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Golazo leaderboard

During the 2026 FIFA World Cup , we invited HoustonKemp staff, clients, students, and friends to participate in Golazo, our very own capital allocation game.

The rules were simple: each participant was given a fixed (and fictional) budget to assemble a portfolio of teams competing at the World Cup. The better your teams performed, the more points you earned, and the more bragging rights you had against other participants. Each team in your portfolio received 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss. In knockout games, points were  allocated according to the score after 90 minutes. Teams were priced such that every portfolio had an almost identical expected payoff.

To us economists it’s a constrained optimisation problem, which sounds very serious, but really it’s just a good excuse to pitch your own take on Curacao’s fortunes against what the logical analysis is saying.

Golazo 2026: final results

The FIFA World Cup has come to a close, and with it, our capital allocation game, Golazo. Congratulations to our four winners, Grella, Rashford, Ferdinand and Shearer, who tied for first place on 44 points, each having selected the optimal portfolio.

Thank you to everyone who took part. The full leaderboard is below with each portfolio assigned a codename. If you did not receive an email with your codename, please contact Alek at aleksander.eskitzis@houstonkemp.com.

We also share a handful of interesting observations that emerged from the data in the insights section below the leaderboard.

Final Leaderboard

Rank Codename Points Portfolio
1 Grella 44 Morocco x4
1 Rashford 44 Morocco x4
1 Ferdinand 44 Morocco x4
1 Shearer 44 Morocco x4
5 Henry 42 France x1, Norway x1, Morocco x1
6 Juric 40 Spain x2
6 Petratos 40 Spain x2
6 Modric 40 Spain x2
6 Pirlo 40 Spain x2
6 Totti 40 Argentina x1, Colombia x1, Morocco x1
6 Pedri 40 France x1, Colombia x1, Morocco x1
12 Degenek 38 Spain x1, France x1, Haiti x1
12 Ryan 38 Spain x1, France x1, Haiti x1
12 Kennedy 38 Spain x1, France x1, Iraq x1
12 Lewandowski 38 Morocco x2, Norway x1, South Korea x1
12 Ribery 38 Spain x1, Argentina x1, Iraq x1
12 Ighalo 38 Spain x1, France x1
12 Hakimi 38 Spain x1, France x1, Iraq x1
12 Varane 38 Spain x1, Argentina x1
12 Yamal 38 Spain x1, France x1, Iraq x1
21 Aguero 37 Spain x1, Norway x1, Sweden x1
21 Xavi 37 France x1, Argentina x1, Qatar x1
21 Gerrard 37 France x2, New Zealand x1
21 Giroud 37 Spain x1, England x1, Iraq x1
25 Jedinak 36 Argentina x1, Colombia x1, Canada x1
25 Elrich 36 Spain x1, Morocco x1, Australia x1, Tunisia x1
25 Benzema 36 France x1, Morocco x1, Iran x1, DR Congo x1
25 Muller 36 Spain x1, Norway x1, Iran x1
25 Kimmich 36 Mexico x1, Canada x1, Morocco x1, Cote d’Ivoire x1
25 Neuer 36 France x1, Colombia x1, Australia x1, Saudi Arabia x1
25 Tchouameni 36 France x1, Argentina x1, Haiti x2
32 Bozanic 35 Norway x1, Morocco x1, Japan x1, Cote d’Ivoire x1
32 Coman 35 France x1, Morocco x1, Croatia x1, Iraq x1
34 Neill 34 Spain x1, Colombia x1, South Korea x1
34 Rogic 34 England x1, Mexico x1, Japan x1
34 Fornaroli 34 Norway x2, Japan x1, Saudi Arabia x1, Curacao x1
34 Vukovic 34 Mexico x1, Japan x1, Morocco x1, Australia x1, Curacao x1
34 Sancho 34 Norway x2, Portugal x1
39 Boyle 33 Colombia x1, Norway x1, Cote d’Ivoire x1, South Korea x1
39 Atkinson 33 Mexico x1, Morocco x1, Japan x1, DR Congo x1, Qatar x1
39 Neymar 33 Argentina x1, Switzerland x1, South Korea x1
39 Fabregas 33 Colombia x1, Morocco x1, Croatia x1, Australia x1, Haiti x1
