Ahead of the 2026 World Cup, a chronological record of all winners since the first world championship was held in 1930 has been created.
Argentina defeated France at the 2022 Qatar World Cup to win their third title and will enter the 2026 FIFA World Cup as the reigning champions.
South America’s great rivals, Brazil, are the most successful team in the tournament’s history, having won the title five times.
Here is the list of previous World Cup winners:
1930 Uruguay – Uruguay hosted the first World Cup and won by defeating Argentina in the final.
1934 Italy – Italy won the first of four World Cups in this tournament.
1938 Italy – Italy wins the last World Cup before World War II suspends the tournament for 12 years.
1950 Uruguay – La Celeste famously defeated Brazil in the final at the Maracanã to win their second World Cup.
1954 West Germany – West Germany wins the World Cup hosted by Switzerland.
1958 Brazil – 17-year-old Pele scores six goals and Brazil wins its first World Cup.
1962 Brazil – Brazil became the second team after Italy to successfully defend their World Cup crown.
England 1966 – The first and only time so far that football “came home” was in 1966 when England won the World Cup at Wembley.
1970 Brazil – Pele won his third trophy in 1970. No player in history has won more World Cups than him.
1974 West Germany – West Germany, led by Gerd Müller, won their second World Cup.
1978 Argentina – Argentina won its first World Cup in 1978, defeating the Netherlands in the final.
1982 Italy – Italy, inspired by Paolo Rossi, won the 1982 Spanish Championship.
1986 Argentina – The legend of Diego Maradona was written at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, where the wayward genius almost single-handedly led Argentina to glory.
West Germany 1990 – Maradona’s Argentina reached the final in 1990 as well, but were thwarted by West Germany, who won the tournament eight months after the fall of the Berlin Wall and three months before German unification.
1994 Brazil – North America’s first World Cup was won by Brazil, marking the United States’ fourth title.
1998 France – France won the tournament on home soil as players such as Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira ushered in a new era of success for Les Bleus.
2002 Brazil – Brazil defeated Germany in the final to win a record fifth World Cup.
2006 Italy – Despite Serie A being rocked by match-fixing allegations, Italy showed great determination to win the 2006 competition.
2010 Spain – Spain’s possession style of football helped them win their first World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
2014 Germany – After reaching the semi-finals in each of the previous two competitions, Germany lifted the trophy again in 2014.
2018 France – Didier Deschamps, who captained France to victory in 1998, won his second World Cup as a manager in 2018.
2022 Argentina – Lionel Messi, one of the greatest soccer players the world has ever seen, won the only title that eluded him in one of the greatest World Cup finals in history. The match ended in a 2-2 draw with France after 90 minutes and a 3-3 draw after extra time, but Argentina won 4-2 in the penalty shootout.
Can you identify all 48 teams participating in the 2026 FIFA World Cup? Take the quiz here.
