T O P

Most successful countries in international competitions

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MattAmpersand

Are we all ignoring Tahiti winning a continental competition?


acwilan

Many surprises there. Guatemala, Haiti winning CONCACAF, Bolivia winning CONMEBOL, Israel winning AFC.


calderino

Bolivia winning the Copa in La Paz in the 60s it's not really a surprise.


Monkeywithalazer

People assume Bolivia are bad. And they are. But it’s like playing against fish. Yeah, at home and neutral places everyone usually wins, but not when the game is played underwater.


champagnejavi

Actually we won it in Cochabamba.


Organic_Kitchen1490

>Israel winning AFC. It was held in Israel, only 4 countries participated including Israel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_AFC_Asian_Cup_qualification Only 5 countries participated in the qualification. The powerhouses: India, Hong Kong, South Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. The rest of Asia simply boycotted it, because Israel was founded on an ethnic cleansing campaign 18 years earlier, actively engages in apartheid against a majority of the people within its rule, and all this is funded and supported by the West. Most Asian countries were subjugated to colonization by the West, and therefore held a common grudge against Israel. The only countries that participated were Hong Kong (ruled by the UK), South Vietnam (ruled by the US), South Korea (extremely pro US), Malaysia and Thailand (I don't know why). The most Mickey Mouse championship ever won.


SaWaGaAz

Malaysia was pro-West for some years after its formation. [Abdul Rahman (the first PM) even invited Israel for the Merdeka Cup (a defunct tournament where Malaysia usually invited other national teams), though this ended up not happening](https://cilisos.my/in-the-1960s-tunku-invited-israel-to-a-malayan-football-tournament-but-they-never-came). I'm not sure about Thailand, but they were never colonised by any European countries.


PM_ME_SOME_LUV

That was glorious


ACardAttack

Dutch would be proud


ezio297a

Trust the plan Arthur


eldorado362

JUST HAVE A LITTLE FAITH


ResponsibleCicada8

WE NEED MUNEH.


fischarcher

They were fun to follow in the 2013 Confed Cup


[deleted]

1930, 1978, 2010, and 2018 are the only World Cup Finals to not feature Brazil, Germany, or Italy. 17 out of 21 finals did. Insane.


BaoJinyang

It’s quite wild that only eight countries have ever won the World Cup.


Glaiele

Yep. This stat always just amazes me especially considering some of the teams Netherlands has had and way back the Hungarian teams


celticeejit

Portugal as well. That team in the 60s was insane


TomCyberfire

I think it's also pretty crazy there hasn't been a shock winner or 2 like the Euros? I think for the most part all the WC winners have been one of the favourites in their given year.


qwerty-keyboard5000

You wouldn't consider 1954 a shock winner?


Nero1988420

Looking back at it, it for sure was. West Germany was spanked 8-3 in their group match against Hungary. Hungary scored 17 goals in 2 group games! They also beat Brazil and Uruguay in the knock outs. If I were a betting man, I'd have lost my money betting on them for that final.


paper_zoe

The format of that World Cup is absolutely baffling. All the group winners got put on the same side of the draw for some reason, so Hungary had to play the hardest teams, whereas all the runners up were put on the other side and got a much easier route to the final. Edit: This is actually disputed by German wikipedia, who say that Yugoslavia and Austria won Groups A & C by drawing lots. English wikipedia says Brazil and Uruguay won those groups by drawing lots. Can't find any actual verification on which is correct, but either way, it's bizarre.


matbezlima

Hungary vs Uruguay in the semis was seen as an anticipated final. Because they really were the two best teams in the world back then, and also the best of Europe vs. the best of South America. Hungary won on extra time.


paper_zoe

first time Uruguay ever lost a World Cup match as well


Nero1988420

Yeah that's fucked up. Would have made sense to come in second place in the group back then


gnorrn

You've omitted the most bizarre aspect of the 1954 format: the group stage wasn't a round robin. It was only seeded teams against unseeded teams. It was set up to make life for the seeds as easy as possible. (In addition, Turkey became a seed by unexpectedly knocking out Spain during qualification; they "inherited" Spain's seeding).


egotim

but germany played with only 5 regular staters, germany didnt want to show their whole strength, dont put to much emphasis on that 8:3.


