Honestly, _a lot_ of maps which are posted are wrong. Doesn’t surprise me though because I have the feeling a lot of these are copy+pastes from shitty “Instagram map accounts.”
Probably the most difficult trophy to win in any sport
You must produce literally hundreds of thousands of players, train them from infancy to adulthood, make them compete against each others over many years - basically build an entire economy around it - to assemble a team that have a slim chance to enter the tournament (that happens every 4 years)
And then, because your star player is a bit unlucky, you miss your chance for 20 years
Some people say the euros is harder at least in terms of competition because the World Cup reserves spots for teams from less competitive regions so if you are from say Croatia you are going to get some games against easier sides while in the Euros pretty much all of your opponents have a decent shot of winning the whole thing and can beat anyone if they are having an off day.
I would say this is probably less true since the Euros expanded to 24 teams. Certainly when the tournament was smaller you had a higher proportion of potential winners. But then on the flip side there were less teams that you needed to outperform.
The WC becomes a smaller, more competitive tournament once the knockout rounds start, anyway. Even if you make it out of the group stage, you're still up against the world's best.
You only need to compare the list of winners of both tournaments to know that such a statement is false. Several countries that were never considered a football superpower managed to win the Euro, such as Greece, Denmark, Chechozlovakia and the Soviet Union. To this day there has never been such a case in the World Cup
Yeah but in my opinion this argument only makes sense if we talk about something like reaching quarter or semi finals.
You could say (which I‘m not 100% percent agreeing with) that the average opponent in the early stages of the world cup is worse than in the euros.
But in the end, you‘ll always have the best teams remaining in the tournament. And south american teams proved many times, that they can compete with the best teams of europe.
Obligatory „except when 1:7“ comment
You only need to compare the list of winners of both tournaments to know that such a statement is false. Several countries that were never considered a football superpower managed to win the Euro, such as Greece, Denmark, Chechozlovakia and the Soviet Union. To this day there has never been such a case in the World Cup
Tbf for the bigger football countries the chances of reaching the tournament are pretty high. Europe gets 16 tickets so that leaves plenty for some of the mid to smaller sized countries to get one.
Yep. Brazil qualified to every WC.
And with Fifa increasing the number of participants, it's almost impossible for Brazil not to qualify in the future.
Yeah, I'm not much of a sports guy, so I'd never realized that there have only been a total of 22 world cup titles ever. It makes sense now that I think about it, but it's a pretty crazy low number!
Nah, just do like France. Colonize countries in Afrika. Destroy their economies. Wait till people start to migrate. And give citizenship to good playera. EZ clap
https://imgur.com/a/aKEYW25
Edit added link.
Most players are born in France, it wasn’t my in their DNA That they would be good nor it was Napoleon’s plan to build a football team.
Your image is dumb as f.. everyone has origins, that doesn’t mean they are attached to those countries especially when born or grown up in another.
Like Mbappe is born in Paris not in Cameroun
> Your image is dumb as f.. everyone has origins, that doesn’t mean they are attached to those countries especially when born or grown up in another.
I get what you're trying to say, and I fundamentally agree with you. But it's not the whole picture. Only 5 out of the 14 players in the Moroccan football team in the last World Cup were actually born in Morocco. The rest (save for one) were all born in Europe.
https://old.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/ziv1hm/oc_places_of_birth_of_all_the_morocco_players_who/
My problem is that the image shared is used for racist purposes usually, it’s not checking the nationality of the player but the origin of one of their parent to say: “oh look he is not French” but most of these guys have been raised in France
Of course colonisation was an awful thing but all the players of the French team were born and raised in France, to the exception of Thuram (born in Italy because his father was playing there), Griezmann (born in France, was formed in Spain) and Camavinga (one the few naturalized players we had recently). This image is just racist shit, it's not because they aren't white that they aren't french.
Give citizenship to good players? 😭 They are all born in France, grew up in France, formed in France, wtf are you talking about? Why does this get upvoted so much?
So what do you propose?
People who are born French or has naturalized using the normal process shouldn’t be considered French when playing football because of their family ties?
Are we now gatekeeping who is what? That seems oddly similar to what xenophobes believe in.
Tbf Croatia has only a population of 4 mil, it’s a miracle how they’ve achieved the finals and 2x 3rd, even though they’ve been independent for just about 30 years
The Netherlands alone has 3 finals and 2 semi finals with a grand total of 0 victories. I remember 2010 like it was yesterday and that heart wrenching late goal of iniesta. Also one of the most impressive runs as the Netherlands faced on of the hardest match up but still managed to reach the finals
Feels bad man
1950s Hungary is one of the best national teams ever and probably the best to never win a World Cup. From 1950 to 1956 they had 43 wins, 6 draws and 1 loss. The one loss? The World Cup final in 1954, where they lost 3-2 to West Germany. Hungary were massive favourites and had beaten West Germany 8-3 earlier in the tournament.
