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The 2026 FIFA World Cup may be remembered as the final curtain call for soccer’s greatest living legends, including Forbes billionaires Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. But as the icons take what could be their last bow on the sport’s biggest stage, a new generation is anxiously waiting to steal the spotlight–and endorsement deals worth tens-of-millions.

With more than 6 million fans packing stadiums across the U.S., Mexico and Canada (a record-breaking attendance for a World Cup), the spotlight has shifted to the players who will shape the next decade of the beautiful game. Plenty of young stars have impressed, but a handful have shined brighter than the rest. Many are already Under 30 listers.

Take 2022 alum Kylian Mbappé. Once a kid with a big dream and a bedroom plastered with Cristiano Ronaldo posters, the 27-year-old captained France to the semifinals against Spain. He’s among the tournament’s top scorers, with eight goals this summer and 20 World Cup goals in his career. After lifting the trophy in his tournament debut in 2018, this marks the first World Cup of his career that won’t end in a finals appearance. Even so, he’s the world’s 12th highest-paid athlete, earning an estimated $70 million on the field and $25 million off it per Forbes estimates.

Then there’s the “underdog,” though that’s a generous label for the 19th highest paid athlete in the world. Erling Haaland, 25, made his World Cup debut after helping Norway qualify for its first tournament since 1998. The 2023 Under 30 Europe lister scored seven goals to lead his country all the way to the quarterfinals. Haaland earned an estimated $80 million over the past year. But forget the money, Haaland has become the internet’s favorite World Cup star, with plenty of memes around how the 6 '5 goal-scoring-machine looks like a Viking and plays like one too. He’s added at least 20 million new Instagram followers during the tournament.

Haaland was sent home only by Jude Bellingham, a fellow U30 alum. Bellingham was serenaded by fans many-a-times this summer with The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” for bringing England to the semifinals with six goals. Though the trophy isn’t coming home after England’s loss to Argentina on Wednesday, the 23-year-old finished as his country’s top scorer and the tournament’s highest-scoring midfielder. He didn't crack our 2026 World's 50 Highest-Paid Athletes ranking, but he did land at No. 9 on our 2025 list of the world's highest-paid soccer players ($44 million in earnings).

Bellingham, who also plays for Real Madrid, will face his club teammate Mbappé for the third-place playoff tomorrow—so both tallies could go up.

And then there’s the one who hasn’t yet made the Under 30 list, but is certainly on the right track. Spain’s Lamine Yamal will face Argentina in Sunday’s World Cup final. Dubbed the "starboy" of his generation, Yamal has already scored 49 goals for FC Barcelona and helped Spain win the 2024 European Championship, where he was named Young Player of the Tournament at only 16 years old. He’s No. 10 on the 2025 highest paid soccer players list with $43 million in earnings. While he’s scored just once in his World Cup debut, he’s been a key player in helping Spain reach the finals.

Fun fact: As a baby, Yamal was photographed being bathed by Lionel Messi for a charity calendar after his mother won a raffle. Now the 19-year-old Barcelona newbie will meet the 39-year-old Barcelona legend in New Jersey, with soccer’s biggest prize on the line.

Who will be part of the next GOAT debate? We have some predictions.

Happy finals weekend and see you next week,

Zoya & Alex

How Christopher Nolan Became The Biggest Movie Star In Hollywood

The latest Nolan adaptation, The Odyssey, is headed for a massive opening weekend. With stars and Under 30 alums like Zendaya and Tom Holland, and other beloved faces like Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson and Lupita Nyong'o, Forbes estimates that Universal paid Nolan alone a $20 million advance for the film. Even with hefty deductions and fees that will surely affect Nolan’s share, he could walk away with at least $75 million. Read the full financial breakdown here.

Lister Lowdown

-Nadya Okamoto, the Under 30 alum who initially made the 2020 Law & Policy list for her youth-run women’s health NGO called Period, and later went on to build menstrual products company August, has a new venture. Last week she was announced as the cofounder and CMO of Pie (though she wasn’t with the startup at its inception), a social platform that allows users to host in-person meet-ups. She joins Pie founder Andy Dunn, who was also an investor in August.

-Under 30 Sports star Jalen Brunson took home three more trophies last night at the ESPYs. The Knicks Finals MVP was awarded Best Championship Performance, Best NBA Player, and Best Athlete - Men’s Sports to cap his historic season. New York or Nowhere! Plus, Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson (Under 30 2021) took home Best WNBA Player and Best Athlete - Women’s Sports, San Francisco 49ers’ Christian McCaffrey (Under 30 2025) won Best Comeback Athlete, Lando Norris (Under 30 Europe 2024) was named Best Driver, and Carlos Alcaraz (Under 30 Europe 2023) took Best Tennis Player.

