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Tom Cruise to join star-studded 2026 FIFA World Cup closing ceremony

Tom Cruise appears in this image. (FIFA)

The closing ceremony for the 2026 FIFA World Cup just got bigger.

FIFA announced in a press release Tuesday that it has added Tom Cruise to its closing ceremony lineup, set to be held Sunday, ahead of the 2026 World Cup Final.

The Top Gun star will make a special appearance, joining a star-studded list of performers.

Also taking the World Cup stage for the closing ceremony are Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini, American singer and actress Nicole Scherzinger, English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams and YouTube creator IShowSpeed.

Jennifer Hudson will also help kick off the 2026 World Cup final with a special rendition of the U.S. national anthem.

“Echoing the spirit of the opening ceremonies, which welcomed the world to the greatest stage in Canada, Mexico and the United States, the closing ceremony will bring the FIFA World Cup 2026 full circle through music, culture and football, before we kick off the highly anticipated match that will crown the champions of this groundbreaking tournament,” Heimo Schirgi, chief operating officer for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, said in a statement in the press release.

The closing ceremony will begin 90 minutes before kickoff at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.

It will be held at New York New Jersey Stadium (known outside the tournament as MetLife Stadium) in East Rutherford, New Jersey, capping the first men’s World Cup to feature an expanded 48-team field and to be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Earlier this month, FIFA announced Justin Bieber as a co-headliner for the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final Halftime Show alongside Madonna, BTS and Shakira.

The halftime show will also include performances by singer Burna Boy, conductor Gustavo Dudamel, and the PS22 Chorus, which is the acclaimed choir of fourth and fifth graders from a public elementary school in Staten Island, New York. Coldplay will also perform.

Coldplay’s Chris Martin is curating the final halftime show, and it will be produced by Global Citizen.

The tournament kicked off June 11 in Mexico City and included an opening ceremony featuring performances from Shakira, Burna Boy, Maná, J Balvin, Belinda and Tyla.

Separate star-studded opening ceremonies were also held that week in Toronto and Los Angeles before the first whistle was blown.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Michael Jordan’s ‘Last Dance’ 1998 Finals jersey could sell for over $10 million

By CNN
(CNN) — A jersey worn by Michael Jordan during one of the most famous seasons of his career is going up for auction and could become the most expensive basketball jersey to ever cross the block.The white mesh top emblazoned with Jordan’s iconic number “23” was worn by the star during Game 3 of his legendary 1998 NBA Finals run. It was the end of his time with the Chicago Bulls, known as “The Last Dance,” which was chronicled in a 2020 ESPN and Netflix documentary series of the same name.During the pivotal game against the Utah Jazz, Jordan delivered a crushing performance in front of a home-court crowd that helped shift the series in the Bulls’ favor, with Jordan ultimately leading the team to win its sixth championship in eight seasons.The shirt is the only publicly known white game-winning jersey from the 1998 Finals to become available for sale, making it an extremely rare piece of memorabilia, according to Joopiter, the online auction house hosting the sale.“The significance of this jersey extends well beyond the box score,” said Joopiter on its site, which estimates that the lot will fetch between $10-15 million.“This is the type of object collectors wait a lifetime for — an irreplaceable artifact that transcends basketball to become a piece of global cultural history,” said Caitlin Donovan, the auction platform’s global head of sales in a press release.The “Driven to Greatness” online auction begins September 15 and runs through September 29.If the jersey sells above its low estimate it would become the most expensive basketball jersey ever sold, edging out the previous record set by another Jordan jersey from Game 1 of the same finals.In 2022, a red jersey worn during that matchup where the Bulls lost, sold for $10.1 million, more than double initial estimates, CNN previously reported.In 2021, a jersey also worn by the player during his sophomore season at the University of North Carolina set an auction record at the time when it sold for $1.38 million.The current record for the most expensive sports collectible ever sold is held by Babe Ruth’s “Called Shot” jersey, which sold for $24.12 million in 2024. Ruth wore the jersey during Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, when he appeared to gesture toward something in center field just before hitting a fifth-inning home run into the bleachers, a story which is now part of baseball lore.Still, Jordan remains one of the most celebrated athletes, with online memorabilia sales consistently topping current top stars.E-Bay users have spent more than $88 million on Jordan playing cards this year alone, according to Gemrate, a site that tracks trading card grading and sales dates — beating out every other current and previous NBA player and putting him only below Los Angeles Dodgers’ baseball star Shohei Ohtani.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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