A “WAG” is shorthand for the wives and girlfriends of professional athletes. At the 2026 World Cup, the most talked-about WAGs include Georgina Rodriguez (partner of Cristiano Ronaldo), Antonela Roccuzzo (wife of Lionel Messi), and Ester Exposito (rumored girlfriend of Kylian Mbappe).
A quick honesty note before we dive in: there are 48 teams and well over a thousand players at this World Cup, so no single article, including this one, can realistically cover every player’s partner. What you’ll find here instead is a rundown of the WAGs generating the most attention this tournament, organized by national team, along with the context behind why each relationship has fans talking.
If you’ve been searching for who’s dating who across Portugal, Argentina, France, Spain, or the USMNT, this is your one-stop answer.
Georgina Rodriguez deep-dive profile –>
What Does “WAG” Mean in Soccer?
WAG stands for “wives and girlfriends,” a term sports media coined years ago to describe the partners of professional athletes, particularly footballers. What started as a slightly reductive shorthand has shifted in meaning over the past decade. A lot of today’s most prominent WAGs are not defined solely by their partner’s career. Many run independent businesses, model, act, or build massive social media followings entirely on their own terms.
That distinction matters more during a World Cup than almost any other sporting event, since the global audience and media attention create real commercial value for anyone connected to a star player, regardless of whether they ever set foot on a football pitch.
Portugal: Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodriguez
Cristiano Ronaldo’s fiancee, Georgina Rodriguez, is widely considered the most prominent WAG of this tournament, and the numbers back that up. According to a recent influencer valuation report, Rodriguez commands an estimated $716,000 per sponsored Instagram post, the highest figure among partners tracked in the ranking, supported by an Instagram following north of 73 million.
The couple met in 2016 while Rodriguez was working at a Gucci store in Madrid, and they’ve been together for roughly a decade. They got engaged in August 2025 and share two daughters, Alana Martina and Bella Esmeralda. Rodriguez has built her own commercial career through modeling, luxury brand endorsements, and her Netflix series I Am Georgina, separate from anything tied to Ronaldo’s playing career.
This is Ronaldo’s sixth and expected final World Cup, which has only intensified the spotlight on Rodriguez throughout the tournament.
Argentina: Lionel Messi and Antonela Roccuzzo
Lionel Messi’s wife, Antonela Roccuzzo, ranks second on that same influencer valuation list, at an estimated $391,000 per sponsored post, with around 39.4 million Instagram followers. Messi and Roccuzzo have known each other since childhood in Rosario, Argentina, and married in 2017. They share three sons together: Thiago, Mateo, and Ciro.
Their relationship is often held up as one of football’s most stable celebrity pairings, built on a friendship that predates either of their public careers by decades.
Tini Stoessel and Rodrigo De Paul
Argentine midfielder Rodrigo De Paul’s partner, singer Tini Stoessel, is another frequently mentioned name among Argentina’s WAGs this tournament. As a recording artist with her own substantial fanbase, Stoessel brings a level of independent celebrity that’s relatively rare even among high-profile WAGs, since her career has nothing to do with football at all.
France: Kylian Mbappe and Ester Exposito
Kylian Mbappe’s relationship status has become one of the most discussed storylines of the tournament, even though neither he nor Spanish actress Ester Exposito has officially confirmed they’re together. The two have been photographed repeatedly since early 2026, including a romantic getaway in Sardinia and a separate trip to Ibiza, where they were seen together on a yacht.
Exposito, 26, is best known for playing Carla Rosón Caleruega in the Netflix series Elite. She’s continued building her own career throughout the speculation, winning the International Golden Nymph for Most Promising Talent at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival just before France’s tournament opener. Notably, she didn’t mention Mbappe or the World Cup in her post about the award, which fits the pattern of a relationship neither party has chosen to confirm outright.
Despite the lack of an official statement, Mbappe has shown public support for her, commenting on one of her Instagram posts during the tournament. Exposito herself has been candid about not following football closely, telling a French outlet that she’s only been to a stadium a handful of times in her life.
