Which World Cup stars have roots near you? Try our postcode lookup

Here is the latest breaking news from around the world: Which World Cup stars have roots near you? Try our postcode lookupPublished11 June 2026Updated 1 minute agoEvery World Cup hero started somewhere. Harry Kane's journey to becoming England captain began at a Sunday league team in east London while Jordan Pickford learned his trade on Wearside.

But which World Cup stars have roots near you? Our postcode lookup includes players from all four home nations since 1950 – discover how many have come from your area. England stars hail from Torquay to Blyth, with many players still closely tied to where they grew up.

The Details

Manchester's Nico O'Reilly has the city's 0161 dialling code tattooed on his arm, while Declan Rice keeps in touch with his old PE teacher at Grey Court School near Kingston upon Thames. Scotland's long-awaited World Cup return is led by players from Glasgow and the central belt. Captain Andy Robertson once worked on the tills at Marks & Spencer on Sauchiehall Street, while Lawrence Shankland was employed in a Hillington plumbing factory before turning professional.

Despite being spread across the country, England's squad has a strong London feel. In total, a record 10 players come from the capital, surpassing the Golden Generation of the 2000s – a crop of talented players led by Londoners like David Beckham, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard. The North West, which has supplied more England World Cup players than any other region, has seven representatives in Thomas Tuchel's squad.

Goalkeepers Dean Henderson and James Trafford hail from Cumbria. Henderson spent years making a two-and-a-half hour round trip with his father from Whitehaven to Carlisle United's academy, while Trafford was raised on his family's farm near Cockermouth. There is also a cluster of four players from the North East in the squad, including Sunderland's Jordan Henderson, who has been selected for a joint England-record fourth World Cup.

What Experts Say

The smallest of England's nine regions in terms of population, the North East punches well above its weight as a World Cup talent pool, having provided more players per million residents than any other part of the country. In Scotland, Glasgow's football culture has shaped generations of players. As well as producing stars such as Robertson and McGinn, the city also gave opportunities to Nathan Patterson, who was scouted playing for Rossvale in north Glasgow, and Aaron Hickey, who became the youngest player to start a Scottish Cup final in 2019.

Since 1950, Glasgow has produced more World Cup players than any other UK council area, topping a list dominated by major cities such as Belfast, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Manchester. Yet World Cup stories can emerge from unlikely places too. Scott McKenna is the first player from Kirriemuir – a small Angus town of around 6,000 people – to reach football's biggest stage.

For half of UK councils, however, the wait for a first World Cup player goes on.

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.