DR Congo played their opening 2026 FIFA World Cup match against Portugal in Houston on June 17, 2026 — the Léopards' first appearance at a World Cup since 1974, a 52-year absence that bookends two very different eras of African football.

The qualification itself was hard-won. DR Congo finished as runners-up in CAF Group B of the African qualification stage, which pushed them into the intercontinental play-off pathway. They advanced through Path A of the FIFA Play-Off Tournament, ultimately defeating Jamaica 1-0 in extra time in the final. Defender Axel Tuanzebe scored the decisive goal, sending the Léopards to their second-ever World Cup and the first since Mobutu's Zaire — then a different country in name, identity, and political reality — appeared in West Germany.

The 1974 campaign is not a flattering reference point. Zaire's sole World Cup appearance ended with three group-stage losses, including a 9-0 thrashing by Yugoslavia that remains one of the tournament's most lopsided results. A 2026-era Reuters report noted the squad's explicit determination to shed that historical shadow — a burden no current player was alive to witness, yet one that has followed the national programme ever since.

The Squad and the Setup

French coach Sébastien Desabre, appointed to lead the side, announced a 26-man squad ahead of the tournament in May 2026. Desabre brings European club management experience to a squad that draws heavily on the diaspora — players born or developed in Belgium, France, and the UK who hold Congolese eligibility, a talent pipeline that has become structurally important to several African federations navigating the gap between domestic league quality and top-tier international competition.

DR Congo's governing body, FECOFA, received FIFA clearance for the squad in late May 2026 — a procedural step covering eligibility verification and administrative compliance that FIFA requires of all participating associations before the tournament opens. The home and away kits were unveiled in early June, completing the visible preparations for a squad that has been building toward this moment for the better part of a decade.

Group K places DR Congo alongside Portugal, and two other sides yet to feature in this fixture. Portugal, ranked among the world's elite and anchored by a generation of technically accomplished midfielders and forwards, represents the steepest possible opening test. Houston's climate and the neutral-to-hostile crowd dynamics of a venue with no natural partisan base add further variables.

The broader structural picture is worth holding in view. CAF now sends nine teams to the expanded 48-team World Cup, up from five at the 2022 edition. That expansion is the direct reason DR Congo had a viable intercontinental play-off path at all — the Léopards' qualification is partly a product of FIFA's deliberate widening of the tournament's geographic spread. Whether that structural advantage translates into competitive depth at the group stage is the question African football has faced at every expanded tournament cycle.

For DR Congo specifically, the stakes extend beyond the scoreline. The country carries one of the world's largest populations — over 100 million people — and a football culture that has historically punched below its demographic weight at the senior international level. The Léopards have won the Africa Cup of Nations twice, most recently in 1974, the same year they last appeared at a World Cup. Sustained continental success has proven elusive since.

What Desabre's side does in Group K will not resolve those structural questions. But the fact of being on the pitch in Houston on June 17 — five decades and several political identities after Kinshasa last sent a team to a World Cup — is the starting point from which everything else will be measured.