The biggest sports fans coat themselves head to toe in their team’s colors – and nothing quite illustrates quite like the colorful fan portraits coming out ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
48 teams are headed to the World Cup next month – that’s the largest number of teams ever set to compete in the annual men’s soccer championship. But Getty has managed to fit one fan from all 48 teams into one stunningly colorful composite photograph.
The composite – a photography term for a photograph that is made up of multiple photographs – comes from several Getty staff photographers. The resulting photograph shows the myriad of ways fans show their support for their favorite team across their face.
The collection of 48 portraits spans from face paint to colorful glasses to hats and wigs. Combining fans from all the teams into a single photo doesn’t just create a colorful and striking image – it illustrates both how alike and how different fans are across the different countries.
But as a portrait photographer, what strikes me is the myriad of expressions coming from the composite. There’s joy, surprise, skirts, stares – it’s a photograph that also represents the range of emotions running through fans during every match.
The 2026 World Cup doesn’t kick off until June 11, but the event is already marking several firsts for the longstanding championship format. The 48 participating teams is a new record that means 104 total matches. The previous seven World Cups have featured 32 teams.
2026 is also the first time the World Cup has been jointly hosted by three nations. The matches are set to unfold across 16 host cities in the US, Canada, and Mexico, culminating in the final game on July 19 at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, five miles (8 km) outside of New York City.
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