Panama qualified undefeated through the CONCACAF qualifiers and is returning to the World Cup for the first time since 2018. Thomas Christiansen is leading the team with a clear defensive strategy. The first match against Ghana in Toronto will be a head-to-head matchup between two similarly styled teams.

Coach Thomas Christiansen has named three goalkeepers to the Marea Roja squad: Luis Mejía, Orlando Mosquera, and César Samudio. This marks Panama’s second appearance at the World Cup, following its historic debut in Russia in 2018. In Group L, they will face Ghana, Croatia, and England. The trio of goalkeepers includes the country’s most experienced national team goalkeeper, a goalkeeper with an unusual career path spanning four continents, and a third-division player from the CONCACAF region with just four international caps.

Mejía, born on March 16, 1991, in Panama City, is 35 years old and the most experienced goalkeeper on the squad—with over 55 international appearances since his debut in 2009, he is by far Panama’s most experienced goalkeeper on the international stage. He has carried his nickname, Manotas—roughly translated as “big hands”—since his youth, and he has lived up to it on numerous major stages. His career has been entirely in Latin America: After early years with Tauro FC and the Uruguayan club CA Fénix, where he was briefly loaned to Toulouse FC in 2011, he moved to Club Nacional in 2015, where he won two Uruguayan league titles. Stints with Unión Española and Racing de Montevideo followed before he returned to Nacional on a permanent basis in early 2024 for around 64,000 euros. He has appeared in nine league matches this season. With experience in the Copa América, Nations League, and Gold Cup, he is Christiansen’s clear first choice.

Mosquera, born on December 25, 1994, in San Miguelito near Panama City, is 31 years old and wears his nickname, Kuty, with pride. His career path reads like a journey through the world of soccer: Sporting San Miguelito and Tauro in Panama, Boluspor in the Turkish second division, Always Ready in Bolivia, Carabobo and Monagas in Venezuela, Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel—and, since August 2024, Al-Fayha in the Saudi Arabian Pro League. There, he has established himself as the starting goalkeeper: 32 appearances this season, seven clean sheets, 97 saves against attackers like Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema. It was his strong performance at the 2023 Gold Cup that paved the way for his move to Israel and subsequently to Saudi Arabia. With 46 international caps, he is the second choice behind Mejía—and of the three, he has the most daily training experience against world-class attackers.

Samudio, born on February 23, 1994, in Panama City, is 32 years old and has been playing for CD Marathón in the Honduran Liga Nacional since 2023. With just four senior international appearances—all in the CONCACAF Nations League and friendlies from 2022 to 2024—he is the least experienced goalkeeper in the trio on the international stage. His club career took him from Panamanian clubs to Independiente de La Chorrera, with whom he won the LPF in 2022, and then to Marathón. This season, he has appeared in 27 league matches with three clean sheets—solid numbers in a competitive Central American league. For Panama, he is the third-choice goalkeeper, and for Christiansen, he is the youngest option in goal.