The keeper who could face his own dad at the World Cup

Chris Gordon is a goalkeeper in and around England's reckoning as the country builds towards next summer's tournament. His father, Colin Gordon, is coaching Argentina's squad, a split that BBC Sport flagged as one of the more unusual family setups heading into 2026. One parent, two countries, same World Cup.

It's the kind of detail that sounds made up until you actually sit with it. Most families argue about which team to support from the sofa. The Gordons could end up on opposing benches at the biggest tournament in the sport, separated by a technical area and, depending on the draw, ninety minutes that neither of them will be able to treat as just another game.

The actual scenario

What's confirmed is simple: Chris plays for England, Colin works with Argentina, and both are tied to the same World Cup in 2026. What isn't confirmed is anything beyond that. There's no detail yet on exactly what Colin's role within the Argentina setup involves, no clarity on whether Chris makes England's final squad, and no way of knowing whether the two nations would even be drawn into the same group or knockout path.

That's not a gap in the reporting so much as the nature of a World Cup nine months out. Squads aren't picked, groups aren't seeded, and a scenario like this lives entirely in the realm of what could happen rather than what will.

Why it's being talked about anyway

International football throws up father-son links fairly often, usually in the gentler form of a dad watching his boy from the stands. A father actively coaching the opposition is a different animal entirely, and it's rare enough that it's worth flagging well before a ball is kicked. If England and Argentina do cross paths in 2026, every camera in the stadium will find the two of them within seconds.

There's also something quietly human in it. International allegiance usually gets framed as identity, passion, tribal stuff. Here it's framed as a family simply doing two different jobs that happen to exist on a collision course. Nobody's betrayed anyone. They've just ended up, by coincidence of career, on either side of a fixture that doesn't exist yet.

The squad call and the draw

England's squad for 2026 isn't finalised, so Chris Gordon's involvement is still to be decided by the manager picking the group. Argentina's route through the tournament, and whether it crosses England's at any stage, depends on a draw that hasn't happened. Until both of those land, this remains a brilliant hypothetical rather than a fixture on the calendar.

Every World Cup produces one storyline people repeat at the pub before a ball is kicked, and a father potentially coaching against his own son for a place in the knockout rounds is about as good as that genre gets.