the game today – including three era-defining Ballon d’Or winners. Considerably more – including the likes of Frank Lampard, Xabi Alonso and Cesc Fabregas – are now working as managers.

Here are the only 11 players from the 2006 World Cup still playing professionally in 2025.

Luka Modric

Modric didn’t actually play a role in Croatia’s qualification for the 2006 World Cup, and only played a fringe role in their group stage elimination in Germany, but he’s been a mainstay ever since.

Undoubtedly his nation’s greatest-ever footballer, he inspired them to the final in 2018 and semis four years later.

Croatia have booked their place for the 2026 World Cup. That ought to be Modric’s fifth, having only missed out on South Africa 2010 since he first broke through 19 years ago.

Lionel Messi

Jose Pekerman’s decision to leave a teenage Messi as an unused substitute in La Albiceleste’s quarter-final elimination to hosts Germany remains the stuff of Argentinian footballing infamy nearly two decades later.

Messi would endure years of near-miss heartbreak on the international stage for years to come, eventually capping off his glittering career with two Copa America and the World Cup in his golden years.

The 38-year-old eight-time Ballon d’Or winner has stopped short of confirming he’ll be there, but all going well you’d expect to see him donning the armband for one final tournament.

“The truth is that yes, it’s something extraordinary to be able to be in a World Cup,” Messi recently told NBC.

“I would like to be there. To feel well and to be an important part of helping my national team, if I am there.

“And I’m going to assess that on a day-to-day basis when I start pre-season next year with Inter and see if I can really be 100 per cent.”

Cristiano Ronaldo

Ronaldo scored one goal at the 2006 World Cup in a 2-0 victory over Iran, though his most (in)famous moment that summer came winking in the aftermath of his Manchester United team-mate Wayne Rooney’s dismissal in the ill-tempered quarter-finals.

That was his 12th goal for Portugal. He’s now up to 143. The all-time top goalscorer in the history of international football, he’s also Portugal’s all-time most-capped player (226 matches) and has served as their captain for 17 years.

Ronaldo and his eternal rival Messi look set to become the first players in football history to participate in a sixth World Cup next summer. Although his red card against the Republic of Ireland could leave him suspended for the first match or two.

Sergio Ramos

The fourth era-defining member of footballing royalty on this list, Ramos had already established himself as a key player and regular starter for La Roja way back in 2006.

Twenty years of age back then, he’d already earned a big-money move to Real Madrid.

A leading light of Spain’s Golden Generation that won back-to-back European Championships bookending their 2010World Cup triumph, Ramos enjoyed a similarly trophy-laden club career with five La Liga titles and four Champions League titles during his Los Blancos pomp.

The defender is seeing out his career out in Mexico with Monterrey.

Oscar Ustari

Football’s a funny old game.

From sharing a dressing room with Messi back in 2006, Ustari now does once again after years in the footballing wilderness. The 39-year-old ‘keeper only earned two senior international caps.

Something of an Argentinian Richard Wright, a perennial bench-warmer (including back-up stints at Almeria and Sunderland), Ustari has found himself thrust into the MLS limelight as a 30-year-old veteran, regularly starting for Messi’s Inter Miami.

Guillermo Ochoa

The curly-haired Mexican might be #1 when it comes to footballers we associate with the World Cup but next to no memory of playing club football.

Ochoa’s eclectic club career – Ajaccio, Malaga, Granada, Standard Liege and Salernitana alongside longer stints back home in Mexico – has taken him to AEL Limassol in his twilight years.

The 40-year-old now shares a dressing room with one-time Sheffield Wednesday cult hero Fernando Forestieri. Course he does.

Lukasz Fabianski

Fabianski went to the 2006 World Cup as a young understudy to Poland’s established No.1 Artur Boruc, fresh from being named the Ekstraklasa’s Goalkeeper of the Year in Legia Warsaw’s 2005-06 title victory. He’d move to Arsenal as a highly-rated prospect the following year.

If you want an idea of the goalkeeper’s longevity, other 21-year-olds taken to the 2006 World Cup included bygone names of the Barclays era – Stewart Downing, Kenwyne Jones, Sulley Muntari, Niko Krancjar and Philippe Senderos, all of whom retired yonks ago.

It looked as though Fabianski would join them, hanging up his gloves when released by West Ham at the end of last season, but the 41-year-old was convinced to rejoin as a back-up option in September.

Lukas Podolski

One of Germany’s young pups when they hosted the World Cup, Poldi caught the eye – named Young Player of the Tournament – and earned a move away from his beloved boyhood club FC Koln to Bayern Munich that summer.

He won one Bundesliga title during his three years in Bavaria, back when things were a bit more competitive at the top, and has since lifted silverware in England, Turkey and Japan, as well as the World Cup with Die Mannschaft in 2014.

After opening up a kebab shop in Cologne, he’s spent the last five years playing back in the country of his birth, Poland, with lesser-known Ekstraklasa outfit Gornik Zabrze.

Roque Santa Cruz

“Death. Taxes. Roque Santa Cruz playing football.”

That’s what we wrote when we last checked in on the veterans of the 2006 World Cup two years ago.

Sure enough, the Paraguayan striker continues blowing a raspberry to Father Time, at the age of 44, still playing in his home country for Libertad.

Never change, Roque.

Jose Montiel

Never say we’re not diligent here at Planet Football. We combed through the 2006 World Cup squad lists with a fine-tooth comb to find this relatively obscure attacking midfielder. Eat your heart out, ChatGPT.

A team-mate of Santa Cruz’s out in Germany, albeit without ever making it off the bench, the last of Montiel’s seven caps for Paraguay came way back in 2007.

But his journeyman club career continues to this day. He’s represented well over a dozen clubs, including Udinese, Reggina and Benevento in Italy, and is currently on his third stint with Paraguayan second-tier side 12 de Octubre Football Club.

Mateus

One to file alongside Montiel in the obscurity stakes, Mateus was a rising star for Angola in their one-and-only World Cup appearance back in 2006 and continued earning caps ’til 2021.

He’s spent almost his entire career bouncing around Portugal, mostly for clubs you’ve likely not heard of. In the summer, he made an eyebrow-raising return to Boavista.

The 41-year-old winger awaits his third debut for the fallen giants, who were relegated for administrative reasons, and now compete in Porto’s local lower leagues.