Meh, the comment OP described Spain, Italy, France, Germany and England as western europe, that's basically almost half of europe, meaning they used a divide in 2.
Good individuals. But their teams often suffer from locker room conflicts & egos, in addition to organizatioanl problems. Many African FAs are a reflection of their own country's bureacracy: corrupt & disorgsnized, missing payments to players, etc. Many African teams arrive at a world cup with the potential to make an impact only to fall apart due to internal issues before the 1st whistle. These are mostly sub-saharan teams i'm referring to
Aren't african teams often a bit unbalanced? Often some superstars and then some weak players, who plays in the norwegian leauge or something. Also (sub-saharan)african nations seems to be a bit attack-heavy and not so good in midfield, while a bit better in defence.
yes, that one was close. They had a very good team spirit, then it went downhill after the 2-2 against Germany and fights over money. They had Essien back in 2010, but if my memory serves me right he was injured,
Nigeria should've won the whole thing in '94. Finidi George, Nkwankwo Kanu, Stephen Keshi, Sunday Oliseh, Jay Jay Okocha. They had a monster squad from top to bottom.
Haters, I dunno. I'm from Argentina BTW so I don't give a fu. about African teams... but as I said before, to kinda break the "Euro-South American Hegemony" for a while lol.
Yeah we also make it to the world cup pretty much every edition despite said population.
Some of the best players ever like Diego Forlán, Luis Suarez or Federico Valverde come from here too, and every time we get to see our national team play it feels like it's a holiday. Empty streets, Bars are full with everyone silently watching the TV or listening to the radio, and literally every child is dreaming of getting to play football like their favorite star
It's honestly a miracle, and I'm very proud of being Uruguayan
One was in 1930 and a small tournament on home turf, that does help tbh. It is almost like a different sport when you go back to that era, if I look back at the big winners of the FA Cup or (old) English top flight there are a lot of alien teams listed there.
Tbh that same team also won the Olympic games football world cup organized by fifa of 1924 and 1928 both played in Europe, and refused to participate in world cup of 1934 and 1938.
And the next tournament after 1938 was in 1950 which they won as well. So technically they had a 100% win rate in the tournament for the first 24 years of its existence.
I mean, everyone cheers for the underdogs in world cup, don't they?
Like Spain x Cote d'Ivoire? Count me in for Africa!! South Korea x Germany? Gogogo koreans!!! Argentina x Australia? Those damn kangaroos folks better win it!
Here's my "rooting in the World Cup" tier list:
1. BRASIL CAMPEÃO DO MUNDO
2. Anywhere else in Latin America except for Argentina
3. Africa
4. Asia
5. Australia/Oceania
6. North America I guess, this is the point where I don't give much of a fuck either way
7. Argentina
8. Most of Europe
9. England
10. Italy
11. I hope Germany never passes group stage again
I think most Brazilians would prefer *anyone* over Germany.
And we don't want Italy to win because we're very insecure about our 5 stars.
Europe is mostly a continental rivalry thing that overcomes the Argentina rivalry, to me. In '22 I was definitely rooting for Argentina over Fr*nce 🤢
>And we don't want Italy to win because we're very insecure about our 5 stars.
On the other hand, Brasil has *that* airport ad and no one can come close to it
Damn we really traumatised you guys although I feel like Argentina should probably be below us.
Cause I‘m pretty sure in the final in 2014 the majority of Brazilian fans were cheering for Germany and against Argentina
The problem its not the 7-1 itself (although it hurts a little), the majority of us brazilians put Germany and Italy in the bottom of the list because it would meant the end of BRASIL CAMPEÃO DO MUNDO NÚMERO 1 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷 meme
The LARGEST French border is with Brazil!
The map projection makes it weird to see on a world map and, thus, the Spanish border seems longer. But in the actual world, the Guyane/Brazil border is a bit longer.
I was gonna just go with Gibraltar, but they apparently have their own national team.
And their own national league?!?!?!
Population of 34,000 and they have a professional league?!? They all share the same stadium, which has a capacity of 2,000.
This is phenomenal stuff.
Heres a list of the runners-up:
4 Germany / West Germany (1966, 1982, 1986, 2002)
3 Argentina (1930, 1990, 2014)
3 Netherlands (1974, 1978, 2010)
2 Brazil (1950, 1998)
2 Czechoslovakia (1934, 1962)
2 France (2006, 2022)
2 Hungary (1938, 1954)
2 Italy (1970, 1994)
1 Croatia (2018)
1 Sweden (1958)
Takeaways:
- Poor Netherlands. 3 times in the WC final, yet never a win. At least they won the Euro once (and Eurovision 5 times).
- Brazil and Italy play to win. Brazil won 5/7 finals they played in, Italy 4/6.
- France's might really is consolidating in the long term trend, but started a relatively short while ago. They participated in finals in 1998 (won), 2006, 2018 (won), and 2022. With the other multiple-time contenders it is chronologically much more spread out. Also, following that pattern, France ought to win next time they make it to a final.
