Siblings at the World Cup: The Doue brothers set to join an exclusive club

Think of siblings at the World Cup and Jack and Bobby Charlton spring to mind. Regarding their personalities they could not have been more dissimilar – Jack gregarious, Bobby a Ballon d’Or winning introvert – but in 1966 they were brothers in arms, helping England win the World Cup on home soil.

The Charltons, however, were not the first siblings to achieve this remarkable feat. Twelve years earlier, in Bern, Switzerland, Fritz and Ottmar Walter both played integral roles as West Germany were crowned world champions, beating Hungary’s ‘Mighty Magyars’.

Dancing down the left wing that day for the Hungarians incidentally was Mihály Tóth, whose younger brother Jozsef watched on as a squad member.

There are other examples too.  

In the 1978 World Cup final the Van de Kerkhof twins – Willie and René – both played the full 120 minutes as the Netherlands were eventually downed by Argentina.

Four years later, Karlheinz Förster and his younger brother, Bernd, made up West Germany’s centre-back partnership as Die Mannschaft lost in the final to Italy.

From time to time therefore this odd phenomenon occurs. It’s not very often – as you would expect – but it happens.

What awaits us this summer though is something else entirely; a record broken, if not smashed. That’s because across the Atlantic, on the biggest footballing stage of them all, seven sets of brothers will participate. Even more noteworthy, only three pairs of brothers will be on the same team.

Diverging paths but family first

Of this sporting septet, arguably it is the Doues – Desiré and Guéla – who are the most notable.

This is largely due to the achievements and reputation of Desiré, a runner-up for last year’s Kopa Trophy who has been instrumental in back-to-back Champions League winning campaigns for PSG.

Boasting 24 goal involvements in 2025/26, Desiré is a key part of France’s formidable attacking set-up that also contains Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Michael Olise.

With such riches available to them up front it is not inconceivable that the 21-year-old could be in possession of a World Cup winners medal come mid-July.

Yet, last week, the youngster was forced to cede the headlines to his older brother as their respective nations played out a pre-tournament friendly. Looking on from the French dug-out he couldn’t help but grin as Guéla scored for the Ivory Coast in a morale-boosting victory for the Elephants.

And after the game too it remained all smiles between them, the levity continuing into the next day when Guéla cheekily posted a picture of himself on Instagram reading L’Equipe.

Such affection denotes their closeness, the brothers signing for Rennes on the same day as children when Guéla impressed in his trial and the club also spied his younger sibling, doing keepy-uppies on the touchline.

Their careers may have taken diverging paths since – including opting for different nations to represent – but the brothers are kin first and foremost, as Desiré attested to recently:

“We have this incredible bond that loads of people have commented on over the years. We tell each other everything and have no secrets. He’s such a massive support for me in my daily life."

Should France and the Ivory Coast top their groups, and progress beyond the last 32, they are set to meet each other in the subsequent round. Intriguingly, only once before has a pair of brothers played against one another at the tournament, that being Germany’s Jérôme Boateng and Ghana’s Kevin-Prince Boateng in 2010.

In such an event, would their fraternal affection cease for the occasion? Surely it would, but only until the final whistle has blown.