This World Cup served as the ultimate proof of how big global soccer stars have become in America

NEW YORK — When Spain played France in the World Cup semifinals on Tuesday, there were 32 players on the field and 20 more across the respective benches.

At the final whistle, the reigning European champions had reminded the world that soccer is a team game. Spain didn’t just win 2-0; it delivered the most comprehensive performance of the tournament against the most prolific attacking team in the tournament field.

But before the game, the hype was about individuals, and for good reason: It was the first World Cup meeting of France’s Kylian Mbappé and Spain’s Lamine Yamal. For as many stars play in World Cups, there hadn’t been a semifinal matchup with that much individual sizzle in decades.

The framing was justified. And in a country that loves star power, it was a sign of how far this World Cup has broken through in America.

Before Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo became the sport’s standard-bearers, the only men’s soccer players who’d really made it here were Pelé in the 1970s and David Beckham in the 2000s — the latter more for reasons off the field than on it.

Now Messi and Ronaldo aren’t the only household names. At least five more from beyond American shores have reached that level of notoriety before any American player: France’s Mbappé, Spain’s Yamal, England’s Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham, and Norway’s Erling Haaland.

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As Messi gets set to face Yamal for the title on Sunday in the Meadowlands (3 p.m., Fox29), it’s worth taking a moment to step back and realize how that’s another sign of soccer’s growth here.

Mbappé was the closest to being a household name in the U.S. of the quintet. Thanks to his back-to-back World Cup final runs with France (including the 2018 title) and a big stage in the Champions League, both his national team and Paris Saint-Germain jerseys became big sellers in the U.S. At almost any youth soccer clinic you’d come across, even around Philadelphia, you’d almost certainly see a few kids with his shirt.

His status rose further when he moved to Spanish superpower Real Madrid in 2024. And when he arrived at the World Cup to captain the tournament’s most star-studded team, he was immediately a marquee attraction. Philadelphia saw that up close: He scored in both of France’s games here, including one of the tournament’s best goals against Iraq.

You could see that without even watching the game itself. (And given how badly it went for him, Mbappé might prefer you didn’t.) All it took was being in the seating bowl when the video board showed him getting off France’s bus at the stadium. A massive roar went up from a crowd that had only just started to make its way in.

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French journalists weren’t surprised, especially those who know American sports culture. A conversation on Radio France’s pregame show before France-Spain was an example: One of the analysts said Mbappé “isn’t just the symbol of the French team to America, he’s the symbol of all of France.”

Or take the scene a day earlier at France’s practice, in the lush surroundings of Southern Methodist University’s sports complex. Though the field was surrounded by covered fences, a cluster of kids still shouted Mbappé’s name in hope he’d stop by.

Alas, they couldn’t see how far away he was. But as he spoke about in Philadelphia before the France-Iraq game, he knows how big a deal he is here, and he likes it.

“The United States is a country that has a different culture from ours in Europe,” he said. “It’s true that I’ve always liked its culture, where ambition is limitless and where no one is afraid to say what they want to do and what they can do. It’s not like that everywhere, but it is here.”

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Mbappé even joked about being asked by Beckham if he’d play here toward the end of his career.

“Maybe one day, who knows?” he said. “We’ll see. In any case, I do like this country, and I’m happy to be here.”

So was his manager. Didier Deschamps saw often how popular Les Bleus are in the land of red, white, and blue.

“When we went out when we could, yes, I heard it, that we’re an enjoyable team,” he said that day in Dallas. “We’re enjoyable because we’ve won games, too. But even if the most important thing is results, with the attitudes, we’ve seen a lot of photos of the moments we’ve left camp, videos shared of the group interacting, and so on.”

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And when French fans didn’t travel here in huge numbers, Americans packed the stands instead. Deschamps understood the bigger picture.

“It’s something that we appreciate, and all the better if it helps the development of soccer in the United States,” said Deschamps, one of only three men’s players to win the World Cup as a player (1998) and coach (2018). “We gain from the support of the public, which we obviously have in France, but to have it here in the United States too is something that we very much appreciate.”

He even drew a smile from the American media when he said: “I know that there are five major sports here, and soccer today hasn’t quite made it — apart from women’s soccer.”

Deschamps meant it in terms of trophies won, referring to a U.S. women’s team that won its last World Cup in France in 2019. But just as he was in the stands when the Americans beat the hosts in an all-time game, he has had a front-row seat to soccer’s wins in this summer’s sports popularity contest.

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All but one of France’s games so far have drawn TV audiences of over 10 million viewers combined between Fox and Telemundo, led by just under 23 million for each of the semifinal and the July 4 quarterfinal in Philadelphia. Fox’s audience alone for the semifinal was just over 13 million — far bigger than the 8.8 million who watched the same channel’s broadcast of baseball’s All-Star Game a few hours later.

