June.11 (Mirror Sports) - The best, biggest and most looked forward to football World Cup kicked off in Mexico City today as renowned singer Shakira struck the vocal cords with the official song titled Dai Dai, an Italian expression meaning “come on, come on” after which the host Mexico played against South Africa in the curtain raiser. As many as 11 cities will also host matches in the USA with Canada showcasing two host cities and Mexico three.

From Mexico City to New York to Toronto, millions of spectators draped in their country’s colours are expected to cheer on 48 countries, the highest number of competing nations in the fray up from 32 since France 1998.

Interest in the football World Cup, the world’s most watched sporting event, has grown further since its creation in Uruguay in 1930 with little known new entrants Cabo Verde (a group of islands off West Africa), Curacao (an island in the Caribbean), Uzbekistan and Jordan qualifying to play in their first World Cup.

Experts are predicting France and Spain as favourites to win the 2026 World Cup, but England, Brazil, Argentina and Portugal have not been put out of the equation. A massive security operation also went into business as the event began with the FBI mobilising tactical teams to Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle as the cities are geared to welcome an unprecedented number of team supporters.

Despite football’s popularity ranking, Bookies. com predicts Americans will wager $3.1 billion on World Cup games through online sports betting.

That’s up from $1.8 billion in 2022, CBS News previously reported. Prediction markets are projected to handle another $2.4 billion in bets, according to the forecast from the online sports betting site.

According to analysts, the 2026 World Cup features a mix of generational icons and the brightest rising stars in football that includes Spain’s 18-year old Lamine Yamal and France’s Kylian Mbappé, the 2022 Golden Boot winner. Two of the world’s most outstanding players in Argentina’s Lionel Messi at 38 and Portugal’s

Cristiano Ronaldo at 41 will be seen for the last time at a World Cup and predictions are that both adversaries are likely to confront each other in the second round stage. England’s charismatic Harry Kane is expected to be the other icon to come under close watch that make up the five best players on show.

But with football being an overwhelming team game, individual brilliance may not count all the time as the World Cup is expected to pick up interest as it progresses with the sport’s world governing body FIFA predicting a live television audience of six billion people worldwide.