In Vancouver, Nestly Irankunda became the youngest player to score for Australia at a World Cup during the opening week of the 2026 edition of FIFA’s global soccer show.
The 20-year-old paid tribute to Australian great Tim Cahill by punching the corner flag to take credit for his 2-0 victory over Tolkier.
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The celebration did not highlight the earlier events, the Kigoma refugee camp in Tanzania where Ilankunda was born after his parents fled Burundi’s civil war. Two of his teammates perform versions of the same story on the same pitch.
At least nine players at the world’s biggest World Cup, hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States and involving 48 countries, carry the stories of refugees and displaced people. They were brought together by the United Nations refugee agency last month, along with others, under a campaign called “Game Changing Teams”.
UNHCR says 117 million people are displaced worldwide, including approximately 49 million children.
In the same May statement announcing the Game Changer team, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih called the World Cup “an ideal moment to send a message of hope to fans around the world.”
For players who share painfully similar pasts, that message will be played out this summer in more than 100 games played in front of the biggest crowds in soccer history.
Here are nine players who made it to the finals, two more who were eliminated, and where their stories come from.
Alphonso Davies — Canada
Davis was born in 2000 in Ghana’s Buduburam refugee camp after his parents fled the civil war in Liberia. When he was five years old, his family resettled in Edmonton, Canada. In March 2021, he became the first soccer player to be appointed as a UNHCR World Goodwill Ambassador. “Refugee camps have provided a safe haven for my family fleeing war, but I often wonder where I would have been had I remained there,” he said in a statement released by UNHCR announcing his appointment. “I don’t think I would have made it this far today,” said Davis, who currently captains Canada, one of three co-hosts along with Mexico and the United States, who have automatically qualified.
Mohamed Toure — Australia
Touré was born in 2004 in a refugee camp in Conakry, Guinea, after his family fled attacks on their homeland in Liberia and spent 14 years awaiting resettlement. “Our town was attacked by a group of men and we had to flee,” his father Amara told Football Australia’s YouTube channel in comments reported by ITV News Anglia on June 12, 2026. The family settled in Adelaide, Australia. Toure, now Australia’s starting striker, told Football Australia at the same time: “If my dad can go to work and say, ‘Oh, my son played in the World Cup,’…that makes me happier than if I played in the World Cup.”
Avel Marville — Australia
Mabil was born in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp to South Sudanese parents fleeing civil war, and resettled in Adelaide at the age of 10. He scored the penalty that sent Australia to the 2022 World Cup and co-founded Barefoot to Boots, a charity that still supplies soccer equipment to children living in Kakuma. “Everything is possible…so keep moving forward,” he told Philippine media Sunstar during Refugee Week in June 2026.
Nestori Irankunda — Australia
Irankunda was born in a refugee camp in Kigoma, Tanzania, after her parents fled Burundi’s civil war. “My sister was sick and my family was trying to leave her behind, but my father couldn’t do it,” he said of his family’s escape in an interview with beIN Sports this month.
Regarding his goal against Turkiye at the World Cup, he said: “It was unrealistic and a dream come true.”
Ermedin Demirovic — Bosnia and Herzegovina
Demirovic was born in Germany, where his father had fled Bosnia and settled during the Balkan Wars. He chose to represent Bosnia and Herzegovina rather than Germany. “I am extremely proud to represent Bosnia and Herzegovina in the second ever World Cup,” he said in a statement launching the Game Changing Teams campaign, which UNHCR announced in May.
Asmir Begović — Bosnia and Herzegovina
Begovic fled Bosnia at the age of four, first to Germany and then to Canada, where he learned the game.
He played in Bosnia’s first World Cup in 2014 and remained part of the team for the second World Cup. “I get flashbacks sometimes when I’m in the car,” he said in a 2022 interview with Goal.com. “No one had pity for us, and you couldn’t pity yourself either.”
Antonio Rudiger — Germany
Rudiger was born in Berlin. He was not born in a concentration camp, but to a mother who fled Sierra Leone’s civil war in 1991 and settled in Neukölln. In a 2020 interview with Chelsea FC’s official website, Rudiger described the area as a “harsh area where mainly refugees grew up”.
“My parents came to Germany from Sierra Leone in search of safety and a better future,” he said in the same UNHCR statement that introduced the Game Changing Team in May. “Representing Germany is a full-circle moment for me.”
Ali Al Hammadi — Iraq
Al Hammadi was a baby when his family fled Iraq in 2003 after his father was jailed for participating in peaceful protests against Saddam Hussein.
When her father, who was studying to be a lawyer at the time, was released, the family fled to England.
Iraq qualified for the World Cup this year for the first time in 40 years, and Al Hammadi was included in the squad. “It’s not just my father, it’s my mother too,” he told the BBC in an interview republished this month. “It was really heartbreaking for a young woman to have to carry me and leave her home country.”
Eduardo Camavinga — France
Camavinga was born in a refugee camp in Angola after his parents fled the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “I was born in a refugee camp in Angola after my family fled the war…I am grateful to be able to play as a former refugee and I am proud to play,” he said in a statement released through UNHCR ahead of the 2022 Champions League final.
Bernard Kamungo — USA
Kamungo was born near a refugee camp in Tanzania after his family fled the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He made his debut with the U.S. national team in 2024, but was not included in the final 26-man squad for this summer’s World Cup.
Victor Moses — Nigeria
The story of Moses is the heaviest of the 11 stories, and the only one that does not have an active World Cup campaign behind it – Nigeria failed to qualify. In 2002, when he was 11 years old, his missionary parents were murdered in religious violence in Kaduna, Nigeria. He fled to Britain alone as an unaccompanied child and was raised by foster parents. He won the Premier League with Chelsea and played for Nigeria at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
