PARIS — Egypt’s Mohamed Salah and Belgium stalwarts Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Thibaut Courtois head into Group G at the 2026 World Cup knowing this summer’s tournament will likely be their last chance for glory on football’s biggest stage.

Their respective countries have been drawn together into the same pool, alongside New Zealand and Iran, whose participation at the World Cup had been thrown into question following co-host country US and Israel’s war with the Middle East nation.

The arrival on the international scene in the early 2010s of a Belgian golden generation, featuring Eden Hazard, Vincent Kompany, De Bruyne, Lukaku and Courtois, seemed to herald a new dawn for the country as they sought to win a first major trophy.

But despite rising to become Fifa’s number one-ranked team, the best result that glittering cast of stars managed to return was a third-placed finish at the 2018 World Cup.

Of that generation remain only Napoli duo De Bruyne and Lukaku, now aged 34 and 33 respectively, and Real Madrid goalkeeper Courtois, 34, who returned to the fold last year after a falling-out with previous coach Domenico Tedesco that caused him to miss Belgium’s round-of-16 exit at Euro 2024.

The trio will suspect that the upcoming World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico will be their last chance of turning all that initial hope and expectation into some long-awaited silverware.

And the current batch of Belgian hopefuls is not without talent, as the likes of Amadou Onana, Charles De Ketelaere, Jeremy Doku and Youri Tielemans more than have what it takes to be a stellar supporting cast to their star team-mates.