One Minute With Karolina Wojtas

We’re bringing you the scoop on a new Under 30 community member. Up this week: Karolina Wojtas, a Polish artist and photographer. She turns “weird, playful, sometimes slightly absurd photographs” into walk-in installations and other works. “My dream is that people don't just look at my work, they can enter it, touch it, play with it, get a little lost in it, or simply laugh,” she says.

The following has been slightly edited for length and clarity.

When did you first find your love of art? Was there a piece, exhibit, experience, class, or something that inspired you? Probably my grandma's cabinet. It was made from burl wood, and as a kid I was convinced it was full of tiny monsters. Every little knot looked like another face or another pair of eyes staring back at me. I could sit there for ages just making up stories about who was living inside.

I also grew up surrounded by beautiful old churches with painted ceilings and amazing sculptures. Looking back, I think that's where I learned that images can build whole worlds.

When did you first realize you were a good artist? I'm not sure that moment even exists. For a long time, I didn't even like calling myself an artist. In Polish, "artist" still has this stereotype of being a slightly crazy person. So I usually introduce myself as a photographer instead. Of course, then people immediately ask, "Oh, so you shoot weddings and family portraits?" And, well... noooo, but I can!

I think the closest thing to that feeling happened when I got into the famous Film School in Łódź. Growing up, it felt completely impossible—like one of those dreams that only happen to other people. Somehow I got in on my first try right after high school. I didn’t suddenly think, ‘Now I'm a good artist.’ But I thought, “maybe I'm heading in the right direction.”

Ten years later, I’m coming back to the same school as a lecturer. That's the part that still feels unreal.

Your pieces are often multi-dimensional. What mediums have you most experimented with? Photography is always where I start, but almost never where I finish.

Over the years I've experimented with all sorts of things: wood, fabric, sculpture, smell, video, sound, inflatable objects, giant cakes, playground equipment. If I think it might help tell the story or connect people with the work, I'll probably try it. I love the moment when a photograph stops behaving like a photograph.

I really want to build an art amusement park one day. Every exhibition is another step toward that, and another excuse to build one more weird object.

What’s the most difficult part of your job? Definitely not photography. That’s the best part, but it’s also the smallest part.

Most of the time, I’m reading contracts, negotiating budgets, filling in applications, writing emails, preparing exhibitions, packing artworks, shipping them somewhere, unpacking them again. Nobody tells you that being an artist is basically a logistics company, a shipping company, and a law office that occasionally gets to make art.

What does the business side of Karolina Wojtas look like today? How do you make money? Most of the time it’s selling works, making exhibitions, and giving talks. But I also love selling objects based on my projects—like bags or T-shirts. It's funny because people are often much happier to wear a photograph than to hang it in a frame.

I also love to do commercial things for fashion brands or musicians. I don't really see a huge line between art and commercial work, they both let me build strange little worlds.

But I also need something a bit more stable in my life, so I’m doing a Ph.D and teaching photography at university. Teaching is great because it keeps me learning, too.

What’s your best advice for other young artists out there hoping to make it their career? In Polish I always say, "Baw się!" I actually like it much more than the English word “play.” It means having fun, experimenting, being curious, and not being afraid to look a little silly.

What’s your favorite hobby outside of art? Cooking and fashion! I love hunting for crazy, colorful outfits.

How do you separate art as a passion from art as a business? Is it ever hard to draw the line? Honestly, I don't think I separate them. It's almost impossible.

What’s your favorite project you’ve ever worked on? I think it has to be “Abzgram,” my long-term project about the Polish education system.

It mixes documentary and staged photography to reveal the strange "hidden rules" of school life. It can look funny at first, but underneath there's a much darker story.

My favorite version of the project was the exhibition at C/O Berlin, because it wasn't just photographs on the wall, it became a journey through a school where you entered through a narrow corridor with metal bars and the sound of school procedures and commands. Then you walked into a classroom with uncomfortable desks that my granddad and I built ourselves. After that came the gym, full of giant soft blocks printed with photographs that visitors could move, stack, climb, and play with.

The last room looked like a typical school corridor, with children singing the Polish national anthem and a wall full of achievement certificates.

At first it looked like a celebration of success. But there were exactly 127 certificates, the number of children who died by suicide in Poland in 2021. I like when a project can make people laugh first, and then slowly realize there’s something much more serious hiding underneath.

What’s your proudest moment? One of my favorite moments happened in Japan. I went for an exhibition and one day I was wandering around Tokyo looking for cool photography spots. I ended up in this beautiful luxury bookstore in Ginza with an entire photography section with all my favorite photobooks. I remember looking around and thinking, ‘One day I'd love my book to be here.’ And then I turned around, and it was already there!

I had no idea it was being sold there, so I just stood there staring at it for a while. It felt completely unreal. Something I had made on my computer at home had somehow travelled all the way to the other side of the world before I did.