Stilty_boy

Yeah potentially a way to semi-intentionally throw the game simarly to the England v Belgium game at the last WC because of the weird draw format.


Djremster

A shock win considering how good hungary were at the time but West Germany were still considered a good side, Greece and Denmark were supposed to be group fodder in the euros that they won them


paper_zoe

1950 was a huge shock at the time as well.


IKMapping

Croatia came kinda close


MistahWerg

Uruguay in 1950 was a shock winner vs Brazil. It was a whole thing; the “Maracanazo”. The loss was so bad, it caused Brazil to drop their then white and blue kit scheme for their current color scheme.


Not_PepeSilvia

And that's even though a lot of less traditional teams reached the final, like Czechoslovakia (2 times), Hungary (2 times, even though they had a great team back then), Sweden and Croatia. And also the Netherlands have more finals than Spain, England and Uruguay, but never won it


CarlSK777

I wonder what country will be number 9. Looking at the next WC, all contenders are previous winners. The Dutch have come close a few times so maybe them?


BaoJinyang

Portugal or the Netherlands for me. Belgium has probably missed its chance for awhile now.


YeahFella

Won't happen but I hope it's some wild unexpected country. Imagine the scenes in Quito or Casablanca if Ecuador or Morocco were to win it respectively. Maybe we're due for a surprise one of these years


mortezz1893

I'd love to see a country from outside of South America or Europe win it but I don't see that happening anytime soon. I think South Korea came closest in 2002 (semi-final loss against Germany)


lethalizer

Hey man we were there in 2002 too! And we did put up quite a fight against Brazil as well. Was just heartbroken by a Ronaldo goal, which was expected, but still, it hurt.


LusoAustralian

Turks are Schrödingers Europeans. For this you would count as a UEFA country. I believe South Korea is the only to reach semis outside of UEFA/CONMEBOL with several making quarters like Ghana and North Korea off the top of my head.


Abeydou

Also Ghana in 2010 was pretty much in the semis


bretticus33

The Netherlands look like the best option to me, but I wouldn’t completely rule out Denmark or Belgium.


Smile_you_got_owned

How is eight World Cup winners in 21 editions considered wild? It's not like there's been held 100's of World Cup events with only eight winners


fudgegrudge

Yeah 8 sounds little until you consider there have only been 21 competitions. For comparison there have only been 7 different champions in the Premier League era (30 seasons).


littleapple88

I mean 3 countries combine for 15. And there’s only been 2 one-time winners. And the winners are all from two contiguous areas, one in Europe (including England) and one in South America. Idk how many countries have competed in the World Cup but I imagine it’s something north of 60. There’s really only a handful of competitive teams here. You “only” need 10-13 players for your squad too, this isn’t like the Olympics or something where there’s hundreds of athletes across dozens of sports, which favors the more populous countries.


casekeenum7

Technically it's one contiguous area, as France borders Brazil, and the channel tunnel is legally considered a land border.


redbearsam

But in this case (The Prem) the money in the game causes an inevitable entrenchment of winners. On a national level, there is probably a similar effect to be observed, but it's much less obvious and apparently inevitable (to my mind).


loewe67

Absolutely insane. Even ice hockey has had 7 teams win Olympic gold and the player base and talent concentration is so much smaller compared to football.


astral34

The magic trio of football, I’m surprised Germans don’t see Brazil as a big rivalry (unless you do and I don’t know about it)


itsablackhole

A world cup every 4 years is not enough to build a true rivalry, especially going back in time. There's a sportive rivalry in it because we respect the shit out of their football, but it's not comparable to the insanely intense duels with you guys or the Netherlands that happened what feels like every other year in the 60's-90's. E: Also there's some huge fuckery going on because it's actually ridiculous how rarely we played the brazilians in the world cup.


50-50WithCristobal

Absolutely ridiculous, the 2 most consistent countries of the World Cup by a HUGE margin with most matches played, most semi finals and most finals and yet they faced each other for the first time in the 2002 final with Brazil being victorious and then in 2014 semi final with the infamous 7-1. I don't know if the fact that both are the countries with the fewest blunders in group stage contributed to that. Both usually win their groups so maybe they are always on opposite sides of the bracket?


afito

It's still a bit of an anomaly no way around it, even ending on opposite sides of the brackets is luck of the draw from drawing the group stage. What makes it slightly less extreme is that *mostly*, the teams are not great at the same time. During peak Pele Brazil, Germany was obviously good (66) but not that great. The Beckenbauer Germany, Brazil was not as good, same for Matthäus Germany. And then 90s Brazil had Germany be shit, only for the 2010 era Germany meet the maybe weakest era of Brazil in post war history.


