The NFL will go international nine times in the 2026 season, but commissioner Roger Goodell wants to go worldwide on a permanent basis at some point in the future.
Goodell not only reiterated his hope that there will be a foreign NFL team someday in an interview with German outlet RTL/ntv, but he also practically guaranteed that there will be multiple international teams in the league down the line.
“At some point, there will be NFL teams outside the USA,” Goodell said in the interview, which was conducted by former NFL player Markus Kuhn. “I have no doubt that this will happen one day.”
Goodell also floated the possibility of an international city hosting the Super Bowl in the same interview. However, Goodell expressed that any city wanting to host a Super Bowl must have an NFL team.
“There are definitely international cities that could host something like that,” Goodell said. “But we would like to see an NFL team in such a city first.”
There have been multiple occasions over Goodell’s 20 seasons as NFL commissioner in which he’s expressed a desire to have an international team. Goodell even floated the possibility of having a whole division in Europe in 2022, saying at an international event that it would be “easier” to accommodate. Two years later, Goodell mentioned that possibility again, but said in an interview with the “Pat McAfee Show” that it was more than 10 years down the road.
Wembley Stadium will host its 28th NFL game in 2026. (Photo by Bradley Collyer/PA Images via Getty Images)
The NFL has only expanded its presence internationally over Goodell’s tenure as commissioner. After starting the NFL International Series in 2007, the league will play a record nine international games in 2026. The league also began its Global Markets Program in 2022, allowing teams to have marketing rights in at least one country. That helped pave the way for the first game to take place in South America in 2024 and the first Oceania NFL game in 2026, along with other countries hosting NFL games for the first time in recent years.
As for which cities could become future NFL homes, London has hosted at least one game in every season since 2007 and multiple games each season since 2013, except the COVID-riddled 2020 campaign. Mexico City will host its fifth regular-season game in 2026, while German cities Munich, Berlin and Frankfurt will have hosted a combined nine games by the end of the 2029 season. Paris will become the first French city to host an NFL game in 2026, and Madrid will host its second NFL game this upcoming season.
