World Cup Winners

May 19th, 2010 | by: Daryl |

UPDATE: Whoever wins the World Cup Final this year will be a first-time winner, so this list will expand from seven to eight teams.

It would be both trite and inaccurate to say that only World Cup winners are remembered. If that were true, then no one would talk about the Netherlands team of 1974 or the Mighty Magyars of 1954 or Zinedine Zidane in 2006.

However, for this post about World Cup winners… only winning the World Cup counts. Near miss? Not interested. Unfair refereeing decision? Doesn’t matter. All that matters below is who actually won the World Cup. Who is in that exclusive club. Read on for a list of World Cup winners:

1930 – Uruguay
1934 – Italy
1938 – Italy
1950 – Uruguay
1954 – West Germany
1958 – Brazil
1962 – Brazil
1966 – England
1970 – Brazil
1974 – West Germany
1978 – Argentina
1982 – Italy
1986 – Argentina
1990 – West Germany
1994 – Brazil
1998 – France
2002 – Brazil
2006 – Italy

Which makes the grand totals:
Brazil – 5
Italy – 4
Germany – 3
Argentina – 2
Uruguay – 2
England – 1
France – 1

Only seven different teams have ever won the World Cup. European teams have won nine World Cups and South American teams have won nine World Cups.

Individual players: Pelé is the individual player with the most World Cup winners medals. He has three (1958, 1962, 1970). However, he did not play in the 1962 final as he was injured in only his second game of the tournament.

Mário Zagallo also has three, but two as a player (1958, 1962) and one as a coach (1970).

Only two men have won the World Cup as both a player and a coach. Mário Zagallo was the first, as mentioned above, and Franz Beckenbauer equaled that feat by winning as a player in 1974 and as a coach in 1990. Men with the opportunity to match that achievement at World Cup 2010 are Brazil coach Dunga (1994 as a player) and Argentina coach Diego Maradona (1986 as a player).

Further reading: World Cup team histories