​The World Cup isn’t just a soccer tournament; it’s a global cultural, political and economic event that shapes people’s perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards the countries that participate in it.FIFA’s showcase tournament helps to create a platform on which nations can build their brands, extend their influence, and drive their economies.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIf a team performs well on the field, or if its players appear accessible or engaging off the field, this can create a positive and enduring image of their country around the world.This is called soft power, a foreign policy tool that helps shape global opinions through means such as music, fashion, design and sport.According to the late U.S. academic Joseph Nye, soft power is attractive power.And the World Cup is perhaps the ultimate soft power platform, with 48 countries on show to billions of people.So important is soft power nowadays that global rankings are published annually, with Brand Finance and Monocle as two examples.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementEven soft power and sports rankings are regularly compiled, including the one from the Polish Institute of Sport Diplomacy.After the 2022 World Cup, Dr Paul Widdop (of Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK) and I published our top 5 soft power winners from that tournament, and here we are doing so again for this year’s edition.Widdop explains that “in a cluttered and complicated world, soft power continues to be one of the most effective means through which countries can stand out from their rivals whilst projecting a specific set of values and qualities”.Drawing on academic literature and experts in the field, we developed a set of measures to assess this summer’s soft power winners, including data on social media buzz, team partnerships, and star players.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOur ranking is as follows:In first place, we assessed that Norway is the soft-power champion of the 2026 men’s World Cup, in a display of collective self-belief that has captured global attention.The country’s talisman, Erling Braut Haaland, may have been one of the competition’s most lethal goal scorers, but his Viking-warrior-like appearance also engaged global audiences from the United States to China.Haaland sometimes led Norway’s rowing celebration, banging a drum to accentuate Norwegian togetherness, as players and fans co-created soft power.This was soft power in which playing success, celebrity, and clear societal values were all rolled into one.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIndeed, during one post-match interview, Haaland went so far as to say, “we’re nice people”.Reflecting their strong performances on the field, we place France second in our ranking.This national team’s ongoing soft power is derived from luxurious indulgence, which was already signalled ahead of the tournament by its announcement of a collaboration with the label Jacquemus.The Paris fashion