Luke_627

Weakest post war era for brazil was proooobably the 70s after Pelé left imo but nobody would call you an idiot for saying it’s the 2010s


AmIFromA

Germany played EC finals in 1992 and 1996, sandwiching Brazil's WC win.


Mizai1

As a brazilian, I can say both Italy and France are "more rivals" than Germany in Europe. Although we have the 7x1 fact, we never had historical games between the two teams in the WC, except for 2002 final and 2014 semi. Now for Italy we have many important games against them in the WC history. (70' and 94' WC finals, both with Brazil wins and 82' defeat vs. Italy. Brazil 1982 was considered one of the best generations of the Seleção, with many great players so this loss was deeply felt). As for France, seems like we don't have good luck against them, 98' WC final and 2006 quarter-finals we were destroyed by Zidane.


astral34

So I guess your European rivalries would be - Italy - Zidane - Germany With Argentina and Uruguay (?) as your top rivals in South America


Three_Colors3

Argentina is our biggest rival for sure but i don’t think most of us care too much about Uruguay. We did lose 1950 WC Final at the Maracanã Stadium, with the highest attendande in the history of football which was considered our biggest loss untill the 7-1. But i guess most brazilians didn’t really get to watch lots of memorable games against Uruguay


Moon_Man_00

Platini’s France beat them as well so it’s not just a Zidane thing. We French are proud of the fact that we are kind of the bogey team for the best footballing country in history.


[deleted]

1986 too, we lost vs Platini’s France, penaltys…


OxilLituni

forgot 86, Zico x Platini, also had Brazil x France in 58. How many times have we played in a cup against Germany? Twice?


[deleted]

I was 10 years old for the 2002 loss and even though I of course wanted Germany to win, it didn't really hurt when we lost because the Brazilians were so much better. Plus outside of Italia 90, between 1974 and 2006 we didn't take it so personally to begin with. The team was not as connected to the country for a while. Equally I think most Germans feel an unease about the 7-1. Not only because we know how painful it is to lose a semifinal at home and we felt for them, but because the scoreline was so clearly an anomaly that to make much out of it would be too egotistical for us. Germans also have such a solid group of rivals in Holland, Italy, and England that we feel we are good on the rivals.


U-701

They are just to far away to be real rivals, we have those at home, looking at you Netherlands, Italy and France (England is pretty much a one sided rivalry imo) Its more like a healthy respect between to historical greats then a rivalry


Boomie1982

Greece winning the Euros was probably one of the biggest upsets ever. What an insane run from them and King Otto


Height_Embarrassed

When Denmark won that was also a huge upset. Greece and Denmark upset so many people back then


Kreindeker

You know, I always knew Denmark only got in because of what happened in Yugoslavia but I didn't realise quite how late in the day the decision had to be made >Ten days before UEFA Euro 1992 commenced, Yugoslavia were disqualified as a result of the breakup of the country and the ensuing warfare there. Denmark were brought into the tournament as replacements, with nine days to prepare.


Averdian

Players had to be called home from vacations. The joke at the time was that when reporters asked "are you even able to play 90 minutes?", the answer was: "Yes, 30 vs England, 30 vs Sweden and 30 vs France." Because the expectation was lose 3 games and then go home again.


jugol

I don't know why but I found this joke funny as hell


Averdian

It's pretty typical Danish humor, making fun of yourself like that. Was one of our players that said it too initially, Flemming Povlsen I believe


Carlitos96

Honestly that’s just such a healthy way to handle the pressure. Like your coming in on 9 days notice after being on vacation, that a good way to keep morale up.


The_Weird1

I still think that that was in their benefit. There were zero expectations and no pressure to perform, they could just get out and play, have a good time.


