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Since its creation in 1930, the FIFA World Cup has been the most sought-after trophy in professional soccer. It only occurs once every four years, and not many nations have had the privilege or expense to host such an important tournament, let alone have their team be the best out of every national team in the world.
Ultimately, the nations that live the soccer culture lifestyle have done the best in the tournament’s history. While some teams haven’t won a single World Cup, others accumulated multiple titles. In this article, we’ll look at the best World Cup winners in FIFA World Cup history, how many trophies they won, the years they won them as well as what made them so dominant!
If you’ve heard the name Diego Maradona, you might know of the Argentinian national team’s success in the 1986 World Cup. Before this, in a controversial hosting of the 1978 World Cup, Argentina had beaten the Netherlands in the finals, who were missing one of the best soccer players of all time, Johan Cruyff, due to personal safety and political reasons.
Outside of politics (hard to avoid in such large-scale events), the 1986 Argentina team would easily cruise past Uruguay, England and Belgium to secure their second World Cup trophy against previous runner-up West Germany in the finals. It wasn’t until years later, in the most recent 2022 World Cup, that Argentina would secure their third World Cup trophy.
This was thanks to the leadership, dedication and skill of their captain Lionel Messi, argued to be one of the greatest players of all time along with his Argentinian counterpart Diego Maradona. Both players played pivotal roles in producing some of the best World Cup winners in FIFA history.
Going as far back as before World War II, the Italian national team would single-handedly be the team to fear. They won two consecutive World Cups, first in 1934 vs. Czechoslovakia, then again in 1938 vs. Hungary. But, the European giants would be runners-up in the 1970 tournament against Brazil and would need to wait for another 11 World Cup tournaments before gracing the trophy once again in 1982 against 1974 champions West Germany.
This Italian team was no stranger to the highest level of soccer, reaching the finals and losing to Brazil once again in the United States-hosted 1994 World Cup. They’d get their most recent triumph at the World Cup stage in 2006 against Zinedine Zidan’s French team, who received a red card in the last minutes of the game for a reckless headbutt on another player, leaving Italy to win 5-3 in penalty kicks.
With so much experience and silverware, it only makes sense to include Italy on the list of best World Cup winners in soccer.
For three of their four hard-fought World Cups, the German National team identified itself as West Germany and had accumulated three trophies in just 36 years. Their 1966 win was a convincing 4-2 victory against host nation England, and they’d go on to get their revenge against Diego Maradona’s Argentina in the 1990 World Cup final 1-0, all before the dissolving of the Berlin Wall.
Despite redefining itself politically, modern-era Germany didn’t need to do any redefining for their international soccer team, as they’d destroy all competition in the 2014 World Cup hosted in Brazil. At the time, Brazil was one of the few favorites (including Germany) to win the World Cup, and it was thought that they would have a relatively easy path being the host nation.
Germany would set a record, not only obliterating the host nation 7-1 in the semi-finals but earning the 2014 World Cup title for the fourth time, making it one of the best World Cup winners in history.
Last up on the list of best World Cup winners is Brazil, which needs no real introduction to soccer. Some of the best soccer players in the world, like Pele, come from Brazil, where all they do is live, breathe, and eat soccer or football. It would just take a loss in the final of the 1950 Brazil-hosted World Cup against Uruguay to set off half a century of dominance in the sport.
For two straight World Cups, Brazil would win against host nation Sweden in the 1958 final, then Czechoslovakia in the 1962, matching Italy’’s back-to-back World Cup run. Funny enough, in the 1970 Mexican World Cup final, Brazil would destroy Italy 4-1 before winning vs. Italy again in penalties in the 1994 United States World Cup Final. France would then end Brazil’s potential three-peat winning in 1998 to stop their trophy-claiming streak, which would’ve continued into the 2002 World Cup, won by the same Brazilian squad.
When it comes to winning, it’s ingrained in Brazil’s culture, so it tops the list of best World Cup winners.
Liam has been a major sports fan and soccer player for over a decade, with a particular focus on major top-level soccer leagues, including the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and MLS. He has written numerous promotional articles for various top sportsbooks and continues to publish historical and factual sports articles covering the NFL, MLS, NHL, MLB, EPL and more.