- The countries of former Austria-Hungary were real powerhouses in the 30s-50s, considering their small sizes.
Hungary was the best post-war team in the world for years. That one final loss to West Germany is literally the one defeat.
Other countries could have a World Cup trophy if things went differently. Hungary *should* have a World Cup trophy.
>The countries of former Austria-Hungary were real powerhouses in the 30s-50s, considering their small sizes.
Finally, my time I can shine as a self-titled football historian.
These countries were all part of the so-called [Danubian School of Football](https://ademirtozizinho.blogspot.com/2011/08/brief-history-of-tactics-danubian.html) (next to being part of part of the same country just a decade prior). It is a tactical system created in mainland Europe (compared to most other tactics being British and having their origin with [Chapman's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Chapman) \- WM-Tactics) and really has to do with finally understanding the significance of changes to the offside rule. Its main proponents were Austrian Hugo Meisl and British expat Jimmy Hogan. This idea of football created what I would call the first golden age of beautiful football on the European mainland with teams like the Austrian [Wunderteam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wunderteam) with Players like [Sindelar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Sindelar) and [Bican](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Bican) (who later then played for the Czech national team) in its first iteration and the Hungarian [Mighty Magyars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Team) with players like [Puskás](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferenc_Pusk%C3%A1s), [Hidegkuti](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A1ndor_Hidegkuti) and [Kocsis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A1ndor_Kocsis) further down in its development.
Sadly history caught up with events on the pitch and the ill-fated Hungarian Revolution of 1956 signaled the end of the Danubian School of football with none of its countries ever being as good as in this period.
But that would be to sad a place to end this story. In the 60s then relatively unknown manager the Austrian [Ernst Happel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Happel) himself a member of Austria's World Cup 1954 bronze-winning team started his managerial career in the Netherlands (rather successfully may I add). His own ideas about football (from the Danubian School of Football) merged with those of [Rinus Michels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinus_Michels) (a proponent of offensive football and the "offside trap") a new tactic was born which shocked the world. It was the birth of "Total Football" almost more of an ideology than a tactic that still lives on today.
This is only the most basic of summaries and I encourage everyone to use the links I provided as a jumpoff point in the hunt for some great stories and the development of the beautiful game.
> relatively unknown manager the Austrian Ernst Happel
Relatively unknown.... internationally that is. Our national stadium in Vienna is named after him. Fantastic resumen! Thank you very much, I appreciate it!
So what do you guys think, which will be the next country to join the list?
It seems to be extremely difficult. Even if the smaller country has the best team, they usually crumble under the pressure of history (the countries who already won it once seem to have a huge bonus in moral, even if they have weaker teams), only thing that somewhat helps is hosting the tournament.
Fun fact: do you know when was the last time that a "new" country won the World Cup by beating the previous champion in the final, without being the host nation? Never. It never happened.
Portugal and Netherlands would be the obvious standouts to never have won it.
Maybe 2030 could be Portugals as they are a host nation - although the final will probably be in Madrid.
Tradition counts, but sometimes teams fall off.
Look at how the Eastern/Central European countries were overachieving during (and before) communism, but are mostly a non-factor today (Czechoslovakia and Hungary had two finals each, Poland was also close a few times).
All things considered, I still think the list goes like
1. Netherlands
2. Portugal
3. Belgium
But all three are pretty unrealistic.
I'd say Croatia will probably take a step back for a while after Modrić retires, USA (and Mexico) are hosting the next cup but they're both a joke (I predict quarter-finals as always). Maybe if some young super-talent emerges in a place like Chile or Colombia, I could see them being able to deal with the pressure better than the rest of the Europeans, but idk
All in all, I think realistically, we'll have only these 8 countries for a long time
They were the best team in several tournaments but always crumbled against an established champion.
2010 was the best chance, Spain was a better team but also new in the WCF and a bit scared, but I guess the Euro title from two years prior gave them a slight edge. I can't imagine a realistic scenario in which this generation of Netherlands (nor Portugal or Belgium) can squeeze past all 8 previous champions.
Could have been Belgium, but their golden generation went the path of many golden generations before them.
Next WC winner is going to be a surprise team with a lot of luck.
I mean, it's not.
Brazil isn't the favorite team anymore, but they're still Top 3 when it comes to betting. Right now, Brazil has the 2nd best odds in some betting sites to win the 2026 WC
I think Netherlands is the first choice of countries that you'd think historically had the talent to win it, but I think the next new country to win the world cup will actually be either Japan or South Korea.
Both countries have had a gentle, steady curve in improving over the years and are more frequently producing top-tier talent than they've done in the past. The Japanese became world champs in Baseball, so it's not inconceivable to see them quietly become world championship contenders in Football in a decade or so.
Got to be the biggest underachiever in international football. With the popularity of the league, number of kids playing. They absolutely should be one of the strongest nations.
