Does Cole Palmer deserve a spot in England's 2026 World Cup squad?
It's been a difficult season for the Chelsea star...
Cole Palmer scored arguably the most important England goal of the past decade. His equaliser in the Euro 2024 final against Spain, coming off the bench in the 73rd minute with England trailing 1-0, is the clearest demonstration of what he can bring to a major tournament. Without it, England lose. Without it, this conversation looks very different.
And yet, heading into the 2026 World Cup, Palmer finds himself in Thomas Tuchel’s danger zone. Those looking at World Cup 2026 winner odds will find England among the contenders, but whether Palmer is central to their challenge or peripheral to it remains one of the more compelling selection questions of the summer. The answer sits somewhere between the Berlin final and what has happened since.
Club form
It is worth establishing first that Palmer has not had a straightforward season at Chelsea. Injury problems kept him out of action in the early months of the campaign, and he did not return to the Chelsea side until early December, meaning he missed a significant portion of the first half of the season entirely.
Palmer has scored nine Premier League goals in 22 appearances for Chelsea in 2025-26, placing him 19th among all players in the division for goals this season. His debut campaign numbers, 22 goals and 11 assists across all competitions, were always going to be difficult to sustain, and a slight dip from those figures has to be understood in that context.
He has also demonstrated, across his career, a penalty record that very few players in the current England setup can match. Palmer has converted 17 of his 18 career spot kicks, a rate of 94%. At a tournament where knockout games are routinely decided on penalties, that is a specific and measurable asset.
April friendlies performance
The two March friendlies against Uruguay and Japan captured Palmer’s England situation in two contrasting halves. Against Uruguay, he came off the bench in a 1-1 draw and immediately lifted the performance, injecting pace and creativity into an England side that had been flat for long stretches. He delivered the corner from which England took the lead, and was rated one of the brighter performers of the evening. That is the Palmer who makes the World Cup squad without question.
Four days later against Japan, Tuchel handed him the No.10 shirt from the start, and the result was far less encouraging. Palmer struggled to make an impact, and lost the ball cheaply to Kaoru Mitoma midway through the first half, directly setting up the only goal of a 1-0 defeat. He was hooked at half-time and rated 4/10 by multiple outlets. That kind of performance does nothing to shift the impression that Palmer functions best as an impact player for England rather than a reliable starter.
The competition around him
Tuchel’s trusted No.10 is Jude Bellingham, and that much is not seriously in dispute. The Real Madrid midfielder will be central to how England play, which immediately limits what Palmer can realistically offer in terms of a starting role.
Behind Bellingham, Morgan Rogers and Eberechi Eze both look likely to travel to North America ahead of Palmer. Rogers has become one of Tuchel’s reliable options in the creative midfield area, while Eze has been among England’s more consistent performers across recent camps. Morgan Gibbs-White is another name in the conversation, and if Tuchel decides to include him, Palmer’s position in the squad becomes even more precarious.
Phil Foden would ordinarily be another name Palmer has to contend with for a place in the squad, but his situation has shifted. An up-and-down club season and two underwhelming friendly performances in March have raised genuine doubts about whether Tuchel will select him at all. Those tracking England World Cup winner odds will find a squad picture that is still far from settled, and if Foden misses out, it opens a spot, though it does not automatically fall to Palmer, given the other options available.
The gap between making the squad and being a meaningful contributor at a World Cup is significant, and on current evidence Palmer looks more like a contingency than a cornerstone of Tuchel’s plans.
He has the ability to change that between now and June. A strong end to the Premier League season and a performance or two in the final pre-tournament camps could shift Tuchel’s thinking. Palmer has done it before at the highest level. The question is whether he can show enough in an England shirt to earn trust, rather than remaining the player the manager reaches for when all else has failed.