Stephen A. Smith Sounds Foolish Talking About The World Cup

ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith may want to do his research before talking about the World Cup on "First Take."

During this Wednesday's episode of "First Take," Smith discussed France's chances of winning the 2026 World Cup. Their national team kicked off this year's campaign with a 3-1 win over Senegal.

Kylian Mbappé had the crowd at MetLife Stadium buzzing by securing a brace in France's opener. That being said, Smith isn't that impressed with France's national team just yet.

According to ESPN's outspoken personality, he needs to see if France can "finally" win the World Cup.

"For me, it's about Mbappé for France. He scores two goals yesterday, remember he scores a hat-trick in the finals loss to Argentina in 2022," Smith said. "I'm wondering whether or not this is the year for France…I'm wondering what France is going to do. Could this be the year that they finally get it done and they win the World Cup considering Mbappé and what we saw him do yesterday, and what we know he's capable of doing because he's done it before."

There's one issue with that complaint: France won the World Cup in 2018.

Fans sound off on Stephen A. Smith.

Unsurprisingly, soccer fans bombarded Smith with criticism this Wednesday. They're hoping he refrains from talking about the World Cup again.

"France won in 2018 and were finalists beaten on penalties in 2022," one fan said. "What does he mean could this be the year? Lol you can tell they just covering soccer because its in the US my guy doesn't know anything about futbol."

"Being American shouldn't stop these guys from opening Wikipedia before showing up on television," a second fan commented.

"Hopefully Argentina and Messi can also finally get it done and win the World Cup. It's been so long," another fan sarcastically replied.

"The NBA Finals ended too early, now we have to deal with this," another person wrote.

Unfortunately for soccer fans, "First Take" will most likely cover Portugal's 1-1 draw with DR Congo. There's a good chance there'll be an early preview of the United States' upcoming match with Australia as well.

Hopefully, Smith will do his homework for the rest of the World Cup before tackling any soccer-related topics.

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This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 2:19 PM.