The incredibly complex world of international politics means a number of national soccer teams have competed at the FIFA World Cup under different guises, for different reasons.

The name DR Congo, for instance, appears at the tournament for the first time this year, but the country itself took part as Zaïre in 1974. Turkey and the Czech Republic, also playing in 2026, now officially compete as Türkiye and Czechia, largely as a matter of national identity and branding.

More complicated cases involve countries that changed form in one way or another. West Germany, for example, won three World Cups between 1954 and 1990 before reunifying with East Germany, which qualified for the 1974 tournament.

When the Soviet Union, whose national team took part in seven World Cups, dissolved in 1991, it spawned 15 republics, the largest of which are Russia and Ukraine. Each now has its own national team.

Similarly, Yugoslavia, which existed from 1918 to 1992 and competed in eight World Cups, broke up into five separate countries, now six after Serbia and Montenegro’s subsequent split. Two of those ‘new’ nations, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, are taking part in World Cup 2026.

The Yugoslavia-Croatia connection

And it is from that last case that we find the only player who has scored for two different countries in World Cup history: Robert Prosinecki.

The midfielder, one of a select group of players to have turned out for both Real Madrid and Barcelona, was born in West Germany to Yugoslav immigrant parents, who moved back to Yugoslavia when he was 10.

After making his way through the ranks at Dinamo Zagreb, then playing in the Yugoslav league, Prosinecki broke into the national team at age 20 in 1990, just before the World Cup in Italy.

There, he scored Yugoslavia’s final goal in a 4-1 group-stage win over the United Arab Emirates and also converted a penalty in a quarterfinal shootout against Argentina, who went on to reach the semifinals.

But less than two years later, Yugoslavia disintegrated, meaning the national soccer team was split across the six ‘new’ countries, with Serbia and Montenegro (now only Serbia) considered its successor.

Prosinecki’s unique World Cup record

After 15 caps for Yugoslavia, Prosinecki became part of the Croatia team that hit the ground running in the 1990s, impressing at Euro ’96 before finishing third at the 1998 World Cup.

In that tournament, Prosinecki scored Croatia’s second goal in a 3-1 victory over Jamaica, making him the inly player to score for two different countries at the World Cup.

Special mentions must go to Jürgen Klinsmann, Rudi Völler and Lothar Matthäus, all of whom scored for both West Germany and Germany at the World Cup. However, unified Germany inherited the soccer history and records of West Germany because the Federal Republic of Germany legally absorbed East Germany in 1990, meaning those three players technically scored for the same national team.

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