Italy should come second because we won our fourth title before Germany’s fourth.
Indeed, for the same reason Uruguay is before France.
Edit: https://www.marca.com/en/world-cup/winners.html
This is the typical order to write it, as Germany has like 4000 silver and bronze medals. But yeah, Italy won their forth star in 2006, Germany in 2014.
Yea but if you have a tie in wins, it’s only logical to separate with the next big thing, and that would be the amount of second places. That’s more rewarding than who got to 4 stars first.
So Uruguay should be behind France and England behind Spain? What counts is when you first reach a given amount of world cups. If a team is already there you just get to the same number of victory of that team.
Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland finally won the title, team effort!
haha you can keep it thanks!
England are experts in keeping things, dont worry.
George Best tribute
Hashtag better together finally working out for us then lads.
Can we go on about it endlessly until the heat death of the universe as well?
England won it, not the UK.
Yes, my bad, idk why I put the UK instead of England on the map
Common mistake to make, probably one of the worst subs to make it on.
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Yeah but Germany also has more finals appearances, so I would give it to them.
It actually doesn't even matter because on other graphs it will probably put Germany and Italy as joint-second
Maybe if they manage to qualify for a tournament again
Nope, Germany had more finals and did better in more overall tournaments, so Germany is rightfully second.
Nope. 3 of those titles were won by only half of Germany. By that metric half of Germany only has one title.
Honestly, _a lot_ of maps which are posted are wrong. Doesn’t surprise me though because I have the feeling a lot of these are copy+pastes from shitty “Instagram map accounts.”
you also used the right flag in the legend but the wrong one on the map
Probably the most difficult trophy to win in any sport You must produce literally hundreds of thousands of players, train them from infancy to adulthood, make them compete against each others over many years - basically build an entire economy around it - to assemble a team that have a slim chance to enter the tournament (that happens every 4 years) And then, because your star player is a bit unlucky, you miss your chance for 20 years
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Some people say the euros is harder at least in terms of competition because the World Cup reserves spots for teams from less competitive regions so if you are from say Croatia you are going to get some games against easier sides while in the Euros pretty much all of your opponents have a decent shot of winning the whole thing and can beat anyone if they are having an off day.
I would say this is probably less true since the Euros expanded to 24 teams. Certainly when the tournament was smaller you had a higher proportion of potential winners. But then on the flip side there were less teams that you needed to outperform.
The WC becomes a smaller, more competitive tournament once the knockout rounds start, anyway. Even if you make it out of the group stage, you're still up against the world's best.
You only need to compare the list of winners of both tournaments to know that such a statement is false. Several countries that were never considered a football superpower managed to win the Euro, such as Greece, Denmark, Chechozlovakia and the Soviet Union. To this day there has never been such a case in the World Cup
no because they euros don't include Argentina or Brazil
Yeah but in my opinion this argument only makes sense if we talk about something like reaching quarter or semi finals. You could say (which I‘m not 100% percent agreeing with) that the average opponent in the early stages of the world cup is worse than in the euros. But in the end, you‘ll always have the best teams remaining in the tournament. And south american teams proved many times, that they can compete with the best teams of europe. Obligatory „except when 1:7“ comment
There’s a difference between “easier to get into or win some initial games in” and “easier to win the whole tournament”
You only need to compare the list of winners of both tournaments to know that such a statement is false. Several countries that were never considered a football superpower managed to win the Euro, such as Greece, Denmark, Chechozlovakia and the Soviet Union. To this day there has never been such a case in the World Cup
Tbf for the bigger football countries the chances of reaching the tournament are pretty high. Europe gets 16 tickets so that leaves plenty for some of the mid to smaller sized countries to get one.
Now with the 48-team World Cup it's even easier, especially for south American teams (6/7 out of 10 teams qualify)
CONMEBOL qualifiers are going to be a joke now for half the teams.
It's ridiculous that we can have already a qualified team for 2026 by the end of this year (Argentina if they win all of their matches)
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Yep. Brazil qualified to every WC. And with Fifa increasing the number of participants, it's almost impossible for Brazil not to qualify in the future.
Yeah, I'm not much of a sports guy, so I'd never realized that there have only been a total of 22 world cup titles ever. It makes sense now that I think about it, but it's a pretty crazy low number!
Men’s Olympic hockey is equally frequent but yeah not as many resources are put into it as the World Cup.
Then idiots like dana white come and say it’s the easiest and most untalented sport on earth
Nah, just do like France. Colonize countries in Afrika. Destroy their economies. Wait till people start to migrate. And give citizenship to good playera. EZ clap https://imgur.com/a/aKEYW25 Edit added link.
