Luka Modrić and Fifa World Cup Players Face 56-Mile Load

Fifa world cup players on the 2026 winning team could cover about 56 miles, and a central midfielder may be asked to do that over as many as eight matches. The expanded tournament stretches that workload across 39 days, with the final set for July 19.

Modrić and Croatia's workload

The figure comes from a simple match-by-match estimate: central midfielders average 11.66 kilometers, or 7.25 miles, per game, and the piece rounds that to 7 miles for a cleaner calculation. Over eight matches, that adds up to 56 miles, or 295,680 feet.

Luka Modrić is the example used to make the workload concrete. The legendary Croatia midfielder played 8 World Cup qualifying matches and 2 international friendlies in the year leading up to June 2025, and the calculation assumes he appeared in all ten of those matches.

56 miles across 8 matches

That total is longer than a marathon, which is a little over 26 miles, and it is also more than a half-marathon, which is about 13 miles. Put together, the estimate works out to a little more than two marathons and just over four half-marathons.

The same 56 miles also equals the Glasgow to Edinburgh Ultramarathon in Scotland. On a FIFA field measuring 105 meters by 68 meters, or roughly 345 feet by 223 feet, that running total would match the length of the pitch 857 times.

Mexico City to July 19

The 2026 FIFA World Cup opened in Mexico City on June 11, with 48 teams playing 104 matches in FIFA’s 96-year history. The tournament is expected to draw more than 5 billion views over 39 days, a scale that makes every extra mile in midfield part of a much larger physical demand.

For readers tracking how the expanded format changes the path to the title, the number to watch is not just 8 matches. It is 56 miles, a distance that puts a winning midfielder’s tournament load in the same range as an ultra and turns every extra minute into another lap around the pitch.