39 Havertz 33 France x1, Switzerland x1, South Korea x1
39 Sterling 33 France x1, Morocco x1, Senegal x1, Tunisia x1
45 Emerton 32 Spain x1, Croatia x1, Australia x1, New Zealand x1
45 Karacic 32 Canada x2, Mexico x1, Egypt x1
45 Tilio 32 Mexico x1, Morocco x1, Japan x1, Senegal x1
48 Ninkovic 31 Argentina x1, Portugal x1, Australia x1
48 Duke 31 France x1, Netherlands x1, Paraguay x1
48 Souttar 31 Argentina x1, USA x1, Ecuador x1
48 Lahm 31 Netherlands x1, Mexico x1, Canada x1, DR Congo x1
48 Owen 31 France x1, Ecuador x1, Australia x1, South Africa x1
48 Essien 31 Mexico x2, Germany x1
48 Vieira 31 Norway x1, Morocco x1, Turkiye x1, Bosnia and Herzegovina x1
48 Alba 31 France x1, Morocco x1, Uruguay x1
56 Aloisi 30 Spain x1, Portugal x1, Curacao x2
56 Evra 30 Argentina x1, Germany x1, Australia x1
56 Zidane 30 Netherlands x1, Morocco x1, Croatia x1, Australia x1
56 Bellingham 30 France x1, Portugal x1, Ghana x1
60 Spiranovic 29 Spain x1, Portugal x1, New Zealand x1
60 Leckie 29 France x1, Netherlands x1, Curacao x2, New Zealand x1
60 Sainsbury 29 England x1, Netherlands x1, Senegal x1
60 Langerak 29 Netherlands x1, Switzerland x1, USA x1
60 Bresciano 29 France x1, Scotland x1, Algeria x1, South Africa x1
60 Kane 29 England x1, Sweden x1, Algeria x1, Ghana x1
60 Vidic 29 Colombia x1, Morocco x1, Ecuador x1, South Korea x1
60 Mane 29 England x1, Germany x1, Australia x1
60 Aubameyang 29 England x1, South Korea x1, Sweden x1, Australia x1
60 Pogba 29 Colombia x1, Morocco x1, Turkiye x1, Sweden x1
60 Petit 29 Brazil x1, Argentina x1, New Zealand x1
71 Schwarzer 28 Spain x1, Turkiye x1, Japan x1
71 Popovic 28 Belgium x1, Norway x1, Japan x1, Curacao x1
71 Suarez 28 Brazil x1, France x1, Panama x1
71 Cannavaro 28 Brazil x1, France x1, Panama x1
71 Ballack 28 Spain x1, Japan x1, South Korea x1, Haiti x1
71 Lampard 28 Norway x2, Czechia x2
71 Scholes 28 Portugal x1, Colombia x1, USA x1
71 Desailly 28 England x1, Brazil x1, New Zealand x1
71 Blanc 28 Spain x1, Portugal x1, Panama x1
71 Matuidi 28 Canada x4
71 Vinicius 28 Norway x1, Croatia x1, Japan x1, Senegal x1
82 Viduka 27 England x1, New Zealand x2, Scotland x1, Australia x1
82 Irvine 27 Belgium x1, Turkiye x1, Morocco x1, DR Congo x1
82 Culina 27 Netherlands x1, Mexico x1, Croatia x1, Qatar x1
82 Iniesta 27 Spain x1, Turkiye x1, Austria x1
82 Gnabry 27 Norway x1, Algeria x1, Egypt x1, Sweden x1, Uzbekistan x1
82 Schmeichel 27 Portugal x1, Netherlands x1, Morocco x1
82 Ziyech 27 Portugal x1, Netherlands x1, Morocco x1
82 Lloris 27 Spain x1, Germany x1, Uzbekistan x1
82 Anelka 27 Portugal x1, Netherlands x1, Morocco x1
82 Trezeguet 27 Spain x1, Germany x1, Tunisia x1
82 Pavard 27 Croatia x1, Morocco x1, Canada x1, Turkiye x1
82 Kounde 27 Morocco x1, Senegal x1, South Korea x1, Sweden x1, Australia x1
82 Casillas 27 Morocco x1, Senegal x1, Egypt x1, Australia x1, Panama x1, Iraq x1, Curacao x1
95 Cahill 26 Argentina x1, New Zealand x3, Australia x1, Jordan x1
95 Nabbout 26 Portugal x1, Morocco x1, Japan x1, Saudi Arabia x1
95 Redmayne 26 Croatia x1, Bosnia and Herzegovina x1, Cote d’Ivoire x1, Ghana x1, Australia x1, Curacao x1
95 Lazaridis 26 Japan x1, Ecuador x1, Morocco x1, Croatia x1
95 Haaland 26 England x1, Netherlands x1, Czechia x1
95 DelPiero 26 Germany x1, Netherlands x1, Morocco x1
95 Gotze 26 Morocco x1, Japan x1, Austria x1, Croatia x1
95 Giggs 26 Netherlands x1, Colombia x1, Croatia x1, Iraq x1, Curacao x1
95 Okocha 26 France x1, Uruguay x1, Croatia x1
95 Thuram 26 France x1, Uruguay x1, Croatia x1
95 Pires 26 Colombia x1, Bosnia and Herzegovina x1, Scotland x1, South Africa x1, Ghana x1