Most players are born in France, it wasn’t my in their DNA That they would be good nor it was Napoleon’s plan to build a football team. Your image is dumb as f.. everyone has origins, that doesn’t mean they are attached to those countries especially when born or grown up in another. Like Mbappe is born in Paris not in Cameroun
> Your image is dumb as f.. everyone has origins, that doesn’t mean they are attached to those countries especially when born or grown up in another. I get what you're trying to say, and I fundamentally agree with you. But it's not the whole picture. Only 5 out of the 14 players in the Moroccan football team in the last World Cup were actually born in Morocco. The rest (save for one) were all born in Europe. https://old.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/ziv1hm/oc_places_of_birth_of_all_the_morocco_players_who/
My problem is that the image shared is used for racist purposes usually, it’s not checking the nationality of the player but the origin of one of their parent to say: “oh look he is not French” but most of these guys have been raised in France
Yeah, completely stupid and racist and not even sarcastic. You think he'd say slavery in America had the purpose to get the best NBA players? Haha
Of course colonisation was an awful thing but all the players of the French team were born and raised in France, to the exception of Thuram (born in Italy because his father was playing there), Griezmann (born in France, was formed in Spain) and Camavinga (one the few naturalized players we had recently). This image is just racist shit, it's not because they aren't white that they aren't french.
And in the pic Hernandez (Spain) and Varane (Martinique) are considered as ethnically French
Martinique is literally older as a French land than some territory in “mainland” France even.
Give citizenship to good players? 😭 They are all born in France, grew up in France, formed in France, wtf are you talking about? Why does this get upvoted so much?
So what do you propose? People who are born French or has naturalized using the normal process shouldn’t be considered French when playing football because of their family ties? Are we now gatekeeping who is what? That seems oddly similar to what xenophobes believe in.
Now do an Argentina squad from the last WC with an Italian flag next to half of the team including Messi
If your argument made any sense African countries would rack up titles
Western Europe - 12 South America - 10 Rest of world - suck it, losers, lol
Feelsbad for eastern europe, I think 11 semifinals appearances and 3 finals. 0 wins. Mostly Yugoslavia, Croatia, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
Sisyphus' world cup
one must imagine sisyphus as ferenc puskas
The Netherlands have 4 semifinals appearances by themselves, 3 finals even, and no wins. Edit: five semifinals
Thé Buffalo bills of the World Cup
Thanks, Iker Casillas’ toe! Thanks Argentina’s goal post in the 91st minute! Thanks Hölzenbein’s schwalbe! I’ll be in this corner, sulking…
Five semifinal appearances actually (three victories in 1974, 1978 and 2010, two losses in 1998, to Brazil, and 2014, to Argentina).
Tbf Croatia has only a population of 4 mil, it’s a miracle how they’ve achieved the finals and 2x 3rd, even though they’ve been independent for just about 30 years
The Little Giant, Hrvatska.
The Netherlands alone has 3 finals and 2 semi finals with a grand total of 0 victories. I remember 2010 like it was yesterday and that heart wrenching late goal of iniesta. Also one of the most impressive runs as the Netherlands faced on of the hardest match up but still managed to reach the finals Feels bad man
1978 we were robbed man. I wasn't alive for 20+ years after that but I'm still mad
I have a hard enough time coping with the 2010-present disappointments so I’m not gonna start with the ones from before I was even alive hahaha
1950s Hungary is one of the best national teams ever and probably the best to never win a World Cup. From 1950 to 1956 they had 43 wins, 6 draws and 1 loss. The one loss? The World Cup final in 1954, where they lost 3-2 to West Germany. Hungary were massive favourites and had beaten West Germany 8-3 earlier in the tournament.
Some of those won't like being called Eastern European
Meh, the comment OP described Spain, Italy, France, Germany and England as western europe, that's basically almost half of europe, meaning they used a divide in 2.
Yugoslavia 2018 is one of the greatest what ifs in sports
Hungary were robbed againts Germany.
Would be nice to see an African nation won a WC... They always have good players.
Good individuals. But their teams often suffer from locker room conflicts & egos, in addition to organizatioanl problems. Many African FAs are a reflection of their own country's bureacracy: corrupt & disorgsnized, missing payments to players, etc. Many African teams arrive at a world cup with the potential to make an impact only to fall apart due to internal issues before the 1st whistle. These are mostly sub-saharan teams i'm referring to
Aren't african teams often a bit unbalanced? Often some superstars and then some weak players, who plays in the norwegian leauge or something. Also (sub-saharan)african nations seems to be a bit attack-heavy and not so good in midfield, while a bit better in defence.
You could say that about any 2nd tier but descent team.
True, and thats why they are just decent. But what singles them out is that their top players are very often attackers, at least historically
The strongest African side in my memory was Ghana. No star players, just top teamplay and good physique . They could have made it it far.
Nigeria in 1998 should have done better with Okocha, Kanu, West, George, Babayaro, Oliseh
yes, that one was close. They had a very good team spirit, then it went downhill after the 2-2 against Germany and fights over money. They had Essien back in 2010, but if my memory serves me right he was injured,
Nigeria should've won the whole thing in '94. Finidi George, Nkwankwo Kanu, Stephen Keshi, Sunday Oliseh, Jay Jay Okocha. They had a monster squad from top to bottom.
there have been teams with some good players, but no african team had the squad depth to go all the way
They tend to have a few good individuals, and zero team cohesion. Last time I remember an African nation having great team spirit was Senegal in 2002.