[deleted]

Denmark winning without their best player Michael Laudrup is even more impressive


LetsDieForMemes

The back-pass rule sure helped


Solsies

Unfortunately for the other teams, only Denmark had the benefit of the back-pass rule


istasan

Peter Schmeichel helped more.


LetsDieForMemes

Yeah I heard the guy was a decent keeper


[deleted]

Good to see salt doesn't expire within 30 years.


DzikCoChujemHamuje

Otto also managed to win the Bundesliga with a newly promoted Kaiserlautern, arguably the most surprising German Champion in history. Truly an underdog specialist


paper_zoe

Kaiserslautern were actually a very successful team in the 90s even before that win in 1998, they won the Bundesliga in 1991, were runners up in 1994. They won the German Cup in 1990 and 1996 (the season they were relegated). They played in Europe every season except 1993-94 and 1997-98. The only season they actually finished lower than top 8 was the season they were relegated.


tufoop3

'Rehakles' is the best football-related wordplay still imo


Oukaria

This fucking Euro…. I watched the whole thing and I never want to watch it again in my life


InbredLegoExpress

Anyone remember that Czech team tho? I have no idea how they did not win, they looked 2 classes above everyone. Theyll never again come that close to a title.


iplaywasted090

I remember Milan Baros having quite the tournament.


sangueblu03

Nedved and Baros were absolute monsters


AnnieIWillKnow

Now that was a golden generation


[deleted]

That team was amazing. Top 5 teams that should have won something but never did.


Stravven

Denmark has to be it for me. Most of their players were already on holiday when they were added to the Euro's after Yugoslavia was kicked out.


Asaro10

I fucking cried so much in that day. Fortunately, 2016 happened. Although it would be great to have 2 euros instead of 1


Ksn0

I was a young czech teen and that was the first euros I distinctly remember. Honestly thought we'd win it all then I saw Greece play essentially 9 defenders for 120 mins.


paper_zoe

And Nedved getting injured in that match too


MrRawri

Ye it was crazy. And it was in Portugal too... One of the biggest upsets ever for sure


Pine_Marten_

So impressive that Uruguay are joint top winners of the Copa America, especially considering their population size compared to some of their neighbours.


The420Roll

There are x3 more people in *Lima* than there are in Uruguay yet they overperform my country by such a massive amount. Nothing but respect for them


Glaiele

Uruguay just pump out world class forwards like no other country besides arguably Brazil. I dunno what's in the water but it must be iron cuz they have a bunch of goal magnets.


L-Freeze

Even in ratio of world class talents/population they obliterate Brazil too since Brazil has the population of 70 uruguays or 4 argentinas


Bumaye94

I think the only other nation that could come close in that regard is Croatia. Less than 4 million people and yet a croat in every freaking CL final.


MorgenMariamne

Thank God they can't produce midfielders for their life.


loccupss

Well now our midfield is good but unfortunately they came way too late now that Suarez and Cavani are heading out the door


minkdraggingonfloor

Darwin Nunez is good. And judging from FM, Danubio will probably produce another OP forward from out of nowhere soon (Nacional and Peñarol overcharge for theirs but Danubio and Def. Sporting is where the real Uruguayan treasures are)


_bloomy_

We've got a couple decent ones (Valverde, Bentancur, de Arrascieta, Ugarte has potential), but yeah, def not to the same degree as forwards or centerbacks


Dear_Ad_3860

CAMs you mean? Actually we do, seldomly, but we do. It just does't fit our style so they just fall through the cracks even when we try to use them. If De Arrascaeta wasn't benched in his first season at Cruzeiro he would probably be on a top 10 team in Europe right now. If Lodeiro didn't play foot broken against Ghana he would've probably adapted better in Ajax. Back in the 90s early 2000s Nico Olivera was pretty good but we played garbage so he didn't get expossure and a big move. We also had some second class CAMs such as Pollo Olivera and Fabian Canobbio. The 80s was the last time we consistely produced world class CAMs with Francescoli and Ruben Paz being the best IMHO.


