The National Soccer Teams with the Most World Cup Wins

The national teams with the most World Cups are also the ones who've played in the most championships.

The 2018 (Russia) World Cup was the 21st championship in World Cup history. Only eight national soccer teams can boast that they’ve won at least once. In our post today, learn about the national soccer teams with the most wins to burn some time before 2022 Qatar!

The national soccer teams with the most World Cup wins

Spain joined the list in 2010; eight teams can gloat that they’ve won the World Cup at least once. But in our post today, let’s take a look at the biggest winners to date:

1. Brazil (5)

The Brazil national soccer team, which locals often refer to as “verdeamarela” (a mix of the words “green” and “yellow”), has won the most World Cups in history. The Brazilians have won five times and have participated in every tournament except the first that took place in 1930.

They won for the first time in the 1958 Switzerland World Cup after beating the hosts 5-2. A young Pelé scored two of those five (while scoring a total of six goals in the entire competition). Brazil won the following competition, 1962 Chile, after beating Czechoslovakia 3-1.

They won their third Cup in the 1970 Mexico edition after beating Italy 4-1 in the legendary Estadio Azteca. In the 1994 United States World Cup, they would claim their fourth victory after penalty shoot-outs (3-2).

The most recent victory for the verdeamarela was in the 2002 Korea-Japan edition. All eyes were on Ronaldo, who scored a total of eight goals in the entire competition. Ronaldo scored the two goals that would triumph over Germany in the final match.

Aside from their five World Cup victories, Brazil has also claimed second place twice. They first lost the final against Uruguay in 1950 (losing at home in the famous Estadio Maracaná). In 1998, they landed in second place again after facing off with France (on their turf).

2. Italy (4)

The Italian national soccer team, or Nazionale di Calcio Italiana (in Italian), began in 1920 and has played in 18 World Cup tournaments. The first was in 1934 where they were both the hosts and champions. In this controversial tournament full of Benito Mussolini’s fascist propaganda, Italy showed the world that they were the best European team after defeating Czechoslovakia 2-1 in the final in the Stadio Olimpico .

In the following tournament (1938 France), the Italians won again, this time 4-2 against Hungary. It was a particularly interesting World Cup as most of the participating teams came from Europe (excluding Brazil, Cuba, and the Dutch East Indies).

Many years passed before Italy would taste victory again. They won their third cup in the 1982 Spain edition in the one and only Estadio Santiago Bernabéu (Madrid) after beating the German national team 3-1.

Italy’s fourth and last victory to date took place in the 2006 Germany tournament. Who could forget the Italy-France final where Zinedine Zidane angrily headbutted Mateo Materazzi?

After tying 1-1, (Zidane and Materazzi were the players who scored the goals) Italy beat France 5-3 in penalty shoot-outs. Aside from their wins, Italy also reached second place in the 1970 Mexico World Cup after losing to Brazil 1-4 in the final.

3. Germany (4)

Germany has won the same number of World Cups as Italy but they’ve played in 19 tournaments. In addition, they won their first title in 1954. They won 3-2 in the Wandorf Stadium and the players who made the goals were Rahn (2) and Morlock (1).

In the 1990 Italy tournament, Germany won their third title in the Stadio Olimpico after a grid-lock match against Argentina (the previous year’s champions) 1-0.

History repeated itself when Germany and Argentina faced off again in the 2014 Brazilian Cup. The German national team came out on top again, though this time without a penalty shot. The teams played into overtime and Germany claimed victory against their opponents in Maracaná.

To tie up our list of World Cup champions, we want to make an honorable mention to Uruguay, Argentina, and France (with two victories each); and England and Spain (one victory each).