Kim Kardashian, Travis Scott, Ronaldo — Nike’s World Cup squad revealed

Nike has revealed the global cast who will feature in its FIFA World Cup 2026 marketing — and the list tells you almost everything about how the sportswear brand plans to play this tournament.

Shared via Polaroid images across social channels, the lineup includes soccer stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Erling Haaland alongside a deliberately eclectic mix of cultural figures: Kim Kardashian, Serena Williams, Travis Scott, K-pop star Lisa, and Puerto Rican rapper Young Miko.

Nike says the cast will appear in “unexpected collabs and cultural expressions” across the 12 weeks of tournament content.

The move signals that Nike is trading in its traditional World Cup playbook — the kind that produced landmark big-budget spots like 2002’s “Secret Tournament” and 2010’s “Write the Future” — in favour of a more distributed, platform-native approach built around activations, collaborations, and content rather than a single hero film.

It’s a notable contrast with rival Adidas, which recently released a five-minute film starring Timothée Chalamet, Lionel Messi, and Bad Bunny as its main World Cup statement.

The cast reveal is also a useful lens for reading how Nike has been thinking about brand-building more broadly — using cultural access and unexpected partnerships to generate attention rather than relying on a single campaign moment.