106 Devlin 25 Morocco x1, Croatia x1, Senegal x1, Algeria x1, Tunisia x1
106 Kahn 25 USA x1, Canada x1, Japan x1, Senegal x1
106 Reus 25 Morocco x1, Ecuador x1, Czechia x1, Australia x1, Ghana x1
106 Kante 25 Germany x1, Mexico x1, Egypt x1, Tunisia x1
110 Mooy 24 Croatia x1, Ecuador x1, Turkiye x1, Morocco x1
110 Ronaldo 24 Cote d’Ivoire x2, Netherlands x1, Ecuador x1
110 Buffon 24 Portugal x1, Japan x1, Egypt x1, Australia x1
110 Puyol 24 Colombia x1, Japan x1, Austria x1, Senegal x1
110 Robben 24 Colombia x1, Japan x1, Ecuador x1, Senegal x1
110 Terry 24 USA x1, Croatia x1, South Korea x1, Australia x1, New Zealand x1
110 Carragher 24 Germany x1, Croatia x1, Egypt x1, Australia x1
110 Eto’o 24 Germany x1, Japan x1, Morocco x1, New Zealand x1
110 Mikel 24 Netherlands x1, Colombia x1, Turkiye x1, Saudi Arabia x1
110 Rodrygo 24 Morocco x1, Japan x1, South Korea x1, Senegal x1, Qatar x1
110 Ramos 24 Paraguay x2, Croatia x1, Netherlands x 1
121 Kewell 23 Belgium x1, Japan x1, Australia x1, Ghana x1, Haiti x1
121 Behich 23 Japan x1, Bosnia and Herzegovina x1, Ghana x1, Australia x1, DR Congo x1, Jordan x1, Curacao x1
121 Chipperfield 23 Netherlands x1, Croatia x1, Cote d’Ivoire x1, South Korea x1
121 Messi 23 Netherlands x1, Morocco x1, Ecuador x1, Uzbekistan x1, Haiti x1
121 Sneijder 23 Japan x1, Scotland x1, Cote d’Ivoire x1, Algeria x1, Australia x1
121 Klose 23 Brazil x1, Portugal x1, Australia x1
121 Keane 23 Colombia x1, Ecuador x1, Canada x1, Czechia x1
121 Toure 23 Portugal x1, South Africa x2, Croatia x1, Curacao x1
129 Maclaren 22 Portugal x1, Cote d’Ivoire x1, Algeria x1, Senegal x1
129 Salah 22 Switzerland x1, Netherlands x1, Uruguay x1
129 Schweinsteiger 22 Brazil x1, Senegal x1, South Korea x1, Australia x1
129 Drogba 22 Portugal x1, Ghana x2, Senegal x1, Saudi Arabia x1
133 Hrustic 21 Colombia x1, Uruguay x1, Croatia x1, New Zealand x1, Curacao x1
133 Gavi 21 Croatia x1, South Korea x1, Scotland x1, Senegal x1, Australia x1
135 Skoko 20 Germany x1, Japan x1, South Korea x1, Australia x1
135 Beckham 20 Portugal x1, Turkiye x1, Senegal x1, Australia x1
135 Deschamps 20 South Korea x1, DR Congo x2, Cote d’Ivoire x1, Qatar x1, Tunisia x1, Saudi Arabia x1, Iraq x2
135 Barthez 20 Belgium x1, Portugal x1, Scotland x1
139 Troisi 19 Portugal x1, Germany x1, DR Congo x1, Tunisia x1
139 Goodwin 19 Germany x1, Belgium x1, South Korea x1
139 Mbappe 19 Netherlands x1, Ecuador x1, Egypt x1, Czechia x1
142 Taggart 18 Germany x1, Japan x1, Czechia x1, Australia x1
142 Weah 18 Curacao x10, Sweden x1, Scotland x1, New Zealand x1
142 Camavinga 18 Germany x2, Saudi Arabia x2
145 Neville 17 Uruguay x1, Japan x1, Croatia x1, Senegal x1
146 Griezmann 14 Uruguay x1, Japan x1, Ecuador x1, Scotland x1
147 Wilkinson 10 Qatar x10
147 Cole 10 New Zealand x10
149 Hernandez 8 Panama x3, Qatar x3, Senegal x1, Iraq x3, Curacao x1
150 Milligan 0 Haiti x13, Iraq x7
150 Werner 0 Iraq x20

Insights

Guests see good value in the European heavyweights – but HoustonKemp’s economists disagree

Note: these tables capture the number of portfolios in which each team appears. For example, 40 portfolios contain Morocco. 4 of these were submitted by HoustonKemp staff, while 36 were submitted by guests. N = 151.

HoustonKemp portfolios are more diversified than guest portfolios

Note: Portfolio size refers to the number of distinct teams within a portfolio. For example, a portfolio with 20 units of Haiti and no units of any other country has a size of 1.

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