Winning the World Cup is the best thing that any country can do in football. It is something every country strives for, but there are only a select group of teams who have won the World Cup.
What teams have won the World Cup? Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, France, Uruguay, Spain and England have all won the FIFA World Cup, with Brazil winning the most out of any team with five titles.
Winning the World Cup is an honour for any team and only the very best teams of all time have won the World Cup before.
What teams have won the World Cup?
Brazil – 5 time world cup winners
Brazil are the most successful team in the history of World Cups, as well as being the only team to play in every tournament. Brazil’s World Cup success began in part thanks to the brilliance of Pele who scored in the first World Cup final that Brazil won in 1958. They would repeat this effort four years later.
After being knocked out in the group stage in 1966, Brazil won all six of their games on the way to the 1970 title. Brazil would struggle over the next five tournaments including not making it past the quarter-finals in three straight World cups. But they would claim their fourth title in 1994, before a dominant run to the 2002 World Cup final which they would win for the country’s fifth World Cup title.
Germany – 4 time world cup winners
There is some controversy about Germany’s record at the World Cup as they were split into East and West Germany, with West Germany being incredibly successful at this time. They won their first title four years after they were banned from entering the World Cup.
Germany would finish as runners-up to England in 1966 before winning the title in Germany in 1974. After two straight losses in the final, Germany finally claimed their third World Cup title in 1990, beating Argentina in the final. They would again fall just short in 2002, but a Mario Gotze winner gave Germany their fourth World Cup title in 2014.
Italy – 4 time world cup winners
The Italian team were excellent at the time when the World Cup was just formed and they are still the second most successful World Cup team despite missing the last two tournaments.
Italy won back-to-back World Cup titles in 1934 and 1938, going undefeated in both tournaments. Italy would again go undefeated on their way to the title in 1982 when they beat West Germany in Madrid. Italy’s fourth World Cup title came in 2006, thanks to one of the most memorable moments in World Cup history.
Italy benefitted when Zinedine Zidane was sent off in the 2006 World Cup Final, with the Italians claiming their fourth title after beating France on penalties.
Argentina – 2 time world cup winners
Argentina have actually not always been great at the World Cup but benefited from a brilliant team in the late 1970s and 1980s. They were runners-up in the very first World Cup and did not get past the quarter-finals again until 1978. After scraping through the group stage, they defeated the Netherlands in the final after extra time.
Their 1986 run to the final included the “Hand of God” goal against England in the quarter-final. Despite this being the most remembered moment of the tournament, Diego Maradona actually led Argentina to the final including both goals in the Semi-final.
Their 3-2 win over West Germany gave Argentina their second World Cup title, an accomplishment they have failed to add to despite going to two more World Cup finals since.
Uruguay – 2 time world cup winners
You may not realise just how good Uruguay are at football considering they have only made it to the semi-final stage in the World Cup once in the last fifty years. People will often forget how good Uruguay were when the World Cup was first created. They were the host and the winner of the inaugural World Cup in 1930.
They chose not to enter the next two World Cups, making a return in 1950. It was an incredibly successful return for Uruguay as they again won the World Cup. Since then, they have reached the semi-finals three times, never making it to the World Cup final since that victory in 1950.
France – 2 time world cup winners
France were one of the four European teams to compete at the first World Cup and they were also the host of the third world cup. France did not make it past the semi-final until 1998 when they were again the host.
Coming off the back of missing two tournaments in a row, France dominated all three group-stage matches but were pushed incredibly close in the three games to the final. In the final, they defeated the reigning champions Brazil 3-0 thanks to two from Zinedine Zidane.
France would win their second World Cup 20 years after that when they defeated Croatia 4-2 in a very exciting final. France had been very good throughout the 2018 tournament.
Spain – 1 time world cup winners
Spain have been very consistent, playing at the last eleven tournaments, but they have only made it past the quarter-finals once in that time. This happened in 2010, with Spain coming off the back of winning the Euros two years prior.
Despite a group stage loss to Switzerland in their first game of the tournament, Spain looked like the best team at the 2010 World Cup, keeping four straight clean sheets on their way to winning the country’s first World Cup. Andreas Iniesta scored the winner in the final to give his country its first World Cup title.
England – 1 time world cup winners
There is no doubt that England fans will think they deserve to have more than one World Cup trophy, but they have only won the tournament once. England was not a FIFA member in the first three competitions and so did not make their World Cup debut until 1950.
When England hosted the World Cup in 1966, they made it to the final and won the tournament, beating West Germany 4-2 in the final. Since then, they have made two more semi-final appearances, most recently in 2018.