Serie A stars looking for redemption at the World Cup

 The World Cup can sometimes feel like a slot machine game: one lucky ricochet, one perfect hit and everything changes in the blink of an eye on football's biggest stage. Players who didn't impress during the season can suddenly play key roles in their national teams, scoring goals or saving penalties that soccer fans will remember for years. 66 players from Serie A will play at the 2026 World Cup, and Leo Ostigard, defender of Genoa, was the first player from the Italian league to score a goal in this tournament. Ostigard had a successful season with Genoa, who managed to stay in the league under Italian football legend Daniele De Rossi, but some of his Serie A teammates are looking for a fresh start in the US, Canada and Mexico. Among them is Napoli striker Romelu Lukaku, who played only 64 minutes in the 2026-2027 season. The Belgium international suffered a serious injury during pre-season and then fell out with the club in March, refusing to return to Italy after the national team training camp, where he trained individually. Lukaku played a key role in Belgium's 1-1 draw against Egypt in his first World Cup appearance, scoring a goal that was chalked off as an own goal. "Even if it wasn't a goal that could be credited to his account, it was a very important action. We know how dangerous Romelu is to the opponents' defense," said his teammate, Kevin De Bruyne. “But in other games in this tournament we can't take anything for granted and there are no easy games.” Rudi Garcia, former Napoli coach, added: "Romelu could have even scored two goals, I'm glad he played as we all expected." Other Serie A players looking for redemption at the World Cup include Milan wingers Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic. The latter has not yet scored a goal at club level in 2026, and Leao has already confirmed that he feels that his time in Milan is over and that he will look for new challenges after the World Cup.