Yamal entered this summer as the sport’s top young phenom, already a three-time La Liga winner with Barcelona and a European champion with Spain in 2024. Soccer fans knew about him when the World Cup kicked off, especially younger ones who play the sport’s video games — a huge entry point for kids — and follow him on Instagram.

A big sponsorship deal with Adidas meant Yamal was all over the company’s pretournament marketing, just as much as Messi, a longtime client of the apparel giant. A few days after Yamal scored his first World Cup goal, on June 21 vs. Saudi Arabia, Adidas constructed a huge cutout of him celebrating, and sent it parading on a barge in New York’s East River.

And was it Yamal’s idea or someone else’s that he wore a Yankees cap as he left the stadium on Tuesday? Whoever it was, you can be sure he knew where he was headed: to the Big Apple for Sunday’s title clash in the Meadowlands.

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But he isn’t just known in New York. Or in Atlanta, where Adidas put up big billboards as Spain played two of its group games there.

“Soccer has given me the opportunity to be well-known in Chattanooga, for example, which is something very beautiful,” Yamal said of the Tennessee city where La Roja had its base camp. “I never could have imagined that I’d go out for a walk in a town in the United States and be recognized. So I value it a lot. I know where I come from, and each day I’m proud of what I’ve achieved.”

Kane and Bellingham’s status here is helped by being English. The former gained from the Premier League’s huge commercial presence here, as a legend of Tottenham Hotspur before moving to Germany’s Bayern Munich in 2023. He’s also a big NFL fan, which opened more American doors for him as the league grew its presence in London.

Bellingham took a different path. He played just one professional season in his home country before moving abroad, and it was at second-tier Birmingham City. Then he spent three years at Germany’s Borussia Dortmund, and Real Madrid bought him from there in 2023 for over $110 million.

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You don’t go to the world’s most famous club for that kind of money unless you’re already a star or soon to become one. But for a long time, you couldn’t get the full status in England unless you played in the Premier League. As a result, Bellingham has sometimes been seen as a kind of outsider in his home country.

Over here, he is simply a star. Though the Premier League is the most popular European circuit in the U.S., Real Madrid is the most popular club team — as Philadelphia saw firsthand last summer. When Real played here last summer in the Club World Cup, there were a lot of Bellingham’s No. 5 jerseys in the sellout crowd. Now, this summer has made him even bigger.

Haaland’s popularity, meanwhile, is mostly a product of the Premier League’s power. Not entirely, to be sure: His first spotlight came at Dortmund, including when the Bundesliga returned to action before other leagues amid the pandemic.

His fame skyrocketed after moving to Manchester City, where he has piled up 112 goals in 132 games and won two Premier League titles and a Champions League trophy. Combine that with the club being the Premier League’s dominant force for nearly a decade, and the odds are if you know someone with a City jersey, it has Haaland’s name on the back.

Until this summer, his resumé lacked one big line: playing at the World Cup. It is now filled in with style: seven goals in six games, leading Norway fans’ ‘Viking Row’ chant, and a love of American culture. He went to a western goods store in Dallas, posed for photos in a cowboy hat and boots, and left with a stuffed raccoon.

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Finally, there’s Messi. Major League Soccer has made piles of money from his presence here, and stands to make piles more from his playing a World Cup final in America’s biggest market. Any remaining belief that Miami was a retirement destination vanished when he led Argentina’s stunning 2-1 comeback win over England in Atlanta.

“He is pure history,” said Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni, the man who four years ago did what nine men before him could not: coach Messi’s country to the biggest title of all.

“To see him reach a final like this, at his age, 39, is incredible,” Scaloni said. “He is history and legend, along with this entire group of players who have given us such wonderful years. Even though we might always believe an Argentine futbolista is capable of achieving greatness, actually doing it is incredibly difficult."

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There are days when it feels like MLS’s marketing team focuses on Messi too much. But a lot of people think the league actually hasn’t done enough to spotlight his presence (and Argentina and Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo de Paul) this summer.

That is for getting into later. For now, Messi will play a World Cup final in the country he has come to call home on Sunday (3 p.m., Fox29, Telemundo 62), and he will face a player he has known for a long time.

How long? When Yamal was a baby, Messi played for Barcelona, as he did for many years. In 2007, the Yamal family won a raffle to have a photo shoot with Messi, organized by a local newspaper and UNICEF. Thus was Messi pictured holding a baby Yamal, and washing him in a bathtub.

Sure, they couldn’t really have known each other back then. But fans the world over hoped they’d someday see a Messi vs. Yamal game with real stakes.

Many fans hoped for it here in America, too, even as others hoped for England or France to make the final instead. Now it’s here, and the marquee at the Meadowlands is ready for a show.