Manchester United will play pre-season friendlies in Finland, Sweden, Norway, the Republic of Ireland and Poland this July and August.
As the 2026 World Cup is in North America, regularly visited by United on more lucrative pre-season tours, the squad are staying closer to home and will spend more time training at Carrington than anywhere else.
The team plan to go back and forward to play games against Wrexham in Helsinki, Finland on July 18, Rosenborg in Trondheim, Norway on July 24, Atletico Madrid in Stockholm, Sweden on August 1, Paris Saint-Germain in Gothenborg, Sweden on August 8, Leeds United at Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland on August 12 and AC Milan in Wroclaw, Poland on August 15. United did have interest from Asia for staging some friendlies there but seem to have decided against that.
While United have been frequent visitors to Scandinavia, the team have only ever played one competitive match in adjacent Finland, a 1965 European Cup clash at HJK which they won 3-2 in the first leg and then 6-0 at Old Trafford. Speaking to The Athletic in 2022, Markku Peltoniemi, who scored one of the HJK goals as a 17-year-old, reminisced about the fog in Manchester, the legends he played against and bemoaned that the Finnish side could not replace their injured goalkeeper “otherwise we would have only lost 5-0 and not six”.
United have never played a competitive game in Norway, though Bodo/Glimt were the first Norwegian team to visit Old Trafford for a 2024 Europa League game.
United and Liverpool are by a distance the most popular teams in Norway. A very young United side played in Trondheim against Rosenborg in the first pre-season match of the 2024-25 season.
One of the games will take place before the World Cup final on July 19 and players involved in the finals will have a break after their campaigns finish. Several United first teamers will play no part in the tournament including Benjamin Sesko, Bryan Mbuemo and Patrick Dorgu, as will Andre Onana and Rasmus Hojlund, who are out on loan at Trabzonspor and Napoli, respectively.
United have history in most of the venues. Jose Mourinho’s side won the Europa League in Solna, Stockholm in 2017, while Sir Alex Ferguson’s team came unstuck against IFK Gothenborg and their best player Jesper Blomqvist in a 1994 Champions League tie.
United have never played in Wroclaw while the visit to Dublin’s historic Croke Park, capacity 82,300, will be a first for the 20-time English champions. Association football is rarely staged in the home of the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) though the Republic of Ireland did host France in a 2009 World Cup play-off match at the country’s biggest stadium. The north Dublin venue has a huge capacity, but both United and opponents Leeds United enjoy significant support in the country.
The 2026-27 Premier League is scheduled to begin on August 22, one week after the AC Milan game in Poland.