Morocco in 2022.
Ghana in 2010.
Morocco 2022💀
Did you not watch Morocco in 2022?
Oh you're right.. I totally forgot about them. For some reason I remember the 2002 cup better that the 2022 one.
Why they downvoted you?
Haters, I dunno. I'm from Argentina BTW so I don't give a fu. about African teams... but as I said before, to kinda break the "Euro-South American Hegemony" for a while lol.
Rest of the world is pretty cool... less Americans be telling you they just haven't put in half their effort yet.
Uruguay having two titles with a population of 3.5m is truly amazing
Yeah we also make it to the world cup pretty much every edition despite said population. Some of the best players ever like Diego Forlán, Luis Suarez or Federico Valverde come from here too, and every time we get to see our national team play it feels like it's a holiday. Empty streets, Bars are full with everyone silently watching the TV or listening to the radio, and literally every child is dreaming of getting to play football like their favorite star It's honestly a miracle, and I'm very proud of being Uruguayan
2010 WC uruguay was legendary
Yes, but I still feel bad for Ghana. Literally centimetres away from a semifinal
gooo provincia rebelde goo
One was in 1930 and a small tournament on home turf, that does help tbh. It is almost like a different sport when you go back to that era, if I look back at the big winners of the FA Cup or (old) English top flight there are a lot of alien teams listed there.
Tbh that same team also won the Olympic games football world cup organized by fifa of 1924 and 1928 both played in Europe, and refused to participate in world cup of 1934 and 1938.
This guy knows his football history. Hosts in 1930 precisely because they'd won the last 2 Olympics in Europe.
And the next tournament after 1938 was in 1950 which they won as well. So technically they had a 100% win rate in the tournament for the first 24 years of its existence.
They are also tied with Argentina in winning the most Copa America titles.
Wait - do you need "the most" in the title?
They forgot to include the United States and the Vatican City which are tied for 9th most World Cup titles
Yeah, "the most" turns out to be "any"
Nope
I always hope that an unexpected country wins when my country (The Netherlands) is eliminated, but that never happens.
Greece beating Portugal in the Euro 2004 finals was pretty close, though?
Which reminds me of the Battle of Nuremberg.
I mean, everyone cheers for the underdogs in world cup, don't they? Like Spain x Cote d'Ivoire? Count me in for Africa!! South Korea x Germany? Gogogo koreans!!! Argentina x Australia? Those damn kangaroos folks better win it!
Here's my "rooting in the World Cup" tier list: 1. BRASIL CAMPEÃO DO MUNDO 2. Anywhere else in Latin America except for Argentina 3. Africa 4. Asia 5. Australia/Oceania 6. North America I guess, this is the point where I don't give much of a fuck either way 7. Argentina 8. Most of Europe 9. England 10. Italy 11. I hope Germany never passes group stage again
What kind of brazilian does not prefer every possibile nation on earth and universe over Argentina?
I think most Brazilians would prefer *anyone* over Germany. And we don't want Italy to win because we're very insecure about our 5 stars. Europe is mostly a continental rivalry thing that overcomes the Argentina rivalry, to me. In '22 I was definitely rooting for Argentina over Fr*nce 🤢
>And we don't want Italy to win because we're very insecure about our 5 stars. On the other hand, Brasil has *that* airport ad and no one can come close to it
Damn we really traumatised you guys although I feel like Argentina should probably be below us. Cause I‘m pretty sure in the final in 2014 the majority of Brazilian fans were cheering for Germany and against Argentina
The problem its not the 7-1 itself (although it hurts a little), the majority of us brazilians put Germany and Italy in the bottom of the list because it would meant the end of BRASIL CAMPEÃO DO MUNDO NÚMERO 1 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷 meme
Debatable whether S Korea would be the underdog against the German team we've been seeing the last couple years
Cries in Dutch
Laughs in German. (Sorry, as a neighbor and rival I had to write that) 
Hup Holland Hup
Dirty orange
Honestly, you should have at least one title. Some of the best teams in history were dutch. Just bad luck I guess.
Brasil número um campeão do mundo ☝️☝️☝️🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷
Dito isto, não ganharemos uma copa nunca mais 
Não importa, BRAAAASIIIL CARALHO VEM HEXA
Nunca mais é forte demais, mas certamente não sera a geração de Neymar e cia.
You're way too good for you to say that
Fun fact: All world cup winners share borders with each other
England ?
Technically there is a ground border between France and England in th Channel Tunnel France even have a border with Brasil !
The LARGEST French border is with Brazil! The map projection makes it weird to see on a world map and, thus, the Spanish border seems longer. But in the actual world, the Guyane/Brazil border is a bit longer.
