The Top 6 Countries in the FIFA World Cup

The upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar will be the 22nd iteration of the prestigious football tournament and the first ever held in the Middle East. The monthlong tournament, held every four years, features the best 32 countries in the world. (The first World Cup in 1930, however, included only 13 teams.)

Only eight countries have won the FIFA World Cup. England (1966) and Spain (2010) are the only one-time winners, while the remaining six, listed here, have won two or more times.

Brazil

Through the FIFA World Cup, Brazil has established itself as one of the premier football nations in the world. The South American country leads all others with five World Cup titles, the first of which it won in 1958 in Sweden. Brazil defeated the hosts by a score of 5–2 at Rasunda Stadium and, while France’s Just Fontaine set the scoring record with 13 goals in six matches, it was Brazil’s Pele who achieved international acclaim. At just 17 years old, Pele scored his first FIFA World Cup goal in the quarter-finals against Wales and added five more in the semi-finals and finals. Now recognized as one of the all-time great soccer players, he also scored for Brazil at the FIFA World Cup in 1962, 1966, and 1970.

In fact, Pele was part of World Cup-winning squads in both 1962 and 1970; in the latter, he scored the opening goal in Brazil’s 4–1 finals victory over Italy. Brazil also won the FIFA World Cup in 1994 and 2002 in the United States and South Korea/Japan, respectively. The team finished as runner-up in 1950 and 1988.

Italy

Though Italy finished as the runner-up to Brazil in the 1970 and 1994 FIFA World Cups, the country boasts a win-loss record of 4–2 in the finals — it won the tournament in 1934, 1938, 1982, and 2006. It was the first country to win back-to-back FIFA World Cups when it won the 1938 tournament — only Brazil has accomplished this feat since.

Italy defeated West Germany in the finals of the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain and scored a victory over France in the finals of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Regarded as somewhat of an underdog in 2006, Italy allowed only two goals in the entire tournament and received balanced scoring as 10 different players found the score sheet. While Italian defender Fabio Cannavaro didn’t receive the Golden Ball trophy as the tournament’s top player, he was awarded FIFA World Player of the Year and the Ballon d’Or later that year.

Germany

Like Italy, Germany has won the FIFA World Cup four times, with the most recent occurring in 2014, when the team defeated Argentina in the finals. It also won the FIFA World Cup in 1990, 1974, and 1954.

Its win in 1954 is particularly memorable not only because it was its first tournament victory, but because of the way in which it was achieved. The tournament was hosted in Switzerland and, in the finals, Germany played Hungary, which had previously scored eight goals against them in the first round. Moreover, Hungary hadn’t lost in 31 matches entering the game. Hungary took a 2–0 lead in the finals, but the Germans stormed back to win 3–2 in a game that is now remembered as the “Miracle of Bern.”

Uruguay

One of three countries to win the FIFA World Cup twice, Uruguay has the distinction of winning the first World Cup. The tournament was also hosted in the South American country; to date, a host country has only won the FIFA World Cup five times.

Only 13 teams participated in the first World Cup, and seven were from South America. The United States and Mexico sent a team, while four European nations participated, despite the fact that none had confirmed attendance two months prior to the start of the tournament. Uruguay defeated Argentina 4–2 in the finals. It defeated Brazil in 1950 to win its second FIFA World Cup.

Argentina

Argentina was denied the opportunity to be the first-ever FIFA World Cup winners in 1930, and the country had to wait 58 years for its next opportunity. It failed to secure as much as a third-place finish in the following nine World Cups, but Argentina went on to defeat the Netherlands as the host team of the 1978 FIFA World Cup. The team was shut out four years later, but defeated West Germany in the finals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. Argentina finished second in 1990 and 2014.

France

By winning the most recent FIFA World Cup in 2018, France became the sixth nation to win the prestigious football tournament more than once. Led by 19-year-old Kylian Mbappe, who won the FIFA Young Player Award, France defeated Argentina 4–3 in the Round of 16 and followed that up with a 2–0 victory over Uruguay in the quarter-finals. It beat Belgium 1–0 in the semi-finals and defeated Croatia by a score of 4–2 in the finals. The European country also won the tournament in 1998 as a host nation.