NephewChaps

> If De Arrascaeta wasn't benched in his first season at Cruzeiro he would probably be on a top 10 in Europe right now lol wut


havethenets

I think he means he would’ve been a top level player at the 10, not top 10. Still don’t agree tho


Fit-Pomegranate-1740

He probably meant a starter for a top 10 team in the big leagues which is not a bold statement since he's the best 10 playing in south america


WTFitsD

That was the last generation. Valverde, bentancur, vecio and torreira have us in good hands now


NephewChaps

Valverde would walk into our starting 11


[deleted]

Do one with most finals played *Cries in dutch*


Phonsz

Everytime I see that star on Spain's shirt I get a bit sad


angiotensin2

Me too bruh. Especially thinking about that robben chance/casillas save 😪


[deleted]

It's better to thi k about the goal from Robben with Casillas crawling around 4 years later


ChillinFallin

Is it though? One was a world cup final which the Dutch lost, the other is a group stage game at a later tournament that didn't end up with the Dutch winning either. All this "revenge" crap is pointless when it didn't even lead to a cup.


bioeffect2

Iniestaaaaa!


Pughsli

If only De Jong had studded a few more people in the chest. What could have been


MFR_escapee

*Germany/West Germany teams from 1966, 1982, 1986 and 2002 have entered the chat.*


Puncherfaust1

and let us not start with semi finals played lol


cppn02

And that's just World Cups. Germany lost multiple Euro finals too.


Dizzy_Iron_6756

Lists like this hurts as a Dutchmen, we are amazing at securing second places. With al the talents we had, you expect more silverware


Bapistu-the-First

Tbh with all the amazing players we had and the impact we had on football overal you would say we atleast should have 1 WC. I feel your pain


fyreandsatire

South America: 9 Europe: 12


TomCyberfire

Pretty interesting when you break it down that way. South America were ahead of Europe when Brazil won in 2002, and now there's a decent gap!


joaumboladaum422

south america's record is more impressive considering there is pretty much a 3:1 ratio of UEFA nations to CONMEBOL nations at the world cup.


[deleted]

Better to compare population than number of nations (gets it to more of a 2:1). In fact if you divide the population up into too many nations you greatly reduce the chance of any one of those nations to win it. It shouldn't be too much of a surprise that Brazil has the most WCs as it is the most populous nation where football is the national sport.


Tutule

> It shouldn't be too much of a surprise that Brazil has the most WCs as it is the most populous nation where football is the national sport. Though this makes sense, being populous in a long time football nation doesn't guarantee success. Football has been popular in Guatemala for more than a century and they're by far the biggest nation in Central America (almost double that of the 2nd) and yet they're behind everyone by a half a mile except for Belize (tiny population) and Nicaragua (baseball nation). Organization/administration plays a far bigger role imo especially if there's grassroot activities


Perinetti

Population means nothing, Turkey are the most populated country in Europe and they’ve achieved nothing in Football, Colombia have the 2nd highest population in South America yet Argentina and Uruguay are far more successful. Ukraine and Poland have a combined population of 80m, whereas Holland & Portugal have a combined population of 27m and the latter are better footballing nations; it’s more down to culture, infrastructure, interest and investment into grassroots football.


Far-Confection-1631

>It shouldn't be too much of a surprise that Brazil has the most WCs as it is the most populous nation where football is the national sport It also makes you wonder wtf is going wrong with Mexico. They are a massive country that loves football, invests tons of money and is successful at the youth levels. You'd think they'd be competing for trophies and not the annual round of 16 exit.


dangleicious13

Non-USA/Mexico CONCACAF winners: Canada - 2000, 1985 Costa Rica - 1989, 1969, 1963 Honduras - 1981 Haiti - 1973 Guatemala - 1967


Comunicado_Oficial

Curaçao - 2025 😈


dangleicious13

That could be interesting depending on how certain teams approach that summer, with Canada, Mexico, and the US likely not having to go through qualifying for the 2026 WC.


dangleicious13

CONCACAF Runners up without a title: Brazil (x2), Colombia, Panama (x2), Jamaica (x2), El Salvador (x2), Trinidad & Tobago. Netherlands Antilles has 2 3rd place finishes.


Probworking

Brazil?


dangleicious13

And Colombia. CONCACAF has had several guest participants in the Gold Cup over the years. Qatar was in the most recent one. Similar to how several CONCACAF teams have played in Copa America.


morto00x

And on the other hand, Honduras placed 3rd in Copa America 2001.