Spain: A Squad Full of Long-Term Partners
Spain’s roster offers a different flavor of WAG story than Portugal, Argentina, or France. Several of the team’s biggest names are in long, settled relationships rather than tabloid-fueled speculation.
Lamine Yamal and Inés García
Barcelona sensation Lamine Yamal went public with influencer Inés García in May 2026, shortly before the World Cup began. The two were first linked after being spotted together in Greece, then appeared publicly at Barcelona’s La Liga title celebration dinner and a Bad Bunny concert.
Established Couples Across the Squad
A number of Spain’s other players arrive at the tournament with long-standing families already built:
- Marcos Llorente and Paddy Noarbe married in June 2023 after Llorente’s on-pitch proposal at Atletico Madrid’s stadium, and the couple welcomed a daughter, Amor, in February 2025.
- Marc Cucurella and Claudia Rodriguez welcomed their first child together in April 2026, just months before the tournament.
- David Raya and Tatiana Trouboul have been together since 2021, going public during a vacation in Greece in 2022.
- Dani Olmo and Laura Abla have been a couple since 2023, with their relationship becoming public while Olmo was still playing in Germany.
USMNT: A Mix of Long Relationships and Recent Breakups
With the United States hosting the tournament, the USMNT’s personal lives have drawn outsized domestic attention. The squad’s relationship landscape is notably varied.
Couples and Families Supporting the USMNT
- Tim Ream and Kristen Sapienza have been married since 2012, making theirs one of the longest-standing relationships in the squad.
- Antonee Robinson and Darcy Myers have been engaged since March 2022 and share two daughters, Atlas and Ocean.
- Brenden Aaronson and fiancee Milana have been together since they were teenagers, with Aaronson proposing in August 2024.
Christian Pulisic Enters the Tournament Single
Christian Pulisic enters the World Cup without a public relationship, following the end of his relationship with professional golfer Alexa Melton in April 2026. Melton has publicly described the split as amicable. Fellow midfielder Weston McKennie has similarly kept his personal life private and isn’t publicly linked to anyone heading into the tournament.
It’s a reminder worth including here: not every player arrives at a World Cup with a partner in the stands, and that’s worth normalizing rather than treating as a gap in the story.
Why WAGs Get So Much Attention During the World Cup
It’s worth asking why this category of coverage exists at all, and the answer is mostly about scale. A World Cup compresses global attention into a few weeks, and broadcasters know cameras panning to the stands generate as much engagement as the action on the pitch. That visibility translates directly into commercial value, which is why valuation firms now track sponsored-post rates for partners the same way they’d track a player’s transfer value.
It also means the “WAG” label increasingly undersells the women it’s applied to. Many of the names on this list, Rodriguez, Stoessel, Exposito, and others, have independent careers that exist entirely apart from their partner’s sport. The term hasn’t fully caught up to that shift, but the coverage increasingly reflects it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does WAG mean in football?
WAG stands for “wives and girlfriends,” a term used to describe the partners of professional athletes, especially soccer players. It originated in sports media and has since become a recognized shorthand across global coverage.
Who is Cristiano Ronaldo’s partner?
Ronaldo is engaged to Georgina Rodriguez, a Spanish-Argentinian model, television personality, and entrepreneur. They’ve been together since 2016 and share two daughters.
Is Kylian Mbappe dating Ester Exposito?
Neither has officially confirmed the relationship, but the two have been photographed together repeatedly since early 2026, including trips to Sardinia and Ibiza, and Mbappe has shown public support for her career online.
Who is Lionel Messi married to?
Messi has been married to Antonela Roccuzzo since 2017. The two have known each other since childhood in Rosario, Argentina, and share three sons.
Are all World Cup players’ partners covered in WAG roundups?
No. With over a thousand players across 48 national teams, most coverage, including this article, focuses on the partners of the tournament’s highest-profile stars rather than every player in the field.
Stay Updated Throughout the 2026 World Cup
Relationship news, engagement announcements, and new sightings tend to surface throughout a tournament this long. Check back for updates as more stories develop across the group stage and beyond.
