Who’s the World Cup favorite?
Spain, obviously.
But the other nations might stand a chance if FIFA let them field this absurd soccer-playing robot — which wouldn’t even be close to being one of the craziest things the world soccer association has done lately.
Take a look for yourself. In a recently viral video clip, the diminutive T1 robot, built by the Beijing-based firm Booster Robotics, absolutely leathers a ball into the bottom corner of the goal, striking it so hard that it smashes a hole in the wall. In other attempts, it coolly goes straight down the middle and massacres the camera (a familiar image to England fans), or again drives one into the far corner.
With spot kicks like those, a certain recent Champions League finalist would’ve surely benefited from having this penalty-taking machine on their side. As would current World Cup hopefuls, since the last one saw a record five matches go to a nerve-biting penalty shootout.
Stunts like these are common in the robotics industry, with plenty of examples of humanoids being made to perform elaborate dances, execute fearsome martial arts moves, and play other sports like basketball.
Of course, we should note that these are highly curated clips, so it’s tough to say what the robot’s actual abilities are. We suspect we aren’t seeing the many times it probably blasted one over the bar in Baggio-esque fashion or scuffed its shot entirely.
But it has a proven track record — against other androids, at least. At the 2025 RoboCup competition in Brazil, a Chinese team using the Booster T1 dominated the competition and took home gold (while tragically, the human Chinese men’s team hasn’t made it to the World Cup in over two decades.)
That said, if a robot is powerful enough to smash walls with the kick of a ball, it’s powerful enough to hurt humans. Recent viral videos of a bot in a clown wig roundhouse kicking a small child, or another dancing bot breaking a spectator’s nose, are testament to that. Best to keep them off the pitch, then, lest they go in with a two-footed tackle on a young starlet and prematurely end their career.
More on robots: World Cup Will Be Patrolled by Security Robodogs