Lion’s Share: Orlando City Will Cash In on FIFA World Cup Payouts

Orlando City played its first home game in two months Saturday night, and right before kickoff there was a cool moment on the field as the club celebrated the three Lions who played in the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup: Maxime Crépeau, Braian Ojeda, and Marco Pašalić. All three players played on teams that made it out of the group stage, and Crépeau’s Canada and Ojeda’s Paraguay both made it to the Round of 16. I watched all of the games for all three Lions during the World Cup, and it was always fun to hear the announcers mention that those three players represented Orlando City from Major League Soccer.

There is no more soccer to be played in the 2026 World Cup, but FIFA is now getting down to the business of what it really cares about doing — counting up all the money it made and distributing enough of it so that FIFA’s leaders stay in power. Few organizations in the world are as reviled as FIFA, yet we all love soccer so much we just grin and bear it so we can watch the world’s best on the biggest stages. The only positive thing about FIFA President Gianni Infantino is his magnificent bald head (I may be slightly biased due to being not so slightly follicly challenged), and the less time spent on him the better.

I do not want to spend any more time on Infantino and will instead spend time looking at FIFA’s spending — in particular what is coming Orlando City’s way in the upcoming months. The Athletic’s Chris Weatherspoon wrote a great article recently detailing how FIFA will compensate clubs for allowing their players to participate in the World Cup, and he laid out the two ways that clubs will be paid by FIFA post-World Cup:

FIFA pays out on the basis of how many days finals participants are at the competition, between the mandatory release date of May 25 and the day after their national team’s last match in the competition.

(FIFA pays clubs) For any player who was selected in a matchday squad for any of the 905 qualifying games that determined the 48 participating teams this June and July. On top of that, clubs of players who were named in squads for the three host countries in their 10 friendlies before this summer’s finals will also receive payment.

The payment amounts are not fully locked in yet, but the estimates are that clubs will be paid approximately $5,000 per day that their team members were at the World Cup and $2,632 per matchday selection for World Cup qualifiers and/or friendlies for players from the three host nations. Let’s take a look at what Orlando City should be expecting to receive from FIFA, hopefully hand-delivered on an ostentatiously large check.

Pašalić’s Croatia was eliminated by Portugal on July 2, and both Crépeau’s Canada (eliminated by Morocco) and Ojeda’s Parauguay (eliminated by France) went out on July 4. Using FIFA’s parameters of a start date of May 25 running through the day after a team was eliminated and an amount of $5,000 per day yields the payouts below to Orlando City:

Not quite what Noah accomplished in 40 days and nights, but $620,000 is a nice payout from the arc of the World Cup. The Athletic included in its article a list of the 50 clubs that will earn the most from their players participating in the World Cup, and the 50th ranked club (Juventus) is estimated to make $1.2 million, approximately twice what Orlando City will earn. No Major League Soccer teams are in the estimated top 50 clubs, and by my calculations LAFC (the only MLS club that sent four players) led the way at $790,000, with Inter Miami just behind at $780,000.

Looking at which players played in qualifying games was a fun exercise, as qualifying for the 2026 World Cup started way back in September of 2023, so it was a blast from the recent past to look at the rosters from the last few years. The list below contains all players owned by Orlando City (mostly Lions, but some Young Lions) who were called up and dressed for their national teams during their time in Orlando. This list only counts appearances on the gameday roster for World Cup qualifiers and recent friendlies for Canada and USA (it would have counted friendlies for Mexico too, but our southern neighbors continue to be Lion-free). The estimated payout per appearance is $2,632.

Though Ojeda appeared in the World Cup for Paraguay he only joined Orlando City after World Cup qualification was completed in South America, so he did not earn any money for the club in this manner. Had Alex Freeman stayed with the club through the World Cup, as many thought he might, he would have earned the most money for Orlando City as he was called up for all of the 10 most recent friendlies for the U.S. Men’s National Team and he was at the World Cup for 43 days. Alas, only six of his friendly appearances counted, but Orlando City surely enjoyed counting the reportedly $4+ million transfer fee the club received from Villarreal in Spain.

Club legends Pedro Gallese and Facundo Torres ended up contributing the most from their appearances, though neither player ended up actually playing in the World Cup, as Peru did not qualify and Torres was not selected by Uruguay. You should have stayed in Orlando, Facu!

Orlando City B was well represented also, with Abdi Salim and Nabi Kibunguchy participating in African qualifying matches and Wilfredo Rivera in North American qualifying, as even though Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States it is a full FIFA member on its own.

Five current Lions contributed to qualifying, the aforementioned Crépeau and Pašalić as well as David Brekalo, Wilder Cartagena, and Tyrese Spicer. Brekalo dressed for all six of Slovenia’s matches , Cartagena was called in for every match for Peru up until he suffered an injury in early 2025, and Spicer dressed in every match for Trinidad & Tobago except for its final qualifier, which took place after it could no longer advance from its group.

The overall tally for Orlando City’s participation in qualifying is an estimated $177,150, which combined with the estimated $620,000 from its players who actually participated in the World Cup means that the club should receive a check for something in the vicinity of $800,000 whenever FIFA distributes its spoils to all of the clubs around the world. FIFA may have no interest in accountability in most matters, but its accounting teams are like a well-oiled machine with collecting and distributing bribes funds, so that check should be coming soon.

That payment will close the door on the 2026 World Cup for Orlando City, one that appears to have been successful for the club as all three players contributed to their national teams, returned healthy (Pašalić has yet to play, but he is training and likely will dress for Saturday’s game), and earned more than half a million dollars for the club. The team has also taken all six points since the World Cup break ended, but two games is still far too small of a sample to say the team is back to being a threat in the Eastern Conference.

Maybe that will be the final payoff, though.

Vamos Orlando!