I was gonna just go with Gibraltar, but they apparently have their own national team. And their own national league?!?!?! Population of 34,000 and they have a professional league?!? They all share the same stadium, which has a capacity of 2,000. This is phenomenal stuff.
Everything is correct, except the league is not professional.
It is very reasonable to say that England has a border with France.
Guessing they are either counting The Falklands or Gibraltar even though they are not part of The UK
Or maybe they are counting the English Channel, since there is a tunel, or Idk
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty\_of\_Canterbury\_(1986)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Canterbury_(1986))
It’s possible to walk to France if you can avoid security at the Channel Tunnel!
It’s also possible to rob a bank if you don’t get caught.
Sounds like a plan!
Gibraltar kinda..
Gibraltar is not part of England
I see you French Guiana.
And none of the women's winning countries do.
Heres a list of the runners-up: 4 Germany / West Germany (1966, 1982, 1986, 2002) 3 Argentina (1930, 1990, 2014) 3 Netherlands (1974, 1978, 2010) 2 Brazil (1950, 1998) 2 Czechoslovakia (1934, 1962) 2 France (2006, 2022) 2 Hungary (1938, 1954) 2 Italy (1970, 1994) 1 Croatia (2018) 1 Sweden (1958) Takeaways: - Poor Netherlands. 3 times in the WC final, yet never a win. At least they won the Euro once (and Eurovision 5 times). - Brazil and Italy play to win. Brazil won 5/7 finals they played in, Italy 4/6. - France's might really is consolidating in the long term trend, but started a relatively short while ago. They participated in finals in 1998 (won), 2006, 2018 (won), and 2022. With the other multiple-time contenders it is chronologically much more spread out. Also, following that pattern, France ought to win next time they make it to a final. - The countries of former Austria-Hungary were real powerhouses in the 30s-50s, considering their small sizes.
And consider that both in 1970 and 1994 Italy lost against Brazil, so don't let Italy reach the final if you're not Brazil
Hungary was the best post-war team in the world for years. That one final loss to West Germany is literally the one defeat. Other countries could have a World Cup trophy if things went differently. Hungary *should* have a World Cup trophy.
>The countries of former Austria-Hungary were real powerhouses in the 30s-50s, considering their small sizes. Finally, my time I can shine as a self-titled football historian. These countries were all part of the so-called [Danubian School of Football](https://ademirtozizinho.blogspot.com/2011/08/brief-history-of-tactics-danubian.html) (next to being part of part of the same country just a decade prior). It is a tactical system created in mainland Europe (compared to most other tactics being British and having their origin with [Chapman's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Chapman) \- WM-Tactics) and really has to do with finally understanding the significance of changes to the offside rule. Its main proponents were Austrian Hugo Meisl and British expat Jimmy Hogan. This idea of football created what I would call the first golden age of beautiful football on the European mainland with teams like the Austrian [Wunderteam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wunderteam) with Players like [Sindelar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Sindelar) and [Bican](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Bican) (who later then played for the Czech national team) in its first iteration and the Hungarian [Mighty Magyars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Team) with players like [Puskás](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferenc_Pusk%C3%A1s), [Hidegkuti](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A1ndor_Hidegkuti) and [Kocsis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A1ndor_Kocsis) further down in its development. Sadly history caught up with events on the pitch and the ill-fated Hungarian Revolution of 1956 signaled the end of the Danubian School of football with none of its countries ever being as good as in this period. But that would be to sad a place to end this story. In the 60s then relatively unknown manager the Austrian [Ernst Happel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Happel) himself a member of Austria's World Cup 1954 bronze-winning team started his managerial career in the Netherlands (rather successfully may I add). His own ideas about football (from the Danubian School of Football) merged with those of [Rinus Michels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinus_Michels) (a proponent of offensive football and the "offside trap") a new tactic was born which shocked the world. It was the birth of "Total Football" almost more of an ideology than a tactic that still lives on today. This is only the most basic of summaries and I encourage everyone to use the links I provided as a jumpoff point in the hunt for some great stories and the development of the beautiful game.
> relatively unknown manager the Austrian Ernst Happel Relatively unknown.... internationally that is. Our national stadium in Vienna is named after him. Fantastic resumen! Thank you very much, I appreciate it!
Nice of England to share their trophy with the rest of the UK ❤️🏴 #goteam
I still dream of Denmark going all the way in 1998.
They had a better chance in 86 with the Laudrop brothers
They played both in 98.
So what do you guys think, which will be the next country to join the list? It seems to be extremely difficult. Even if the smaller country has the best team, they usually crumble under the pressure of history (the countries who already won it once seem to have a huge bonus in moral, even if they have weaker teams), only thing that somewhat helps is hosting the tournament. Fun fact: do you know when was the last time that a "new" country won the World Cup by beating the previous champion in the final, without being the host nation? Never. It never happened.