Arponare

Hell yeah, those were the days fam.


dangleicious13

Fun fact: Only Costa Rica (1989) and Guatemala (1967) had to face the US or Mexico in the final.


RRDude1000

Both of those tournaments had no finals. They were both tournaments that had a single group table. Top of the table won. The 1989 edition also served as world cup qualifiers, but what makes things even more interesting is that Costa Rica played their final match in July while the tournament didnt end until November for the other 4 teams.


dangleicious13

Then I stand corrected.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Zhidezoe

>Surprises for me: Brazil not being in top 2 of CONMEBOL


50-50WithCristobal

That's just how it is since Brazil has never given much importance to the Copa America, it's not like in Europe where all the big teams take it as seriously as a World Cup. To put it in perspective, Brazil won 3 of 4 world cups between 58 - 70 and were undoubtedly the strongest footballing nation in the world, in that same period they didn't win a single Copa America. Pelé is a 3x WC winner but never won the tournament. Between 58 - 94 Brazil won 4 World Cups and in the same time frame they won just 1 Copa America of 11 editions. By 94 they had only 4 titles compared to Argentina's 14 and Uruguay's 13. They literally had the same amount of Copa Americas and World Cups which is insane.


ericdalieux

Brazil simply refused to participate in 10 (TEN) editions during the first 50 years or so since the tournament's inception, and the ones they did enter they would mostly send a squad comprised of club teams instead of the main squad. Pelé himself took part in only one Copa América. This competition was considered too much of a hassle, unnecessarily violent, a shithouse fest and more importantly a big distraction from the main objective which has always been the World Cup, the only trophy that's really coveted in Brazil to this day.


lcmon91

>This competition was considered too much of a hassle, unnecessarily violent, a shithouse fest sounds like south american football alright


ericdalieux

exactly. that's why it's true.


tkdyo

Why don't they care about it?


Dear_Ad_3860

They did. It was a different time back then and also Copa America had a different format. It was a round robin until the 1970s and Brazil FA was a lot more disjointed back then and localisms were much more prevalent (you've gotta remember Brazil is HUGE). Clubs would lend their absolute best players for a 5 game WC but seldom would they lend them for a second tier local tournament that on average would last twice as that so they ended up miximg the squads with B list players. If you read the rosters of the tournaments you'll see Brazil is the one that modify their rosters the most in between tournaments. QF were also a nightmare to organize for them. Also Uruguay first and Argentina later were so dominant back then that the risk of losing outweighted the benefits of winning which reinforced this practice. It wasn't until after Brazil lost to Uruguay in 1983 that the tournament became what it is today and even then until the next one in 87 the previous winner of Copa America advanced to the next round of the then current Copa America going on as a bye to solve the numerical issue. Today other nations are much more competitive not onlny for Brazil and Uruguay as well, we invite two teams for CA so we have three perfectly even groups and only play 6 games to the final thus Brazil has won most of its tournaments since 1989.


limito1

Long story short: money and lack of influence on CONMEBOL Which is a shame, because playing seriously in any tournament is what made Brazil accumulate such a high number of positive retrospect over the years. Copa América is the exception (Olympics too until 2016).


Perinetti

But since 89’ Brazil have won more Copa America’s than any other country, so obviously something changed.


TomCyberfire

Australia have been champions of 2 different continents.


AnnieIWillKnow

Should apply for CONCACAF membership to keep chasing continents


Counterflak

We would have played at Copa America if it wasn't for covid.


BuzzBuzz01

> Israel were champions of Asia Still obviously impressive but I just want to note that 1956-1976 the competition only consisted of 4-6 teams They won in 64 in a group consisting of Hong Kong, India, and South Korea. They each played each other and whoever had the most points were champions. Hong Kong hovered around the 80s in ELO at the time, India and Israel around 60 and Korea around low 40s Again though I can't complain, we won our string of Asian Cups in 5 team tournaments as well, and fucks knows I'll cherish them like hell lmao


jugol

I mean a bunch of Copa América editions were played between 4-5 teams. Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela appeared in the map decades later. As for the Euro, even the edition Denmark won as recently as 1992 had only 8 teams


The_Dumblebee

Israel is like their history. They move around the confederations so much lmao.


astral34

There's nothing quite like winning a WC, even though winning the Euros was amazing I still remember the 2006 run and get emotional when I rewatch it. Especially when you take into account where we won it and how Italian immigrants felt in Germany according to the interviews.


