Coaches from Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Laos, Mongolia and South Sudan describe first flights, new friendships and lessons that reach far beyond the pitch
Almost 90% of the Laos squad had never flown before, while some South Sudan players boarded their first international flight
The FIFA Talent Development Scheme and the FIFA Football for Schools programme helped build the pathways that led to Baku
For many of the young players at the inaugural FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival 2026™, the adventure began long before kick-off – right at the airport.
The new tournament is providing a unique opportunity for teenagers from some of the countries, who rarely play outside their own immediate region, to perform on a global stage and test themselves against their peers from across the world.
And it is not only the on-field environment which is new.
Laos head coach Vongmisay Subouvkham says almost 90% of his squad had never been on a plane before Baku. “My boys are very excited and they’re [seeing] many countries here,” he said.
For South Sudan team manager Jackson Gamu, the impact on his boys was immediate. “This is a dream come true for all of them, because right when we reached the Azerbaijan airport, things changed,” he said. “Some of them, this is the first time for them to [board a] plane, (an) international plane.”
If there was a risk of these players being overawed, they soon settled when they got on the grass. After the squad’s first training session on the pitch, Gamu said the players were in good spirits. “When we went to the pitch it was amazing. So, they feel good and feel happy.”
Mongolia’s story is a similar one. Their Sammarinese coach Marco Ragini, who has worked with the Mongolian national teams for six months, explained that poor weather forces their domestic football into a short window of the year. “And all the championships, they’re basically in Ulaanbaatar. So for this one, our guys never saw football outside [of] Mongolia,” he said.
Ragini says he has noticed how quickly the players are forming new friendships. “I think the main experience is to share the culture and football with the other teams because just during lunchtime, we saw a lot of guys,” said Ragini. “We came to have good friendships.”
A full 78 Member Associations (MAs) are making their FIFA World Cup™ debut at the tournament and that is a source of real satisfaction for everyone involved.
For Cayman Islands head coach Ian Lindo, being part of the tournament generates deep pride.
“It’s not only a privilege, but it’s a proud moment to say I’m the first coach that was in charge of [the] national team at the World Cup,” he said. He says his abiding memory will be the sheer scale of the event. “Just the magnitude of it. Especially going to the games and just seeing all the teams there, the different styles of play, big nations, small nations, all competing and enjoying it.”
Even for teams that lose, he said, the mood stays positive. “They’re still upbeat because the experience itself is so fulfilling that it’s just good for everyone.”
For Gibraltar, the tournament has meant a step up in opposition. “We never thought about competing against Paraguay, Tahiti, all those countries. We never thought we were going to compete against them, because we normally compete against Andorra, Malta, and those kinds of teams,” said coach Peter Moreno. “[But] competing against these teams is amazing.”
Getting there has demanded sacrifice. With few pitches in Gibraltar, the squad trains outside the territory, and Moreno said the sessions begin early. “We train at 7 o’clock in the morning, so they wake up really early, go (to) training and then go to school. So, it’s quite difficult for them, and for me as well because I’ve got another job and everything.”
Being part of such a large and diverse competition is also a massive motivator for the young players says Lindo.
“We can tell them about honing their craft and wanting to improve. But saying that doesn’t really do much until they face it,” said the Cayman Islands coach. “So, being at a tournament like this, seeing the level of competition and the levels that the better teams are at, now that they see it for themselves, they know that what we’re saying makes sense. You have to invest in yourself; you have to invest in the sport and continually try to improve.”
FIFA’s development programmes sit behind many of these journeys. Laos picked its squad at a U-15 tournament staged two months earlier under the FIFA Talent Development Scheme (TDS), followed by a month of preparation.
“The FIFA TDS has helped to shape Laos football a lot,” said Subouvkham. In South Sudan, Gamu says around 75% of the squad have come through the Talent Development Scheme and the FIFA Football for Schools Programme, most of them from academies and schools, and he recalled that school teachers were trained when Football for Schools was launched in the country. In Mongolia, the Airdome, supported through the FIFA Forward Programme, allows football to continue all year round, and the Elite Academy brings together 240 young players with the support of the Talent Development Scheme.
Gamu hopes the players will carry what they have learned back home. “They will be the ambassadors of this first festival, (the FIFA U-15) Youth World Cup in Baku, (back) home. They will tell the people, they will tell the younger ones, their colleagues that: ‘Yes, it’s happened, it has happened and I was part of it, and let’s go, improve yourselves, continue playing football”.