World Cup
France will stay in Boston for the 2026 World Cup — which runs from June 11 to July 19.
Kylian Mbappé and France arrived in Boston on Wednesday night.
Photo by Franck FIFE/AFP via Getty Images
Les Bleus have officially landed in Boston.
The French national soccer team arrived in Boston on Wednesday evening, greeting hundreds of fans outside of the club’s hotel as one of the 2026 World Cup favorites braces for the start of the anticipated international tournament.
France — who won the 2018 World Cup in Russia before falling to Argentina in an instant classic in the 2022 World Cup Final in Qatar — made the transatlantic trek over to the U.S. six days before they open group stage play with a match against Senegal on Tuesday, June 16, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Even though France will begin their tournament down at MetLife Stadium — the home of the New York Giants and New York Jets — the star-studded roster will spend a majority of their time in the Boston area.
France will stay at the Four Seasons Hotel on Boylston Street during the World Cup, which runs from June 11 to July 19.
According to the Boston Business Journal, France has booked out the entire 239-room hotel for the entirety of the tournament to give the club added privacy.
After arriving at Logan Airport a little after 4 p.m. Wednesday, France was shuttled over to their team hotel — signing autographs for the hundreds of fans who waited for hours to catch a glimpse of some of the world’s best players.
When star players like Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, and Michael Olise aren’t either on the pitch or going on a Dunkin’ run in Boston, France will practice at Waltham’s Bentley University throughout the tournament.
“Any World Cup team wants to practice in an environment conducive to no interruptions, no visibility, they want to do anything that they do behind a closed door, it’s no different than any basketball or football team, American football team, that would want to have a closed practice,” Vaughn Williams, Bentley’s director of athletics told Michael Silverman of The Boston Globe on Tuesday. “We provided that, which is a hard thing to do, obviously, in the States.”
Even though Mbappe and Co. will begin their World Cup play down in New Jersey, they will take to the pitch at Gillette Stadium — dubbed “Boston Stadium” for the tournament — on June 26 for an anticipated match against Norway.
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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