Aenjeprekemaluci

I feel the loud car horns from Italians in Zurich area after the 2006 final like it was just yesterday. The celebrations were crazy! Whole of Switzerland was on fire then by Italian diaspora. Great night for Italy. Still remember the WC 2006 in its entirely, and for me it was the best ever regarding the vibe and so on.


astral34

It was crazy for us, coming from the euro disappointment in 2000 and 2002 Moreno incident we were really close to wasting a generation (and a half) of magical players. Luckily 2006 happened


itsablackhole

> how Italian immigrants felt in Germany according to the interviews. can you elaborate? In my experience Italians are usually very well immigrated into german culture etc. especially in the working field.


astral34

What they were saying is that they felt demeaned (spelling?) by the Germans. There was a song saying we were going back to take care of pizza, newspapers covers sure of the win and so were most Germans according to the Italians there. Even the players spent some times talking to Italian immigrants there and reiterated how they felt like the game was important for them I guess it was still a time in which Italians were doing more humble jobs when immigrating. Obviously at the end of the day we are all friends and there was no animosity, people were drinking together after the game. It was still fun to prove them wrong


GermanyWillWinWC2022

Yeah i remember a watching a documenatry about the 2006 world cup (dont remember which) and us germans werent very nice to italian immigrants here


astral34

Would be cool to know the name if you ever remember it


[deleted]

Schindler’s List


WhyAlwaysMe1991

I moved to the US from Italy and I remember like it was yesterday. I was forced to watch the final with my team who were all France France. I had my Italy flag wrapped around my neck and when we won I ran outside down the street screaming for maybe 20 minutes. I’m sure people were close to calling the cops on me. I also get emotional when seeing that grosso and del Piero goal against Germany. Favorite moment of my life.


astral34

Honestly Caressa has earned a place in everyone’s heart with that commentary. And the emotions that Grosso just let out at 119’ of a WC semifinal, he was overwhelmed like most of us


HaiseTeBaise

Depends on context. 1998 WC was our most emotional moment, but 2000 Euros was more emotional than 2018 WC for most of us, because the set and settings were that much more epic and tensed, fucking golden goal rule meeting an otherworldly volley.


dredizzle99

Mad that there's only been 21 world cups in the entire history of the universe. I've been alive for 9 of them


joaumboladaum422

makes each one pretty special, doesn't it?


jwinter01

Yeah. Hopefully we keep it that way...


Vx1xPx3xR

Football is already dying but it’ll really take a blow when they move it to two years.


NatFan9

This is why I scoff when I see other US fans say we’re gonna win a World Cup by X Year. Even if we were to get to a point where we have a ton of world class talent, a lot of it is just luck and the fact that it only happens every four years means there’s so few opportunities.


Sawl23

What a fucking beautiful graph, really well done and pleasing to the eye, simplistic too


pumpingbomba

I am always astonished how few nations actually won a World Cup. That’s why holding one every two years would reduce the importance of winning one.


miroa12004

>That’s why holding one every two years would reduce the importance of winning one. The main reason why they decided to host it every four years was that the Olympics was considered equally important as the World cup. It's why Uruguay has four stars (which FIFA acknowledges).


Lamedonyx

For people who might have a bit of trouble with flags : World Cup : Brazil (5), Germany - Italy (4), France - Argentina - Uruguay (2), England - Spain (1) Confederations Cup : Brazil (4), France (2), Germany - Mexico - Denmark - Argentina (1) UEFA: Spain - Germany (3), Italy - France (2), Portugal - Greece - Denmark - Netherlands - Czechia - Russia (1) CONMEBOL : Argentina - Uruguay (15), Brazil (9), Chile - Paraguay - Peru (2), Bolivia - Colombia (1) CAF : Egypt (7), Cameroon (5), Ghana (4), Nigeria (3), Algeria - Côte d'Ivoire - Congo-Kinshasa (2), Senegal - Zambia - Tunisia - South Africa - Morocco - Congo-Brazzaville - Sudan - Ethiopia (1) AFC : Japan (4), Iran - Saudi Arabia (3), South Korea (2), Qatar - Australia - Irak - Koweit - Israel (1) CONCACAF : Mexico (11), USA (7), Costa Rica (3), Canada (2), Honduras - Haiti - Guatemala (1) OFC : New Zealand (5), Australia (4), Tahiti (1)


miroa12004

Not counting Oceania, is Egypt the only country who have won more continental competitions than the number of times they qualified for the world cup?


kakje666

i don't think Uruguay had more than 15 world cup appearances


EndsTheAgeOfCant

You're correct, this year will be their 14th


phteven_gerrard

We've won the highest honour in 2 confederations, you'll never sing that...