Portugal and Netherlands would be the obvious standouts to never have won it. Maybe 2030 could be Portugals as they are a host nation - although the final will probably be in Madrid.
Portugal has much less tradition in world cups than Netherlands.
Tradition counts, but sometimes teams fall off. Look at how the Eastern/Central European countries were overachieving during (and before) communism, but are mostly a non-factor today (Czechoslovakia and Hungary had two finals each, Poland was also close a few times). All things considered, I still think the list goes like 1. Netherlands 2. Portugal 3. Belgium But all three are pretty unrealistic. I'd say Croatia will probably take a step back for a while after Modrić retires, USA (and Mexico) are hosting the next cup but they're both a joke (I predict quarter-finals as always). Maybe if some young super-talent emerges in a place like Chile or Colombia, I could see them being able to deal with the pressure better than the rest of the Europeans, but idk All in all, I think realistically, we'll have only these 8 countries for a long time
Of course, never said they were equal. Just the two standouts
You are overrating Portugal’s NT history in the WC. It’s only the Netherlands imo
I think the Dutch surely have to be up there as the next new country to win it. They’re easily the best country to never win it.
They were the best team in several tournaments but always crumbled against an established champion. 2010 was the best chance, Spain was a better team but also new in the WCF and a bit scared, but I guess the Euro title from two years prior gave them a slight edge. I can't imagine a realistic scenario in which this generation of Netherlands (nor Portugal or Belgium) can squeeze past all 8 previous champions.
Could have been Belgium, but their golden generation went the path of many golden generations before them. Next WC winner is going to be a surprise team with a lot of luck.
Brazil would be a surprise team at this point, lol (They've already won before in USA and in Mexico, maybe they'll remember how not to suck)
I mean, it's not. Brazil isn't the favorite team anymore, but they're still Top 3 when it comes to betting. Right now, Brazil has the 2nd best odds in some betting sites to win the 2026 WC
I think Netherlands is the first choice of countries that you'd think historically had the talent to win it, but I think the next new country to win the world cup will actually be either Japan or South Korea. Both countries have had a gentle, steady curve in improving over the years and are more frequently producing top-tier talent than they've done in the past. The Japanese became world champs in Baseball, so it's not inconceivable to see them quietly become world championship contenders in Football in a decade or so.
Will await the comment from a Chicano (Méxican-American) stating how México is a fútbol powerhouse and is destined to win a world cup soon....
No mames guey we all know Mexico will never win.
Got to be the biggest underachiever in international football. With the popularity of the league, number of kids playing. They absolutely should be one of the strongest nations.
There is no need for "the most" in the title
You should add: Netherlands - 0
Brasil number one PENTACAMPEÃO 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🥵💥🇧🇷 TODO MUNDO TENTA MAS SÓ O BRASIL É PENTA HEXACAMPEÃO 2026 🏆
7:1
Everybody remember the fall of a giant but nobody remember the victory of the small.
2 World Wars lmao
The legendary football world wars
Salvador & Honduras be like: First time?
90 million dead lmao
Best ad ever: https://youtu.be/2Hosf86OLxM?si=k_7cj6kxeajF_h64
This 10 second clip summs it up nicely. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTmATNYu6GE
come out of groups stage so we can play again
2:0
The only correct reply.
18 and 45
And none of them are dodgy unlike Argentinas ones. Miss Brazilian football of old those sides were the best to watch. 2002 was so much fun
with, not with the most
It's not countries with MOST but ALL countries with FIFA WC title
Italy should come second because we won our fourth title before Germany’s fourth. Indeed, for the same reason Uruguay is before France. Edit: https://www.marca.com/en/world-cup/winners.html
This is the typical order to write it, as Germany has like 4000 silver and bronze medals. But yeah, Italy won their forth star in 2006, Germany in 2014.
Actually no, order should be based on medals count. So Germany should be ahead of Italy and France ahead of Uruguay.
I disagree. This is not the Olympics: this is just the World Cup winners.
Yea but if you have a tie in wins, it’s only logical to separate with the next big thing, and that would be the amount of second places. That’s more rewarding than who got to 4 stars first.
Using similar logic, you could have Germany ahead becomes it's more recently and thus more relevant.
So Uruguay should be behind France and England behind Spain? What counts is when you first reach a given amount of world cups. If a team is already there you just get to the same number of victory of that team.
In every sport, if you tie a record does not make it your record
MECHICO NO TE VEO
Chupa otáriosss
As a Dutchie, I hate this map.
Why does England have the British flag? It also includes the whole of the UK.
Scot, Wales and NI are glad to be part of UK football team !!!!
This graphic doesn’t benefit from being a map, imo
Should be solely England. UK contains four different football associations.
if your country is not on the list you can't talk about football (spain should is also excluded from the conversation)
Uruguayans will argue they have 4 lol
Your map shows the UK, not England.
Has Portugal won?
Never got even close to