Brighton World Cup players spotted in preseason trip

Brighton and Hove Albion FC Football Sport

Albion’s cup stars returned to the club for a training camp.

Brighton had to change preseason plans this year.

This was due to G7 helicopter landings making training pitches ‘unusable’. The Seagulls were originally set to face Annecy in a friendly.

However, the pitch problems cancelled those plans entirely. Brighton turned the issue around quickly, and are currently training in Austria.

On the Albion social media page, content this weekend pictured Brighton’s 2026 World Cup attendees walking off the plane to their training destination.

So how did Brighton's World Cup players get on?

For the Netherlands: Mats Wieffer and Bart Verbruggen represented. The Dutch were eliminated from the Round of 32, losing 3-2 on penalties to Morocco. It was 1-1 at the end of extra time.

Sweden’s Yasin Ayari were also eliminated from the Round of 32. Former Brighton manager Graham Potter led the international side to a 3-0 defeat against France.

France also knocked out Diego Gomez and Paraguay in the Round of 16. It was a 1-0 loss. Gomez’s international squad knocked out Germany and midfielder Pascal Gross. They lost 4-3 on penalties in the Round of 32.

Belgium man Maxim De Cuyper went further in the competition. It was World Cup winners Spain that knocked them out. It was a 2-1 defeat in the quarter-finals.

Ferdi Kadioglu and Turkey struggled in the tournament. They found themselves bottom of Group D.

It was Turkey's first qualification for the tournament in 24 years, marking their return to the global stage for the first time since their historic third-place finish in 2002.

Michael Svoboda was also part of Austria's 26-man squad for the tournament.

Kaoru Mitoma would have been on this list for Japan, but a severe hamstring injury in May required surgery and ruled him out of the tournament. He has not been pictured this preseason.