Now that I don’t have to wake up at 3 a.m., just like countless football fans across the ASEAN during the last World Cup, I can stay awake long enough to reflect on what lessons we can learn from all the matches, national teams, individual players, and even spectators we watched between June 2 and July 20, 2026.

Seeing once again how Japanese fans ended every match they attended by going around and picking up garbage left by other spectators, I have strengthened my resolve to help parents and educators in the Philippines replicate Japan's child-rearing practices. I am referring to the Japanese method of inculcating concern for the common good by focusing on community-centered practices during early childhood education. I will keep my readers posted on a project that some of us at the University of Asia and the Pacific are undertaking alongside the Department of Education.

There is, however, another long-standing personal project of mine that was reawakened during this last World Cup: helping Philippine football stakeholders guide the Philippine men’s national football team to finally qualify for the World Cup (as the women’s team has already accomplished). I know many will call it quixotic, but I would love to see our men’s team qualify for the 2030 World Cup in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. I can dream, can’t I?

First, dream with me! The 2030 FIFA World Cup is expected to be one of the most historic and ambitious tournaments ever held. It will celebrate 100 years of the World Cup, which first took place in Uruguay in 1930. To commemorate the centenary, the tournament will begin with three special opening matches in Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay before moving to Morocco, Spain, and Portugal. This will make it the first World Cup spread across Africa, Europe, and South America.

One does not have to be a prophet to expect that the leading contenders will be Spain (the 2026 champions), Argentina (hopefully with better-mannered players), France (probably still featuring Mbappé), England, Brazil, Portugal, and Germany. Emerging teams such as Morocco, Croatia, Japan, and several African nations are also expected to be highly competitive—and let us not exclude Cape Verde (more on them later).

My cock-eyed optimism about our men’s team qualifying is based on the general expectation that, given the historic nature of the 2030 event, FIFA may decide to further expand the field from 48 to 64 teams! If we try our very best to promote futsal and football among our millions of young people—part of our unique demographic dividend for at least the next twenty years—we should be able to squeeze our men’s team into that group of 64.

Morocco’s role as a principal host is historically significant. With a population of 38 million—about one-third that of the Philippines—its rise to world-class status in football has been the result of more than two decades of careful planning rather than chance. How can we learn from this African nation?

Beginning in the late 1990s and accelerating under King Mohammed VI, Morocco made football a national priority. The government invested heavily in modern stadiums, training centers, youth academies, coaching education, sports science, and medicine. The idea was not simply to qualify for a single World Cup, but to build a sustainable football ecosystem.

One of their most important investments was the Mohammed VI Football Academy, inaugurated in 2009. It identifies talented boys across Morocco, especially from poorer communities, and provides high-level football coaching, academic education, supplementary nutrition, medical care, and—most importantly—character formation and discipline (to avoid the kind of Argentinian disaster we saw after they were beaten by the Spaniards in the 2026 final). Many of its graduates have gone on to play professionally in Europe.

Another major advantage for Morocco has been its millions of emigrants living in Europe—especially in France, Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands. Many of Morocco’s best players were born or raised in Europe but chose to represent their parents’ homeland, including stars like Achraf Hakimi, Sofyan Amrabat, and Hakim Ziyech. These players benefited from Europe’s elite youth academies while bringing their talents home to Morocco. This brings to mind Sandro Reyes, who now plays for the Philippine national team but trained at FC Barcelona’s famous La Masia Academy after spending his grade school years at PAREF Southridge School for Boys.

The Moroccan national team assigns the highest priority to tactical discipline, defensive organization, physical fitness, team unity, and patriotism. The whole world witnessed this during the 2022 World Cup, when Morocco became the first African nation ever to reach the semifinals, defeating Belgium, Spain, and Portugal before losing narrowly to France.

Football is by far Morocco’s most popular sport. Children play in schools, neighborhoods, and local clubs from an early age, creating a vast pool of talented players. Its success demonstrates that world-class football does not depend primarily on having a huge population. Rather, it depends on a coherent national strategy, sustained investment in youth development, strong coaching, and the ability to unite talented players around a shared national identity.

In the same way the world took notice of Morocco in 2022, Cape Verde caught everyone's attention in 2026. This tiny nation of only 600,000 people reached the knockout stage in its first-ever World Cup, delivering one of the tournament’s biggest success stories.

The Cape Verde team first caught my attention when it played to a 0–0 draw with eventual champions Spain in the group stage. They then drew 2–2 with Uruguay after twice coming from behind, and held Saudi Arabia to a 0–0 draw to qualify for the knockout stage as group runners-up. Next, they gave defending champion Argentina a scare by twice equalizing before an unfortunate own goal in the 111th minute handed Argentina a 3–2 victory.

Their standout player was veteran goalkeeper Vozinha, whose heroic saves against Spain and Argentina earned worldwide praise, leading fans to vote him into the official World Cup Dream Team. Cape Verde’s 2026 campaign proved that a small nation can compete with football’s traditional powerhouses through disciplined organization, strong coaching, and a talented diaspora developed in European leagues. Their performance was widely regarded as one of the greatest World Cup debuts by an African nation.

Let’s aim for the moon: can we make a similar debut in the 2030 World Cup? We will never know if we don’t even try.