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Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi, and Cafu with the World Cup (Photo by Laurence Griffiths, Catherine Ivill, Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
The World Cup 2026 is just a few days away now, so we’ve got all you need to know about the total winners and every final since the competition started back in 1930.
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Brazil hold the record with five World Cup wins, but can they finally lift the trophy again after a long wait and some poor performances at this tournament since their last victory back in 2002?
Spain and France probably look like the favourites right now, so they’ll be looking for a second and third World Cup triumph, respectively, or can Lionel Messi help Argentina retain the trophy they won in Qatar in 2022 and make it four in total for the South American giants?
Most World Cup wins
Brazil – 5
Pele famously won this trophy three times, so he was the main architect behind those first three World Cup wins for Brazil in 1958, 1962, and 1970.
Brazil’s first final ended in defeat in 1950 when Uruguay ran out 2-1 winners, but since then they have become the most successful country in this competition’s history.
They first beat Sweden 5-2 in the 1958 final, with Pele scoring twice when he was still just 17 years of age. They then retained the trophy four years later with a 3-1 win over Czechoslovakia.
Brazil’s third World Cup came in one of the most famous games of football of all time, a 4-1 win over Italy in 1970, with Pele again on the score-sheet as Brazil played glorious football to outplay a strong Italian side, and become the first team in history to get to keep the famous old trophy.
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Brazil won again against Italy, this time on penalties, in 1994, though they suffered their second World Cup final defeat in dramatic fashion against France four years later.
That game was dominated by the pre-match Ronaldo drama, with question-marks over whether he was fit to play after first being left out of the starting line up but later put back into it. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ronaldo wasn’t really himself after suffering a seizure on the day of the game, and France ran out 3-0 winners.
Ronaldo had his redemption four years later, though, as he scored twice for Brazil in their 2-0 final victory over Germany. To date, that’s their fifth and final World Cup win, but can Carlo Ancelotti add a sixth to their collection this year?
? Most World Cup wins in history! Who’s your favourite to win it this year? ?? pic.twitter.com/mbBFAL3p5v
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Germany – 4
Technically three of Germany’s four World Cup wins came when they were *West Germany*, but it’s now recorded simply as four World Cup final victories for the European nation.
The first of those victories came in the 1954 final with a 3-2 win over Hungary, with a crazy start to that game seeing Hungary take a 2-0 lead in the first eight minutes, only to then be pegged back to 2-2 by the 18th minute, with Germany then scoring late on to complete the comeback.
Germany’s next final appearance came in 1966, ending in defeat to England, but they were back to winning ways again with a 2-1 win over the Netherlands in 1974.
Their next two final wins were both hard-fought 1-0 victories over Argentina, first in 1990, and then again in 2014 when Mario Gotze acrobatically steered in in extra time.
Italy – 4
The first European country to win it, Italy beat Czechoslovakia 2-1 in 1934’s final and then retained it in 1938 with a 4-2 win over Hungary.
As already mentioned, Italy were beaten by that legendary Brazil team in 1970, and it wasn’t until 1982 that they won the World Cup again, with a 3-1 win over Germany.
There was penalty heartache for the Italians in 1994, but they then won a shoot-out of their own in 2006 in that famous final against France, which saw Zinedine Zidane score a Panenka and then sent off for a headbutt on Marco Materazzi in his final game before retirement. Fabio Cannavaro would then lift Italy’s fourth World Cup aloft afterwards on his way to winning the Ballon d’Or.
Argentina – 3
Argentina were in that first ever World Cup final, where they were beaten 4-2 by Uruguay in 1930, and they somewhat surprisingly didn’t win it for the first time until 1978 when they triumphed 3-1 against the Netherlands.
Then, more famously, Argentina were victorious again in 1986 when the legendary Diego Maradona stole the show, winning player of the tournament and cementing his legacy as perhaps the greatest footballer of all time.
Until, that is, Lionel Messi got his hands on the trophy in 2022, with the current holders winning a thrilling game against France, which finished 3-3 after extra time and went to a penalty shoot-out. It’s arguably the one trophy that sets Messi aside from Cristiano Ronaldo in the modern GOAT debates.
Uruguay – 2
Uruguay have had some great players, but they’re not necessarily someone you’d expect to have two World Cups. Still, the South Americans won the first ever edition of this tournament in 1930.
The World Cup was much smaller back then, though, with only 13 teams taking part, and with the semi-finals coming right after the group stages. Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2 in the final in front of a crowd of 68,346 in Montevideo.
Uruguay’s second World Cup was a dramatic upset in 1950 as they beat host nation Brazil 2-1 in Rio de Janeiro. They came from 1-0 down to upset the odds in a game that the Brazilian press had already more or less already declared as a victory for their country days before the game actually kicked off!
France – 2
Another great footballing nation who had to wait surprisingly long to lift the World Cup, France finally got there in their first final appearance when hosting the tournament in 1998. Zidane scored twice in the first half against a lacklustre Brazil side, and Emmanuel Petit added some gloss to the score-line with a late third.
France were surprisingly knocked out of the group stages in 2002, but were back in the final four years later, losing to Italy on penalties. By 2018, a new-look side of superstars came together as they beat Croatia 4-2 in the final in Moscow.
Then Les Bleus suffered their second final defeat in the most recent World Cup, despite Kylian Mbappe becoming only the second player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final in that penalty shoot-out defeat to Argentina.
England – 1
60 years on, England’s only World Cup final win is that famous day in 1966. Geoff Hurst scored that stunning hat-trick, with that immortal ‘they think it’s all over’ line from commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme.
Since then, the Three Lions have been major under-achievers at this level, though they started a recent improved era under Gareth Southgate by making it to the semi-finals in 2018, before two final appearances at the Euros in 2021 and 2024. Can this finally be the year they go one further and get their hands on the trophy again at long last?
Spain – 1
Probably the favourites to win the 2026 edition of the World Cup, Spain are hunting just their second ever victory in this competition.
Andres Iniesta scored that famous extra time winner against the Netherlands in 2010, in a close game that ultimately gave Spain their second trophy in what ended up being a run of three tournament victories in a row as they also came out on top in Euro 2008 and 2012.
Spain then beat England in the final of Euro 2024 two years ago, and it’s hard to see past Lamine Yamal and co. this time around in North America.
Every World Cup final
1930: Uruguay 4-2 Argentina
1934: Italy 2-1 Czechoslovakia
1938: Italy 4-2 Hungary
1950: Uruguay 2-1 Brazil
1954: Germany 3-2 Hungary
1958: Brazil 5-2 Sweden
1962: Brazil 3-1 Czechoslovakia
1966: England 4-2 Germany
1970: Brazil 4-1 Italy
1974: Germany 2-1 Netherlands
1978: Argentina 3-1 Netherlands
1982: Italy 3-1 Germany
1986: Argentina 3-2 Germany
1990: Germany 1-0 Argentina
1994: Brazil 0-0 Italy (3-2 on penalties)
1998: France 3-0 Brazil
2002: Brazil 2-0 Germany
2006: Italy 1-1 France (5-3 on penalties)
2010: Spain 1-0 Netherlands
2014: Germany 1-0 Argentina
2018: France 4-2 Croatia
2022: Argentina 3-3 France (4-2 on penalties)