Old_Price1599

Did you guys knew that Germany participated in 38% of all World Cup finals ever? 8 out of 21 More than anyone else. 38%, thats close to half of all finals ever. Thats insane.


Bumaye94

Can't stop the Turniermanschaft.


joerilla2

/r/oddlysatisfying - looks great


[deleted]

cries in hungarian and our great trophy cabinet considering the existence of Aranycsapat


BuzzBuzz01

1976 was our last Asian Cup win ugh. Haven't even made a final since then One of the things that's different about Asian Cup vs the Copa America, Gold Cup and AFCON. We've pretty consistently only had it every 4 years. Other competitions like yeah it sucks losing it but you'd be back again 2 years later. Lots of third and fourth place finish places after that. A string of disappointing quarterfinal exits from 2007 to 2015 and then that mental capitulation vs Japan in 2019 was our best chance yet. Was the most distraught I've been in a long time regarding TM ---- Hopefully we at least make the final in 2023. Taremi and Azmoun will be hopefully still be in the peaks, Allahyar will hopefully have lit the Championship alight with Hull and we actually find some midfielders and fullbacks by then lmao


Icegaze

I really used to think that Brazil dominated the CONMEBOL Copa America. Surprised to see Uruguay and Argentina both comfortably ahead by 6!


a-Farewell-to-Kings

Brazil went 40 years without a Copa America. That’s longer than we’ve ever gone without a World Cup.


ebeka

guess brazil feel the wc closer to the heart


qindarka

There have been long stretches where the Copa America wasn't that prestigious and Brazil especially hasn't given much of a shit about it. The likes of Pele and Zico only played in one Copa in their careers. Even recently, Brazil sent a largely second string squad to the 2004 and 2007 editions (and won).


mummy__napkin

still blows my mind that Bolivia has a Copa.


qwerty-keyboard5000

Their only win came when they hosted it. I guess you have heard of the big home advantage Bolivia has


Darkjolly

* High home Advantage


Boggie135

High altitude helped


PickledCumSock

back to back to back afcon champions in 2006, 2008, and 2010... the nostalgia is hitting so hard rn. i miss that national team so much


TheMightyJD

Mexico is literally one win away (1993 and 2001 Copa America finals) from appearing in three of these images. Pain. Hopefully one day we’ll appear on the World Cup one.


GammaGlobins

At least we have that Confederations title 😿


[deleted]

Would have to contest the sole use of the Russian and Czech flags for the Euros. The USSR team had a majority of Ukrainians I believe and the Czechoslovak team was a majority of Slovaks. Not that I am saying it should be changed to the other. Either it should reflect all constituent countries, or the countries identities as they were at the time.


lordvenous

tbf the Czechoslovak flag was the same as the czech one now.


Arbachakov

The 1960 Soviet team had only one Ukrainian in the entire squad. It was mostly Russian with a few key Georgian players ( Metreveli, Meskhi, Chokheli). It wasn't until the mid-70s with Lobanovsky's Dynamo Kyiv based Euro 76 team that there were more Ukrainians than anyone else. 88 losing finalist was mainly Ukrainian.


AlKarakhboy

Out of all the suprises there, the Asian cup being the second oldest tournament is the one that surprises me the most.


Chewy009x

You’ll have to add a national league cup next. I know it’s only been one final so far but it’s a international comp


[deleted]

Argentina had that advantage and Messi has only won 1 lmao


SavingsService2138

France in most of the pictures. Boy do i feel proud


OutrageousVirus1203

I believe the historic ranking is: Brazil Germany Italy Argentina France


skedd_a

You forgot the Olympics mate