Four pairs of brothers will participate in the World Cup » They all play in different national teams

Desire Doue and his older brother Guela were born in France, but while Paris Saint-Germain star Desire plays for 'Les Bleus', Guela is a defender for Ivory Coast, their father's home country.

Four pairs of brothers will participate in the World Championship

The Williams brothers – Inaki and Nico – were both born in the Basque region of Spain. Nico, 23, was named man of the match when Spain beat England in the European Championship final two years ago (2-1).

Older brother Inaki, who turns 32 next week, also played once for Spain, but only in a friendly, which allowed him to switch his nationality and wear the shirt of Ghana – the country from which his parents emigrated.

Ghana's squad also includes Dutch-born defender Derrick Luckassen, 30, who was a last-minute addition to the World Cup squad and joins his half-brother Brian Brobbey at the tournament.

Brobbey, 24, is a back-up striker for the Netherlands and will take part in the tour of Canada, Mexico and the USA after a strong second half of the season in the Premier League with Sunderland. They have the same mother but different fathers.

Australia have called up Scottish-born centre-back Harry Souttar, 27, while his older brother John will play for Scotland. They were born in Aberdeen but their mother is Australian and Harry switched his nationality seven years ago after playing at junior level for the Scots.

There are no scheduled meetings between the brothers in the group stage of the tournament, but last week Desire watched from the stands in Nantes as Guela scored in Ivory Coast's 2-1 win over France.

There is only one case so far of brothers facing each other at the World Championship, and that happened in two consecutive tournaments. Jérôme Boateng was in defense for Germany against his older half-brother Kevin-Prince, who was playing for Ghana, in Germany's 1-0 win in Johannesburg (South Africa) in 2010.

Four years later, the two met again on the pitch in Fortaleza, Brazil, when the group stage match between the two teams ended 2-2.